By david hanson ’89 photograph by elizabeth kreutz
Taking a Sabbatical fromLIFE All in the Name of Research
After spending a number of years in academia, both as a student and an employee, I began to wonder — why do faculty take sabbaticals, but not other employees? So, as part of my doctoral studies at the University of Pennsylvania, I researched non-academic, or administrative, sabbaticals. My hypothesis was that Americans work too hard and take too little time off. Allowing employees to take sabbaticals lets them tackle new and exciting questions, return to school, perform public service, revisit a dream or write a book. Sabbaticals improve health, loyalty and productivity. Like most Americans, I started working when I was a teenager and have had at least one job ever since. I never took any real “break” from working or school (or, in most cases, from working and school at the same time, even at UT). Nearly 29 years of work and five academic degrees later, I found myself truly exhausted and slipping down a mountain of diminishing returns in all areas of my life — personal and professional — and at an alarming rate. Stress had sparked a number of changes and bad decisions in my daily life, including failing to exercise enough, eating too much take-out and gaining weight. Like most of us, I just needed a break. Many thought I was crazy, having been 18 UTjournal winter 2011
offered a great promotion to a job with more money, greater authority and responsibility and, yes (of course), more stress. on the road
I asked myself, “Why are you not experiencing a sabbatical first-hand instead of simply writing about it?” So, I resigned my job, bought a plane ticket and traveled for three months across Europe and the United States. It was not until the third week of my sabbatical that my mind began to rest and forget about the details of daily life (many of which are really unimportant, like whether I remembered to wash the whites in hot water). I finally had time to absorb the world around me in new ways — allowing myself to see and experience people, buildings, foods, nature and even human commotion and interactions in ways that I had not experienced prior. More importantly, I had time to reflect and think about what comes next in my life. So, what did I learn? Whether you stay at home, volunteer in your neighborhood, or travel the world — it is vital to take time off to rest your body and mind — for longer than a week. As a nation, we work too much and too hard for too many hours. America is so young, which is perhaps why