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Jan 5, 2023·edited Jan 5, 2023Liked by Tim Casasola

When I quit my job in 2017 the CEO of the company offered me not a sabbatical but an unpaid leave: he understood that I was under a lot of stress personally but there was no room for a paid sabbatical (and...I really didn't want to work for that guy anymore anyway, I was under a lot of stress also because of that job).

Then I did a few months of "high-risk" sabbatical on my own terms (I burned half of my personal savings between the lack of income and the ramping up of the new consulting gig).

I'm not sure how a request for a sabbatical might be perceived by a company and the managers: in my experience there's a high risk of compromising yourself, the request being seen just as a paid vacation before checking out mentally or quitting right after the sabbatical.

You focused a lot on the nuts and bolts of building a proposal — which is great and helpful — but I'm curious about how you navigated the touchy-feely side of it, and how others might prepare themselves better for the inevitable clash of different expectations and suspicions that might arise from a request for a sabbatical.

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