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I haven't taken a gap year myself but a good friend took a six month unpaid travel-leave period in the company we both used to work for. He had a great time. Wh

I haven't taken a gap year myself but a good friend took a six month unpaid travel-leave period in the company we both used to work for. He had a great time. When he finished and got back into work he realised that his break very similar to a female employee taking maternity leave. As it happened, our company was quite good with maternity leave, and many of the women who took it resumed very successful careers. So, perhaps worth checking at your own place to see how maternity leave is handled. He didn't notice any long term career effects although he had to re-establish himself somewhat with new people and projects that had appeared in his absence.

lotsofpulp 5y ago
> When he finished and got back into work he realised that his break very similar to a female employee taking maternity leave. I have not met a single woman who would compare maternity leave to a travel leave and a “great” time. Infants are a ton of work, and between recovering from the birthing process (a vaginal tear with a few stitches is considered one of the best outcomes), learning how to breastfeed, only sleeping 2 hours at a time due to breastfeeding, diastesis recti ruining your abs and making your core weak, pain from clogged milk ducts, pumping breast milk for storage since the US does not provide adequate leave so the kid has to go in daycare, hemorrhoids for a good portion of women, etc. I have no doubt anyone who has been through this would rather work an office job for 6 months.
- kaesar14 5y ago
  I think all he meant was it was a similar break in terms of length of time and the company did a good job of re-integrating women who went on maternity leave for that length of time, leading to a good company culture in general for getting employees out for long amounts of time back into the thick of things.
  - lotsofpulp 5y ago
    Yes, I should have considered that! However, I do not think it is tenable for most employers due to the risk of the employee leaving permanently.
- pmichaud 5y ago
  My interpretation of the post you're responding to wasn't that the experiences were similar, but that the work culture responses and company infrastructure for handling extended absences worked the same way for him as they did for mothers. I think the point was that if there are good systems in place at a company for maternity leave, that maybe people can use those same system to take non-maternity time off.
  - lotsofpulp 5y ago
    Yes, that's a good point! However, the biggest risk to employer is the employee using those systems to try out a new employer and then resigning just after the sabbatical.

lotsofpulp 5y ago

> When he finished and got back into work he realised that his break very similar to a female employee taking maternity leave. I have not met a single woman who would compare maternity leave to a travel leave and a “great” time. Infants are a ton of work, and between recovering from the birthing process (a vaginal tear with a few stitches is considered one of the best outcomes), learning how to breastfeed, only sleeping 2 hours at a time due to breastfeeding, diastesis recti ruining your abs and making your core weak, pain from clogged milk ducts, pumping breast milk for storage since the US does not provide adequate leave so the kid has to go in daycare, hemorrhoids for a good portion of women, etc. I have no doubt anyone who has been through this would rather work an office job for 6 months.

kaesar14 5y ago
I think all he meant was it was a similar break in terms of length of time and the company did a good job of re-integrating women who went on maternity leave for that length of time, leading to a good company culture in general for getting employees out for long amounts of time back into the thick of things.
- lotsofpulp 5y ago
  Yes, I should have considered that! However, I do not think it is tenable for most employers due to the risk of the employee leaving permanently.
pmichaud 5y ago
My interpretation of the post you're responding to wasn't that the experiences were similar, but that the work culture responses and company infrastructure for handling extended absences worked the same way for him as they did for mothers. I think the point was that if there are good systems in place at a company for maternity leave, that maybe people can use those same system to take non-maternity time off.
- lotsofpulp 5y ago
  Yes, that's a good point! However, the biggest risk to employer is the employee using those systems to try out a new employer and then resigning just after the sabbatical.