Keep your job for five years, get $50,000

Re:Keep your job for five years, get $50,000 by kabdib on Wednesday November 09, 2011 @05:37PM (#3217830)

Apple used to have a sabbatical; at five years, you got six paid weeks off.

Well, it's not 50K, on the other hand it was surprising how many people hung on until five years, took their six weeks off (often including vacation), then quit.

It seemed to get rid of dead wood. I'm still not sure why.

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Re:Keep your job for five years, get $50,000 by donaldc on Wednesday November 09, 2011 @05:44PM (#3217870)

It seemed to get rid of dead wood. I'm still not sure why.

My guess would be that, those people who were no longer growing at Apple, after six consecutive weeks off, filling their mind with things other than working at Apple, realized they had stagnated and figured out something else to do. It's much easier to have perspective on a situation after spending a significant period of time away from it.

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Re:Keep your job for five years, get $50,000 by mikeryan on Wednesday November 09, 2011 @05:53PM (#3217905)

5 years at once place in SV is pretty long. If you're getting itchy feet at 4 years you're probably going to wait the few months until the sabbatical kicks in so you can get the time off (or payout?).

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Re:Keep your job for five years, get $50,000 by ticks on Wednesday November 09, 2011 @07:55PM (#3218318)

Six weeks doesn't sound that much TBH, many countries require at least five weeks paid holiday per year.

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Re:Keep your job for five years, get $50,000 by ChuckMcM on Wednesday November 09, 2011 @07:52PM (#3218304)

Sabatticals are an interesting thing. SGI, Tandem, Sun, Google for a while, all had sabbaticals after a period of time.

HR people note that people often don't come back from them. I think that is in part because you do get to refresh a bit and think about things and ask really deep questions like "what do I really want to be doing with my time?" A lot of things change in 5 years.

However, the idea of letting people take an extended break to recharge is a good one, if someone comes up with a good way to do that without losing employees it would be well received.

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Re:Keep your job for five years, get $50,000 by checker on Wednesday November 09, 2011 @05:48PM (#3217880)

I think many people find it difficult to contribute significantly after they've lost enthusiasm for their work, becoming dead wood. Staying five years might be stretching it for them.

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Re:Keep your job for five years, get $50,000 by kirpekar on Wednesday November 09, 2011 @05:55PM (#3217915)

IBM and many HDD companies still have the sabbatical rule. 7 years of work-ex gives you 3 months of time off (but it has to be planned and approved well in advance)

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