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Google did the same, until they realised everyone was leaving immediately afterwards.

jedberg 11y ago
Yeah eBay had that problem too. People would save up all their vacation, add it to their sabbatical and then use the time to job search. I think they changed their rules so that you couldn't add your vacation time to it and you had to pay them back if you left within in X months.
tapp 11y ago
Do you have a source for this? My company has been looking into implementing something similar and I'd be interested in reading more. Thanks!
blacksmythe 11y ago
It worked really well for Tandem Computers. People felt pretty happy with the company for about a year after their sabbatical, and didn't want to leave for about 2 years before their sabbatical (and miss it). Don't know why this didn't work as well for Google.
- ashark 11y ago
  Maybe the Google folks are more likely to apply somewhere with insane, multi-day interview processes that can stretch out over weeks, so the Tandem folks who wanted to leave didn't feel like they had to wait until they had a huge chunk of time off to look for a new job?
- zippergz 11y ago
  This is purely anecdotal, but I have a handful of friends who left google after their sabbaticals. They all explained it with some form of "I was surprised how much happier I was when I didn't have to go to work, and I didn't miss it at all." A couple of them actually chose to not work at all for a while, and one started his own company (a small lifestyle business, not a unicorn-bound startup). Using the time to interview and heading off for another full time job is not a pattern I've noticed at all...
- jedberg 11y ago
  I think Google was unique in that most of the people who were hitting their sabbatical had done very well with their stock options, and realized that they didn't need to work anymore and were quite happy not working, or working on their own stuff.

Yeah eBay had that problem too. People would save up all their vacation, add it to their sabbatical and then use the time to job search. I think they changed their rules so that you couldn't add your vacation time to it and you had to pay them back if you left within in X months.

tapp 11y ago

Do you have a source for this? My company has been looking into implementing something similar and I'd be interested in reading more. Thanks!

blacksmythe 11y ago

It worked really well for Tandem Computers. People felt pretty happy with the company for about a year after their sabbatical, and didn't want to leave for about 2 years before their sabbatical (and miss it). Don't know why this didn't work as well for Google.

ashark 11y ago
Maybe the Google folks are more likely to apply somewhere with insane, multi-day interview processes that can stretch out over weeks, so the Tandem folks who wanted to leave didn't feel like they had to wait until they had a huge chunk of time off to look for a new job?
zippergz 11y ago
This is purely anecdotal, but I have a handful of friends who left google after their sabbaticals. They all explained it with some form of "I was surprised how much happier I was when I didn't have to go to work, and I didn't miss it at all." A couple of them actually chose to not work at all for a while, and one started his own company (a small lifestyle business, not a unicorn-bound startup). Using the time to interview and heading off for another full time job is not a pattern I've noticed at all...
jedberg 11y ago
I think Google was unique in that most of the people who were hitting their sabbatical had done very well with their stock options, and realized that they didn't need to work anymore and were quite happy not working, or working on their own stuff.