Trisha here, one of Bright + Early’s Directors of Workplace Design. I’m here to talk to you about one of my favourite retention tools: the sabbatical. When I recommend it to leaders, I often get a knee-jerk “no way.” Why would you want to give a key, central team member a few months off, let alone encourage them to take it? In a world where the employer/employee relationship is fickle, offering a few months to decompress, travel, or achieve a dream shows that you’re investing in them, as a person, for the long haul. It can also be the difference between them leaving and committing to that long haul with you. I know, because I’ve been there myself.

In 2025, I hit my 6-year anniversary with Bright + Early. With this incredible team, I’d supported over 100 organizations, became a first-time people manager, completed a Master’s degree, and designed countless innovative ways to approach our work. I was proud, but I was tired. Plus, I had a nagging feeling that something was missing. Specifically, I’d been dreaming of backpacking across Southeast Asia, a trip I’d been hoping to take since I started working full-time, and one that would require at least a few months of travel time. The further I got into adult life and responsibilities, the less likely it seemed that I’d scratch that itch with my vacation time, generous as it is. I decided to pitch a sabbatical: I’d take 6 months off, plan my coverage, guarantee my return after the trip, and give a whole year’s notice for it. Thankfully, my team was open to it. My time off was deeply restorative andfun, while also giving me new thoughts and perspectives on how I see work (and the world). I came back more confident in who I was and what I had to offer, and that translated back into my work. It led to taking on larger, more complex projects, with a new found courage in building what we haven’t done before. If I could survive an overnight leech-infested jungle camping trip in Malaysia, or learn how to drive a manual 3-wheeler tin-on-wheels and roadtrip with it across Sri Lanka, I could figure working in new ways. 

Sabbaticals are common in academia, where professors get time away from teaching to write, research, and think. My own return showed me the same payoff exists outside a university setting. I came back with fresh thinking and a renewed commitment to my work. So how do we give the rest of our people, the ones who aren’t professors, that same opportunity to step away and come back stronger?

One risk is that not everyone will come to you armed with a plan. A bigger risk is that many will assume extended time off means they need to resign and plan accordingly, which means you lose them. Having a sabbatical policy already in place turns that planned departure into a planned return. So, let me tell you why this is the best thing you can offer your team, and share a few tips on how to build it.

Why offer sabbaticals?

• You keep the people who know the most. Long-tenured team members carry institutional knowledge, and a sabbatical can give them the opportunity for a break or a change without leaving. Sabbatical researcher DJ DiDonna found that about 80% of people who take an extended leave come back to the same company. This Creative Disruption study of nonprofit sabbaticals found that leaders returned with fresh energy and ideas, and tended to stay in their roles longer. If you’re worried about the 20% that don’t come back, then I’d wager that they weren’t planning on staying much longer either way.
• The people who step in for sabbatical-takers grow faster. Covering for a senior colleague is leadership development in action. While I was off, my team came together to run, lead, and deliver on the projects I used to manage on my own. This bolstered the team’s skill set and helped us distribute the workload more evenly when I returned. Having a cross-functional team builds stronger practitioners and gives leadership space to innovate and work on the business (versus in it). Just make sure you don’t overload people, because giving someone an entire new job on top of their regular one is a fast track to burnout. Planning required!
• You find the gaps quickly. A planned absence shows you where knowledge lives in only one person’s head. Then you can close those gaps, versus scrambling after a surprise resignation. You’ll probably also spot a few tasks that nobody misses while the person is away, and you can stop doing those for good. You should always future-proof your business, and that requires knowing where your gaps are.
• People come back healthier. As seen in this Fast Company article, an intentional break from work (with the security of having a job when they return) gives that team member permission to truly recharge.
• It’s a chance to live your values. If you talk about sustainable work and rest, a sabbatical is one of the most visible ways to back that up. My sabbatical (and our general return-to-work planning) are commonly talked about on the team and with candidates. It’s one way we show that we practice what we preach. DiDonna’s research also found that people are most likely to take a sabbatical when they know someone who has, so every person who takes one makes it easier for the next person to ask.
• You can take one too! Founders need a refresh too. The folks at Basecamp wrote about their sabbatical program, where everyone takes 6 weeks every 3 years, even leadership. Every time they felt close to burning out, giving up, or selling, it gave them new ideas to improve the business (and a bit of healthy boredom/eagerness to come back and implement them).

How to make it happen:

This all sounds well and good, but how does it work in practice? Who looks after the clients? Who picks up the projects? Who can run sales? In planning my leave, we asked ourselves those questions too. Here are a few snags we considered, and a few ways to approach them.

“We’re too small to cover the work!”

On a small team, one person’s absence can feel like losing a whole department. Small teams can also be short on documentation, which means a lot of critical knowledge lives only in a person’s head. The answer is planning, plus being honest about what can be paused.

