Downtime

John Archer reconnected. Judy Cohen chucked the rat race. Brian Agard took on a project near to his heart.

Archer, Cohen and Agard are among that unusual breed of high-tech professionals who make a career with one company. Each of their employers aims to reward that loyalty and boost retention by offering paid sabbaticals, or extended breaks from work. Sabbaticals are most common at high-tech firms, though the Society for Human Resource Management reports that 20% of all companies offer this benefit.

Leaving the daily grind behind, Archer and Cohen each took time to stop and smell the roses. Archer, an engineering manager at Intel in Hillsboro, Ore., spent three weeks in the British Isles. And Cohen, a manager in the business enterprise solutions group of American Management Systems (AMS) in Fairfax, Va., headed west for two weeks, exploring canyons and a Navaho reservation.

For the rest of their breaks, Archer and Cohen each hung out with their kids and did whatever they wanted whenever they wanted. "There was no emphasis on accomplishment, no schedule," says Cohen, a 20-year AMS veteran who put in seven years as a senior-level employee to earn a sabbatical.

Agard just began his sabbatical this month, yet rest and relaxation isn't on the itinerary. The computer systems analyst for Xerox in New York will spend 10 months working at United Cerebral Palsy of Greater Suffolk in Hauppauge, N.Y.

He is one of eight Xerox employees who earned a spot in the company's paid service leave program this year.

During his stint with the charity, Agard will establish a computer training center, network group homes and develop a virtual reality program to teach clients basic tasks, such as crossing the street and banking. "My brother's baby was diagnosed over a year ago with cerebral palsy. I wanted to do something to help him out and to learn about the disease," he says. "The best way was to become a full-time volunteer."

Get out of here

The stress of preparing for a sabbatical is almost enough to make you think twice about going. In fact, Cohen needed to postpone her downtime until June 1997 - a full year after she was eligible.

"E-commerce technology was changing so rapidly. I was keeping track of everything from potential vendors to the impact on systems architecture," she says. "I couldn't go."

When Cohen finally did take her 12-week break, she spent the first four days finishing a report at home.

Getting essential duties covered by other colleagues was no big deal for Intel's Archer. Sabbaticals are such an ingrained part of Intel's corporate culture that employees expect to take over the mission-critical tasks of their absent co-workers. Archer's responsibilities that didn't contribute to the bottom line, such as providing career guidance to employees, were shelved during his nine weeks away from the office.

For Xerox's Agard, leaving his duties behind also meant leaving a disappointed boss. He was asked to postpone his sabbatical until this month and to only take 10 months rather than the full year for which he was eligible.

Leaving the breakneck pace isn't easy. "I had trouble not checking my voice mail. It took some weaning," AMS' Cohen says of the first few days of her sabbatical. But once she got past the initial technology withdrawal, the break from e-commerce systems and network integration recharged her spiritually.

Spending the summer with her family relaxing and visiting Canyon De Chelly, Ariz., and Sedona, Ariz., put a new spin on Cohen's views of work and life.

"I rediscovered how much I enjoyed being in an unusual place with unusual people," she says. "It was like being a kid."

Archer also found his downtime energizing. When he returned from the British Isles, he became a carpool dad. After years of working 60-hour weeks, Archer was surprised that he actually enjoyed not working.

"I could relax and enjoy the pace of being with the kids. It was a huge revelation," he says.

Back to work

As the summer ended and the kids returned to school, Archer was ready to go back to Intel, though he worried about what he might find when he got there. "During the time my boss was on sabbatical, an entire product line that he was responsible for was eliminated," he says.

Archer lucked out and returned to the same responsibilities he had before leaving.

The biggest change Archer saw was in his struggle to return to Intel's pace and hours. "The first two weeks you couldn't keep me there 40 hours."

Cohen wasn't eager to return to work in the fall, but she says it was OK because her children had just started the school year. "It's much worse to go back after having a baby," she says.

As for Agard, he's not worried about rejoining Xerox next January - he'll have a comparable job when he returns. For now, he's pleased to be lending his IT skills to United Cerebral Palsy so the organization can better serve its clients.

Sensational sabbatical suggestions
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Journal of a sabbatical
"An online journal chronicling how I left high-tech for a life of washing litterboxes and driving nieces to piano lessons and lived to tell about it."