advice for sabbatical

[bluefooted]

Hi,

I just submitted my paperwork for scholarly leave (our institution's term for sabbatical).  I wonder if you have advice for how to make it the best!  (I pitched collecting data and drafting a book, but no one is really going to check up on me.) The advice can either be professional and/or personal.

Thanks!

[Ruralguy]

Try not to get distracted by things going on in your home institution. If you must keep your regular office space, try your best not to run into others.
Better yet, work elsewhere.

You don't have as much time as you think you might have, so get started right off the bat. Try to think of one or two "Plan B" or "Plan C" ideas in case you have to veer from your original path.

if you don't have outside funding, then you'll likely have to save money somehow unless you are getting full regular salary.

[clean]

Development leave here is funded at full pay for 1 term or "1/2" pay for 2 semesters. (Except that it can be a lot less than 1/2 pay).

IF you can afford the full year, it is better. 
My advice is to Be Gone!  Stay away from campus. Use your leave to gather the information from the source.  (IF you can gather the data where you are, then you dont technically need 'reassigned time' as you can do it there in the time they provide.... and another argument for not funding you if it is there is that you can collect it in the summer!).  So find a place to go to be away.  Enjoy the time away, but Do the Work You promised to do!  (It doesnt matter IF  you dont think they can 'check up on you'.  They CAN!)

Now about the 1/2 pay.
On Paper it is half pay.  BUT becuase 1/2 pay means <full time, you are no longer elibible for full time benefits.  So here, anyway, the state stops contributing to your retirement and stops paying its share of your health insurance.  So your '1/2 pay' is the starting point, and THEN you pay the state's share of your insurance bill... and retirement goes unfunded.- they dont take out for that).

A lot of faculty have been surprised to learn that they have to pay the state's share, which is not insignificant! 


For retirement, it densest really matter IF you are on the defined Benefit (pension) plan, but if you are on the Defined Contribution plan where your retirement is what you put in, then can you afford to miss the contributions?

When I took leave, I took only the one term, not because I could not afford to pay the full insurance bill, but my PRIMARY goal is to be ABLE to retire As Soon AS Possible!  I could not pay a big chunk for health insurance, AND fully fund my retirement for the year on my1/2 pay. 

Anyway, Good Luck. Enjoy it after you accomplish the tasks you have outlined! 

[Ruralguy]

At my school, sabbatical leave, as opposed to any other professional or personal leave for the better part of a year, has fully funded benefits.

[AmLitHist]

Don't you have to present some kind of work product upon your return?  We do at my place, and if that product doesn't substantially meet the plan, we can be required to reimburse the college for our pay and/or benefits while we were off.  (We can take 1 semester at full pay/benefits, or 2 summers at half. We also have to return and teach at least 1 full semester upon our return, or again, we're on the hook to repay the money.)

[Ruralguy]

So...another piece of advice: Find out precisely what the parameters are if you don't know already (perhaps you just didn't mention them because you didn't think it was particularly important to the discussion). So, find out if you need to present a work product upon return and what that needs to show. Also, find out what restrictions are on your salary and benefits.

[secundem_artem]

I've had 3.  Loved them all and got some real stuff done during them.

But re-entry?  Coming back after 6-12 months without faculty meetings, student emails, and uni politics?  Damn, THAT was hard.  I loved my sabbaticals but coming back was like drinking bong water.

[Hegemony]

Do NOT be tempted to be on any committees or make any commitments "just this once" or "because we really need..." or anything. That way madness lies. They WILL be a time suck.

Using this time for what it's meant for — writing a book — is important. You will be tempted to fill up the nice acres of free time with all kinds of leisure activities you've been missing. But get into a good writing routine and stick with it. Set up a writing time with a friend, by Zoom or in person. And there are lots of online places where you can do mutual writing sessions or report in on your progress. Getting a book done and published will help your career in ways you can't even predict. It will also encourage them to give you another sabbatical when the next chance rolls around. If they don't penalize you for failing to write the book, that doesn't matter. The book will help your career, much more than a lack of book will. Prioritize it.

[Puget]

I don't mean to hijack bluefooted's thread, but it seems like a lot of advice for sabbaticals is from and about people in the humanities, who can go off and write their book someplace, or go visit archives or whatever. The struggle in the lab sciences is you can't just go off and leave your lab-- you have ongoing studies, usually running on a grant timeline, and grad students and other trainees depending on you. So you get a break from teaching and service, and *maybe* you can go visit another campus and supervise from afar (some do), but you can't just disconnect from your home campus completely.

