I talk to several CIOs each week. I listen to them and try to figure out how we might help them through our advisory services at StarBridge Advisors. Depending on where the CIO is in his or her career, they sometimes ask, “How and when can I join you at StarBridge?”. The idea of getting off the permanent CIO track and having more flexibility can be appealing.

The idea of a “substitute CIO” came up from one of the CIOs I talked to recently. He was thinking about how to get his organization prepared for someone else to lead for a period with the knowledge that he would be back after several months. I told him it sounded like a sabbatical to me – not a bad idea.

Sabbatical means a rest from work or a break. When we think about sabbaticals, we typically think of professors and ministers. It’s a time for them to go away, reflect, study, research, write, and get rejuvenated.

Just think what a CIO could do with an opportunity like that!

When I was working as a CIO fulltime and would visit other countries on vacation, I thought how awesome it would be to spend several months studying another country’s healthcare system. The lessons and new ideas I could bring back to my organization. But that’s just one idea. What about taking time to learn about leading edge healthcare organizations in the U.S. Or studying a particular problem that every healthcare organization is trying to solve. Or working with start-ups on a new and innovative product.

Wouldn’t our industry benefit from letting our senior practitioners step back from the day-to-day and go deeper on work we need to do?

You earn vacation time each year, so why not earn sabbatical time? My husband is a retired minister. When he was in the parish, after seven years he was eligible for a seven-month sabbatical. He was then obligated to stay at his post for at least a year afterwards. I was jealous of his time for deepening, and thought “why not me?” And he saw how hard I worked and understood how easy it is to burn out in CIO jobs. He would say that I needed a sabbatical more than him.

I heard that Cerner offers sabbaticals. So, I did a little more digging with my Cerner contacts. The “long term service award” is available to anyone after seven years of employment and then every six years after that. Employees can take off four weeks. They are required to do a community service project or have a learning and development experience for 40 hours of it.

Doing a little more research, I found that a number of other companies offer sabbaticals – they vary in length, eligibility and expectations. But they are all considered a break from work. 19 of Fortune’s 2016 list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For offer employees an opportunity for extended leave and pay them for it.

An article in “Experience Life” magazine describes the value of a sabbatical and tips on how to approach it with your employer. The author, Andi McDaniel, summarizes it this way: “However you spend your sabbatical, the simple act of stepping away from your daily routine will allow you to see more clearly what, if anything, has been holding you back — and what is calling you forward. And regardless of where your career is headed, that knowledge will bear fruit for many years to come.”

Is this an idea whose time has come? Will more companies start offering sabbaticals as part of their employee benefits and as a retention strategy? I’m curious – what would you do with a sabbatical if you had the chance?

Related Posts: 

Take time to reboot

Time to stop and smell the roses