Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | September 2, 2024 | Worcester Business Journal 11 Approximately 5% of employers offer paid sabbaticals, while 11% of employ- ers offer unpaid sabbaticals, according to a 2019 survey from the Society of Human Resource Management. Since then, COVID-19 played a significant role in the rise of sabbaticals, as people were able to experience time away from their routines and spend more time with family, DiDonna said. Leading organizations through the pandemic was exhausting, but coming out of it, sabbaticals offer a chance for people to reset, Page said. "We know people have made many different choices aer the pandemic that they didn't make before," Page said. Employees have put an emphasis on their mental health, following the COVID-19 pandemic, and in turn companies are seeing an increase in the frequency of workers taking time away from work to promote better work-life balance, according to data from Gusto. Sabbaticals and social movements Organizations have begun incorporat- ing sabbaticals to strengthen their mis- sions, such as the Black Mass Coalition in Boston. e Black Mass Coalition created a sabbatical program for executive leaders who identify as Black or Indigenous and who lead social justice organizations rooted in Black, Indigenous or people of color (BIPOC) communities in Massa- chusetts. e sabbatical program, funded by the coalition's Black and Indigenous Resistance Fund, began in 2023 and will support four Black and Indigenous lead- ers this year, said Jason Boyd, executive director of the Black Mass Coalition. e program grants the host organiza- tion $25,000 to support salary and other organizational needs for the duration of the three-month sabbatical, Boyd said. Executives must have served in a leadership role in their organization for a minimum of three years to be consid- ered for the sabbatical and a minimum of 51% of the individual's organization must identify in BIPOC communities, according to the Black Mass Coalition website. Company sabbaticals An increasing number of companies are offering paid sabbaticals. Here is a snapshot of the more well-known firms with sabbatical policies. Service requirements Company Total time off before sabbatical AARP, in Washington, D.C. 4 weeks 7 years Biogen, in Cambridge 4 weeks 6 years Glossier, in New York 4 weeks 4 years Intel, in California 8 weeks 7 years Spotify, in Sweden 6 weeks 5 years Twitter (X), in San Francisco 6 weeks 3 years Zoom, in California 4 weeks 2 years Source: The Sabbatical Project "It's not just folks who have been in it for 20 years. A sabbatical makes sense for people on various timelines of their career paths and social justice journey," he said. Boyd, who has been the director of the Black Mass Coalition since 2022, said he has not taken a sabbatical but under- stands the need for it. "It's a way to have good people doing great work. It's a way to avoid burnout as well, and that's what's important to have in the social justice space in particular, for it to be sustainable, so that we don't lose that knowledge base, that experi- ence, that skill set," he said. COVID-19 and the national move- ment centered around the Minneapolis police murder of George Floyd allowed others to consider the importance of social justice, he said. "It offered an opportunity for individ- uals to rethink or be more intentional about self care, about honoring people who are doing important work and really moving towards a more equitable and sustainable way of doing business," he said. Organizations such as the BIPOC ED Coalition in Washington state and Nexus Community Partner's ROOT Continuous Sabbatical Fellowship in Minnesota have similar opportunities for Black and Indigenous leaders. A sabbatical community Aer taking his own sabbatical, DiDonna realized little research existed about non-educators taking sabbaticals and decided to partner with social science researchers to collect data on sabbatical experiences, ultimately starting the nonprofit Sabbatical Project in 2019. "I wanted to take the results of this research and create a home so that people who branch in sabbaticals could find a kind of commu- nity around it, because it's a pretty lonely and isolating experience leaving this routine life and conception of work," DiDonna said. "It's about sharing stories and kind of creating a community that people can turn to around sabbaticals." For those interested in taking a sab- batical, DiDonna recommends finding someone in your network who has tak- en one to learn about their experiences. Make sure to take enough time off during the sabbatical, as people need up to six weeks to disengage from their work identity and routine, DiDonna said. DJ DiDonna started The Sabbatical Project in 2019 after realizing how little research exist- ed about non-educators taking sabbaticals. W

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