At the University of Manitoba (and I assume elsewhere) we
don’t get ‘sabbaticals’. We get ‘research/study leaves’. I’m not sure what the difference is supposed
to be because as a student I never really paid attention to the preparation
beyond ‘Peter’s going to spend the year in India’. I was certainly unaware of an ‘application’
to take the leave, which had to be approved by the Department and the
Dean. But what do I know?
Here (and I assume elsewhere) (and I'll stop saying that now), you trade in ‘credits’ toward
your RSL. One credit is basically one
full year of regular service (or rather, one-half credits is one term plus some
of the summer*). So in 2009, when I took
my first leave, I had nine credits. I
used six of them to ‘pay’ for my full year RLS.
You don’t accrue credits while you’re on leave, and there’s a clause in
the leave that you a) can’t use it to seek employment elsewhere, and b) you
have to come back and work (for credit) for an equivalent time. So if you take a year leave, you have to come
back and do at least a year of service before you quit and move somewhere else
So anyway, I’ve spent the last couple years planning to take
my leave next year. At the end 2014-15 school year, I will have 8 credits. I had planned to take a full year. That would mean being released from teaching
so I could go research/study stuff, for 6 credits, during which I would receive
80% of my regular salary.
My alternatives, as pointed out by my department head, would
be to take a six-month leave (which would make scheduling classes and committees
and such easier) at 80% salary for 3 credits (and save 5 credits going into the
next cycle. Less appealing from the
taking leave standpoint, but much more appealing from the buying and moving
into a house in the next couple years, is taking six months at 100% salary,
which would cost me 6 credits.
Now, in the abstract, and having a vague understanding of
economic principles, I wouldn’t want to waste 3 perfectly good credits on just
20% of my salary, actually 10% since it would be just six months. On the other hand, I would still have two
credits and could take another 6-monther in a couple of years.
It’s also harder to deny more frequent half-leaves since
many of the scheduling and programming issues just don’t come up if you’re only
gone for half a year.
So actually, the idea of semi-often one-term leaves is
actually more appealing than the relatively infrequent full year. But I really like the flexibility of a full
year. Then again I learned last time I’m
probably not the time manager to really make a full year work for all it is
intended to
So what to do what to do?
*This is relevant only because the accrual of credits during
regular work is defined in terms of half-credits and half years. But if you’re denied a leave for some reason,
your work is calculated as one credit for a full year of service. As if it wouldn’t be, if you just weren’t on
leave, as opposed to having intended to take a leave and having it denied for
some reason. Or, having had your leave denied, you don't get credit for you service because you asked? They're not that weaselly.
