A sabbatical (from the
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
: (i.e.,
Sabbath
In Abrahamic religions, the Sabbath () or Shabbat (from Hebrew ) is a day set aside for rest and worship. According to the Book of Exodus, the Sabbath is a day of rest on the seventh day, commanded by God to be kept as a holy day of rest, as G ...
); in
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
;
Greek: ) is a rest or break from work; “an extended period of time intentionally spent on something that’s not your routine job.”
The concept of the sabbatical is based on the Biblical practice of ''
shmita
The sabbath year (shmita; he, שמיטה, literally "release"), also called the sabbatical year or ''shǝvi'it'' (, literally "seventh"), or "Sabbath of The Land", is the seventh year of the seven-year agricultural cycle mandated by the Torah ...
'' (sabbatical year), which is related to agriculture. According to , Jews in the
Land of Israel
The Land of Israel () is the traditional Jewish name for an area of the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine (see also Isra ...
must take a year-long break from working the fields every seven years. Starting with
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
in 1880, many universities and other institutional employers of scientists, physicians, and academics offer the opportunity to qualify for paid sabbatical as an employee benefit, called ''sabbatical leave''. Early academic sabbatical policies were designed to aid their faculty in resting and recovering, but were also provided in order to facilitate "advancements in knowledge in vogue elsewhere...an intellectual and practical necessity" for both the professors and university education more broadly. Present-day academic sabbaticals typically excuse the grantee from day-to-day teaching and departmental duties, though progress on research is expected to continue, if not increase, while away. Academic sabbaticals come in the form of either semester-long or full-academic year terms.
A ''sabbatical'' has also come to mean a lengthy, intentional break from a career for non-academic professionals as well. There are very few norms and expectations for non-academic, or professional, sabbaticals. They can be paid or unpaid, affiliated with one's employer or self-directed, and have a variety of durations, from several weeks to over a year.
A 2022 study of working professionals on extended leave identified three types of sabbaticals:
* Working Holidays - characterized by "intense periods of work and dedicated breaks to rest and rekindle long-neglected relationships."
* Free Dives - during which participants "leaped out of work and dove straight into intense exploration."
* Quests - which found people "pushing their personal limits to discover themselves."
The popularity of sabbaticals for non-academics has increased in the 21st century: 17% of companies offered some sort of sabbatical policy to their employees in 2017, according to a survey by the Society For Human Resource Management.
Sabbaticals are also becoming more common in the medical profession, and are being used in intense subfields such as emergency medicine to reduce physician burnout.
Famous Persons Who Took A Sabbatical
*
Luciano Spalletti
Luciano Spalletti (; born 7 March 1959) is an Italian football manager and a former player. He is currently the manager of Italian Serie A club Napoli.
Playing career
Born in Certaldo, Metropolitan City of Florence, Spalletti started his career ...
NAPOLI’S LUCIANO SPALLETTI SET FOR SABBATICAL NEXT SEASON
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See also
* Sabbatical officer
In the United Kingdom a sabbatical officer is a full-time officer elected by the members of a students' union (or similar body such as students' association, students' representative council or guild of students), commonly at a higher education e ...
* Career break
* Gap year
* Long service leave
In Australia, long service leave (LSL) is a period of additional paid leave granted to employees who have completed an extended period of service with an employer. Under Australian law, most employees are entitled to long service leave if they wo ...
* Otium
References
Further reading
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*
* https://time.com/charter/6120287/sabbaticals-time-off-great-resignation/
* https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-sabbatical-a-power-move-for-the-burnout-era-11641358862
* https://www.fastcompany.com/90715900/great-resignation-sabbatical-gap-year
* https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2022/05/us-sabbatical-helps-work-burnout/629956/
www.thesabbaticalproject.org
* https://hbr.org/2017/08/research-shows-that-organizations-benefit-when-employees-take-sabbaticals
* https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/trends-and-forecasting/research-and-surveys/Documents/2017%20Employee%20Benefits%20Report.pdf
External links
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{{Employment
Academic culture
Sabbath
Hebrew words and phrases