When I first decided to stop working for a while to travel with my family, I struggled with finding the right term to convey what I was doing. “Taking a break” sounded like I would be drinking beer in my garage and watching TV. “Traveling the world” sounded a little grandiose for a family going to two or three countries. “A leave of absence” sounded like I had a medical problem.
After flailing around for a while, I realized I was actually taking a sabbatical.
The word sabbatical comes from the word Sabbath, or rest. The Sabbath in the Bible most famously refers to resting on the seventh day.
But Sabbath also refers to a seven year harvest cycle, with six years of growing grapes followed by a year of letting the land rest.
The academic system follows the same pattern, with a one year sabbatical usually awarded after 6 years of service. The use of sabbatical in this way was first recorded in the 1800s.
Let’s take a moment to ponder why we are still treating adult humans like grapevines.
For many academics, the sabbatical is no longer a period of rest, but a time to catch up on their many administrative and research duties while trying to squeeze in writing a book or publishing a landmark paper.
The idea of a sabbatical as rest has been replaced by a sabbatical as pressure. Pressure to finally publish that paper, write that book, create that course.
It’s time to redefine what a sabbatical means. The great news is that unless you are taking a sabbatical on your university’s dime, you can make it mean whatever you want it to mean.
Don’t want to take a whole year? Make it a month.
Don’t want to wait 6 years between sabbaticals? Do it every other year. Or every year.
Want to research something you’ve always been curious about but might never be able to publish? Great!
Don’t want to research anything? Great!
Don’t want to work at all? Great!
Want to take a medically-related class? Great!
Want to take a class on literally anything that’s not related to medicine? Great!
You get the idea. You get to decide what your sabbatical looks like.
I recommend completing my Sabbatical Planner to help clarify your goals and values. Knowing these will be especially helpful when something doesn’t work out exactly as you had planned (Notice I said when, not if!)
I propose a definition of a sabbatical as:
A temporary absence of at least a month from a primary workplace, often paired with personal or professional goals.
This definition has worked for me so far – people understand what I mean, and it has a built-in connotation of personalization that I like. Plus, who wouldn’t want a temporary reprieve from work to focus on personal or professional goals?
What do you think? How do you define a sabbatical? Does your idea of a sabbatical fit in that definition?