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Yeah; they're paying you for the work you do. Even unpaid, it still leaves this gaping hole in what they need done. They won't be able to find someone to pitch

Yeah; they're paying you for the work you do. Even unpaid, it still leaves this gaping hole in what they need done. They won't be able to find someone to pitch in for 3 months for any sort of skilled work, and they actually will still be on the hook for your benefits. The paid part for many companies is almost immaterial; if they'll let you have unpaid time off, they'll let you have paid time off. If they won't let you have paid time off, they won't let you have unpaid time off. Even as a manager, it's easier for me to let someone have one day off a week PTO, with a wink and a nod, than it is to formally get someone to work 80% hours. And that barely is perceptible to upper leadership.

rr808 4y ago
I recall hearing another firm that did sabbaticals usually meant the employee was just getting ready to leave. People would spend a few months doing some travelling, relaxing, leetcode and interviewing - with safe fall back in case they didn't get anything.
- nvdnadj92 4y ago
  Our firm has a stipulation in the sabbatical wherein one would forfeit their severance / payout if they leave within one year of returning from sabbatical. You're probably right in that most of those employees are itching to leave already, but financially it would make more sense just quit than take a 2 month sabbatical and then lose a larger payout.
woobar 4y ago
A lot (if not most) tech companies provide 2-6 months of paternity leave. How do they manage to fill this gaping hole?
- number6 4y ago
  They don't fill it. Everyone knows it's because of the baby they have to do some extra work, but it's OK cause baby's are cute and it's not seen as some ego trip sabbatical where someone is trying to find himself on Fiji while others work their backs off.
  - woobar 4y ago
    I know they don't. That's was my point - the business can handle someone taking a few months off, they already do. As for the others working their backs off, what's your view on vacations? Am I allowed to go to Fiji using my PTO?
    - number6 4y ago
      PTO is planned ahead and does not last a year. Strawman.
- lostcolony 4y ago
  So three answers there - First, most tech companies provide -paid- paternity leave. Which was my point. The burden on most companies isn't the pay for that period of time, it's the loss of capacity. Second, the companies that object to that loss of capacity often either misunderstand the nature of the work, or have built their teams without any slack and so have set themselves up for failure. In the former, the teams are fine with the person going out even though management doesn't like it; in the latter they aren't, which is why legally mandated parental leave is so important, since otherwise, as we've seen, a badly run company will make it so you can't take time off. Third, parental leave tends not to affect multiple members of a team at once. PTO and UTO can. Having too open a policy can lead to half a team being gone for a month, in such a way context doesn't transfer well and actually costs the team a whole month, which will have a lot more effect on productivity than one person being gone for a a couple of months. Obviously you can still have a policy that allows people to do it, but it requires thoughtfulness on the part of someone to ensure it still works out. Again, pulling from example, the big pushback I had to having a person formally reduce their hours by 20% is "what happens if multiple people on the team ask for that?" and that's also why it's easier and less risky to the business to have the person take a day off every week, paid. It means that it can be more easily managed if others taking simultaneous time off is a problem, since pay isn't involved (i.e., you can ask the individual to return to 100% hours until everyone else is done with their vacation, say, and then return to 80%, without having their pay also having to seesaw, which is a *process*)

rr808 4y ago

I recall hearing another firm that did sabbaticals usually meant the employee was just getting ready to leave. People would spend a few months doing some travelling, relaxing, leetcode and interviewing - with safe fall back in case they didn't get anything.

nvdnadj92 4y ago
Our firm has a stipulation in the sabbatical wherein one would forfeit their severance / payout if they leave within one year of returning from sabbatical. You're probably right in that most of those employees are itching to leave already, but financially it would make more sense just quit than take a 2 month sabbatical and then lose a larger payout.

woobar 4y ago

A lot (if not most) tech companies provide 2-6 months of paternity leave. How do they manage to fill this gaping hole?

number6 4y ago
They don't fill it. Everyone knows it's because of the baby they have to do some extra work, but it's OK cause baby's are cute and it's not seen as some ego trip sabbatical where someone is trying to find himself on Fiji while others work their backs off.
- woobar 4y ago
  I know they don't. That's was my point - the business can handle someone taking a few months off, they already do. As for the others working their backs off, what's your view on vacations? Am I allowed to go to Fiji using my PTO?
  - number6 4y ago
    PTO is planned ahead and does not last a year. Strawman.
lostcolony 4y ago
So three answers there - First, most tech companies provide -paid- paternity leave. Which was my point. The burden on most companies isn't the pay for that period of time, it's the loss of capacity. Second, the companies that object to that loss of capacity often either misunderstand the nature of the work, or have built their teams without any slack and so have set themselves up for failure. In the former, the teams are fine with the person going out even though management doesn't like it; in the latter they aren't, which is why legally mandated parental leave is so important, since otherwise, as we've seen, a badly run company will make it so you can't take time off. Third, parental leave tends not to affect multiple members of a team at once. PTO and UTO can. Having too open a policy can lead to half a team being gone for a month, in such a way context doesn't transfer well and actually costs the team a whole month, which will have a lot more effect on productivity than one person being gone for a a couple of months. Obviously you can still have a policy that allows people to do it, but it requires thoughtfulness on the part of someone to ensure it still works out. Again, pulling from example, the big pushback I had to having a person formally reduce their hours by 20% is "what happens if multiple people on the team ask for that?" and that's also why it's easier and less risky to the business to have the person take a day off every week, paid. It means that it can be more easily managed if others taking simultaneous time off is a problem, since pay isn't involved (i.e., you can ask the individual to return to 100% hours until everyone else is done with their vacation, say, and then return to 80%, without having their pay also having to seesaw, which is a *process*)