[Ruralguy]

it depends on what you are doing in the sciences. My first sabbatical was almost completely off campus working with another groups data related to something I was interested in.  However, if you are running a lab or facility, completely disengaged may indeed be unrealistic, and in fact, spending all of your time or most with your own equipment for a year may be exactly what you needed anyway.  My most recent two sabbatical were both on campus. for one I had to give up my office, so I lived in a hole in the wall elsewhere in the building, and away from everybody. The next time I was in my regular office, but I'd time arriving and leaving to be sort of in between when people were typically congregating. I may have a 4th..I doubt I'll have a 5th.

In any case, coming on to campus to fiddle with equipment and talk to thesis students is not the same as agreeing to serve on a committee and showing up to a bunch of time sucking meetings.

[Liquidambar]

Everyone is different, of course, but I found the sabbatical lack of structure challenging for my mental health.  I wish I'd been able to arrange a buddy for writing dates a couple times a week, and I should have found some other sources of structure.  I probably should have set small, easily achievable goals (e.g., writing at a certain time of day, even just for a few minutes).

I should have been more willing to notice when things weren't working and rectify them.  I lost about a semester of my sabbatical to a medical issue that I didn't realize was a source of my fatigue and unproductivity.  I also stubbornly continued a planned activity even after I could tell it wasn't going to be useful.

The timing didn't work out, but I was originally supposed to co-organize a workshop in my subfield at the beginning of my sabbatical.  That would have been perfect because after meeting potential new collaborators, I'd have time to follow up with them, even go visit them.  If anyone is planning a sabbatical a couple years from now, this could be a great way to jumpstart new collaborations.

For me (sciences), coming to campus wasn't a problem.  My colleagues were respectful of my boundaries, and I could easily say no if asked to do service.  Perhaps a bigger issue is whether/how much to mentor undergrad research during sabbatical if you're at a primarily undergrad institution.  Some of my colleagues think that's something to avoid during sabbatical.  I continued mentoring my research students since it was easier than the alternatives (find them another advisor? don't take new students shortly before sabbatical? rebuild my group from scratch after sabbatical?).  It was fine and not very time consuming, especially compared to all my other issues.

[Dismal]

It is good to have some deliverable at the end of the sabbatical. I had two colleagues who never published anything from their first sabbatical (and that U wouldn't have cared much about the quality of the outlet) and then never got another.  If your sabbatical application is about X, make sure you publish something X-related even if it isn't exactly what you had promised.

[darkstarrynight]

How exciting! After my sabbatical last Fall, I truly think every person deserves one (not just in higher education)! For me, the first thing I did was to turn off work email notifications on my phone (I sure hate those red icons with numbers in them). I also put up an autoreply message in response to all emails with information on who to contact for different things and that I would respond when I had the chance.

I actually spent about two years doing prep work for the sabbatical, and still did not accomplish everything I had intended in one semester. However, the time away from meetings on campus was heavenly! My chair would contact me only if hu really needed me to vote on something or give input on someone's P&T materials, for example. It was minimal.

I was able to travel almost every weekend and work during the week on my project from anywhere (thanks to the prep work which required a zillion hours in our campus library using specific resources it has). Now I am in the data analysis phase of the project while back to the usual grind with full course load and tons of service, but I did have a lot of unexpected opportunities, such as getting a research fellowship that was paid and only during the sabbatical semester, and writing a book proposal that is likely to get me a contract any day now.

Our only deliverable was a report to the provost, dean, and department head. My sabbatical ended the Friday before Christmas, and I submitted the report the Monday after (I am certain I was the first)! My dean is waiting for me to finalize activities so the college can post an article about my project. I am very lucky to have a supportive chair and dean.

[Hibush]

Do something that really prepares you for the next phase of your career, and excites you about the prospects.

Going to work in a group that is really on the forefront of what you do is mulating. You get lots of new ideas, get to solve some new problem and get to know some of the current and upcoming stars in the field. You can maintain those relationships going forward.

[spork]

I'm resigning from all the committees I'm on 9-12 months before my sabbatical. An auto out-of-office email reply will be activated on the final day of the semester before my sabbatical starts.