• Aim for at least two months. Most people need four to six weeks just to stop thinking about work, so a leave shorter than that rarely gives them a full reset. If four weeks is all your team can manage right now, offer it as an extended leave to start with and build toward a longer sabbatical as you grow. Either way, four weeks of true time off beats twelve weeks of half-checking email! Here are some examples of what other companies are offering. 
• Write the work down. Ask the person heading out to create a short “how this job runs” doc covering recurring tasks, key contacts, logins and where files live. You can’t hand off work that only exists in someone’s head (and you’ll be glad to have it on every sick day and parental leave afterward). On our own team, we have a strong culture of documentation, which helped us plan my leave. The Bright + Early Way, our core methodology for workplace design, is broken down into small per-project steps that team members can step in and follow. For more custom or nuanced items, we like to document how decisions were made. As a bonus, this is also super helpful for onboarding new team members!
• Assign backups clearly. Pick a primary and a secondary cover person for each piece of the role, and give them enough time to shadow before the leave starts.
• Protect the time off. Before the leave starts, agree as a team on what counts as a real emergency, and handle everything else without the person who’s away. They can set an auto-reply that directs people to their cover and turn off work email and Slack on their phone, so nobody has to wonder whether it’s cool to reach out.
• Pause non-essentials. If there are parts of a person’s job that can wait, or don’t have an immediate impact on the business, consider shelving them for the duration of the leave.
• Stagger it. Cap the program at one sabbatical per year so the team never covers two people at once.
• Pick a low season. On the same note, you can have a blackout period per year (say, if summer is your busy season) where sabbaticals won’t be possible.
• Bring in short term help. A short-term contractor, a fractional specialist or a peer at a partner organization can fill the gaps your team can’t.

“We can’t afford it!”

Sabbaticals don’t have to be a paid program. It’s important to recognize that going on an unpaid leave is a privilege and assumes a degree of financial planning. If possible, a paid program (or at least a partially paid one) can encourage people to take leave. However, it might not be practical for smaller teams. Here are a few ways to make it work on your budget:

• Start with job protection. An unpaid, job-protected sabbatical with continued benefits still removes the biggest attrition risk: people quitting to take real time off. You can add pay later as your budget grows. Before you promise continued benefits, check with your benefits provider, because some group plans limit coverage during an unpaid leave.
• Mix paid and unpaid time. For example, offer two paid weeks plus up to six unpaid weeks, and let people stack vacation on top.
• Look at a self-funded plan. In Canada, a deferred salary leave plan (DSLP) lets an employee set aside up to a third of their pay each year for up to six years, then receive it during their leave. The leave must last at least six consecutive months (three for certain education leaves), and the person has to return for at least as long as they were away. The rules are strict, so loop in your accountant or payroll provider first.

“They won’t come back, or they won’t fit back in!”

Some leaders worry a sabbatical becomes a runway to leave. Others worry the person will return to a team that has moved on without them. Both fears are fair, and the research is reassuring on the first. About 80% of people who take an extended leave come back to the same company, and in the Creative Disruption study, leaders who took sabbaticals tended to extend their tenure (success stories!). People who feel rested and trusted usually want to stay.

The second fear is one you can address with good planning. Coming back after weeks away can feel strange, especially if someone else made decisions in your absence. A thoughtful return helps everyone, including the people covering tasks. Here’s how:

• Set expectations in writing. Your policy should cover eligibility, length, pay, benefits, how vacation accrues during the leave and the expectation that the person returns. Open eligibility to everyone who meets your tenure requirement, not just leaders, so the people doing the day-to-day work can take a sabbatical too. If you’re considering a repayment clause for people who resign soon after, talk to an employment lawyer first.
• Treat their return to work like new hire onboarding: Map out a 30/60/90 and no deliverables in the first few weeks. Use the time for catch-up conversations, inbox triage and getting back into the rhythm. The return-to-work plan is just as important as the pre-sabbatical prep.
• Let the cover team share what they learned. Ask the people who stepped in to walk through the decisions they made. Some of those new ways of working are likely to be worth keeping!
• Run a retrospective. A short debrief helps you capture what worked and what you’d change for the next person who takes a sabbatical.

You don’t need a big HR department or a huge budget to offer a sabbatical. You just need clear expectations, a coverage plan that starts early, honesty about what can wait, and a warm return. Start with one person, learn from it, and build from there. Your values show up in how you support the whole person, and a sabbatical program is one of the best ways to live them (and keep your best people).

Happy Building,

Trisha and Team Bright + Early

Steal this: a sabbatical prep timeline

Six months before

• The team member submits their request and preferred dates
• The manager confirms the dates don’t clash with a busy season or another leave
• Confirm time off, pay (base + bonus), benefits and vacation accrual during the leave in writing

Three months before

• Team member creates or updates documentation for how to do their job and tasks
• A cover person is assigned for each responsibility
• The team agrees on what can pause and what external support is needed (if any)

One month before

• Cover people shadow the team member on recurring work
• Any contractors are onboarded, with overlap time
• The team agrees on what counts as a reach-out emergency

First week back

• Re-onboard! The manager drafts a 30-day milestone plan and holds a welcome back 1:1.
• Cover people walk the returner through decisions they made and project statuses during time off
• The returner reviews documents and processes, making note of what’s changed and what they need to catch up on
• Celebrate! Dedicate a team meeting for them where they can share details about their time away: pictures, stories, whatever they are comfy with. 
• Have them scheduled for shadow calls with team members to see how things are being done now
• Schedule a 30-day check point to see employee is settling in: what worked well, what would they change, if they feel equipped in their role, and if milestones are being met

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