Big ask ... Roger Christie was promoted after his return to Sefiani.
In the months before Christmas, many of us are doing the same silent
calculation at our desks: "Four days now, add the public holidays, plus
the extra leave I'll have by December; damn, still not enough time off."
Though it can help your well-being to slowly chip away at the 20 days of
annual leave given to full-time workers, when it comes to taking a
longer break to travel, take on family responsibilities or try something
new, leave without pay becomes a real option.
It's a situation Roger Christie knows well. As a senior account manager
at Sefiani Communications Group, Christie liked his job but was itching
to travel.
"I really wanted a decent amount of time to experience different cultures without the thought of work," he says.
Though some workers spring leave-without-pay requests on their boss close to the fact, Christie decided to ask early.
"I mentioned it to my boss about a year before I ended up going," he
says. "I figured the more open I was, earlier, the more open she'd be."
He was right. He got the time off and while he spent five months touring Europe and South America, a contractor filled his role.
Leave without pay might be a solution for many employees but it's not a legal entitlement.
"It's discretionary leave," says the practice manager at EI Legal,
Patricia Ryan. Of course, that doesn't mean employers aren't smart to
grant it.
"The advantage might be that they get you back, refreshed, rather than
having to lose the employee, or [it positions them] as an employer of
choice. It can be really important for retention," she says.
Ryan says people ask for leave without pay for various reasons including
a bereavement, to care for a family member, to help finish study, to
travel or volunteer.
She suggests employers consider developing a leave-without-pay policy so employees know what might be granted and how to apply.
"A good policy will cover eligibility criteria, the minimum period of
employment before you can apply, what kinds of leave without pay are
available and what to put in your application," she says.
Whether there's a policy or not, Ryan says asking in advance is smart when applying for leave.
"With a bit of foresight you can put together a really good business
case that'll encourage them to say yes. Six months [before you want to
go] can be a good time to discuss options [as you'd have time to] assist
with a handover or the recruitment process, or recommend people to
replace you. Perhaps you have a friend doing consulting who'd be happy
to come in."
Make sure any application focuses on the how and the why.
"[The applicant should] give substantial reasons as to why it's valuable
to them personally and to the organisation, if that's relevant," Ryan
says.
A career coach from Nourish Coaching, Sally-Anne Blanshard, says not
enough of us spend time thinking about the "why" in general. "We're
spending a lot of time doing, not being. [Then] we want a break but are
scared to ask," she says.
"I think people often just resign and leave because they're fed up or
overworked, rather than asking for unpaid leave.
Then they come back and
start looking for another job instead of going back to an existing
position with renewed vigour, creativity and energy."
Coaching helps bounce around ideas but if the result is that you want time off, making it happen also requires planning.
"You need to show you've given it a lot of thought," Blanshard says. "I
help clients come up with a business proposal [for leave-without-pay
applications]. They explain how it might look, how they might reallocate
their tasks and how it might benefit the organisation when they
return."
Some don't come back to the same organisation. But for those who do, the
results can be invigorating. A few months after his return, Christie
was promoted to the head of digital at Sefiani.
"It does change your attitude to your employer," he says. "You encourage
[employees] to stay with you, rather than be at risk of losing them.
Employees appreciate that you're giving them licence to do new things.
For me, that's instilled more loyalty to Sefiani."
Ryan points out there's no law against asking. "The worst thing that can happen is you get a 'No'."