Mandatory Sabbaticals | עמוד דיון
תקציר
Mandatory Sabbaticals
Should Sabbaticals for every employee be implemented?
Conservatve Libertarians
The government’s job is to minimize, in every way possible, legislation that interferes with the employment market. There obviously is no place for such a law. This position is promoted by Milton Friedman and Avraham Popko
Welfare State advocates
The state is responsible for the happiness and well being of its citizens. Therefore it is responsible for passing specific laws that allow every employee to demand their right to take a Sabbatical year, and guarantee their return to employment at the conclusion of the Sabbatical year (like employees returning from maternity leave). Proponents of this position Yossi Tsuria, Manny Neeman
סיכום ביניים
The idea of periodic Sabbaticals for all, arises in response to one of the most significant challenges of our era: the dramatic extension of life expectancy as it effects our pensions and labor market.
Inspired by the biblical idea of “Shmitta”, it was suggested that a career break as a standard practice for all employees. that will allow for a delay in retirement age and offer a revitalizing tool for burnout workers
for more read here .
הדיון המורחב
The idea of the Sabbatical arises in response to one of the most significant challenges of the era in which we live, namely: an extended life expectancy.
On the one hand, employees are obliged to retire while still able-bodied; on the other, the economy is unable to carry the cost of the extended period of pension. Under this proposal, the aggregated sabbatical years accrued would be added to the number of years of work, thus deferring the retirement age for employees (see Menny Neeman).
Furthermore, the sabbatical can be instrumental in addressing the problem of burn-out:
Over the course of time, employment in the same occupation creates increasing burn-out (especially if the retirement age is deferred). This is also one reason why research demonstrates that the Y generation has a tendency to change place of employment every few years.
The disadvantage is that this frequent movement is doubly detrimental:
It creates lack of employment security for employees;
For the employer, it leads to the loss of organizational memory and the need to train new staff every few years.
Sabbaticals would create the opportunity for personal refreshment and renewal, and thus help to reduce the dimensions of the problem.
The Sabbatical concept suggested here is inspired by the Biblical concept of the Shemittah (seventh) year, but the new formats are now discernible around the world.
Sabbatical Content
The success of the Sabbatical concept depends wholly on the content to be vested in it. In the absence of significant content, the sabbatical could simply lead to apathy and atrophy. This problem was addressed by the Jewish Sages and is also discussed in the Jerusalem Talmud, Tractate Pesachim. I therefore suggest that the individual going on sabbatical choose one of the following activity options:
1. Voluntary work: a framework in line with Israeli National Service.
2. Professional development & in-service training.
3. Research or exploration of subjects unconnected with his or her everyday employment, within a supervised framework. This would be similar to the proscription of original forms of labor on Shabbat (the Biblical Sabbath), which was comprehensive until the advent of the Oral Law which set down the specific details.
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A significant break every seven years is effective in preventing burn-out and allows one to adjust the balance correctly between work and other dimensions of human activity, such as that of the individual, the family and the community.
During a sabbatical, employees can set aside quality time for their family, studies and hobbies, or even gain experience in other fields of work (as some teachers currently do during their sabbaticals.) People on sabbatical can devote more time to making a contribution to society, along the lines of the “Shemittah Hours” and “Time Bank” models.
If the aim of the sabbatical is refresher programs for employees, mini-courses in professional retraining could be made available at his or her place of work. This would help prevent burn-out, as well as any potential disconnection between the employee and the company.
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One of the important reasons for the sabbatical idea is the experience of freedom which it can generate. This freedom necessitates a severance of the connection with the employer, and not just for a short interval. (See below the discussion on the length of the sabbatical.) On the other hand, in order to prevent any danger of losing one’s place of work, the state needs to compel employers to provide a safety net for their staff (at the same time, this also creates long-needed potential for mobility in the employment market.)
The Sabbatical – Optional or Obligatory?
A sabbatical for every employee should be a matter of choice, rather than compulsory. One should not prevent a person who wants to work during a sabbatical year from doing so. One can try to educate people about the importance of the time off, but the modern economy can’t be paternalistic and compel it. Arrangements in the workplace need to remain between the employee and the employer, and the law cannot compel it to grant privileges. The role of looking after the less able should not lie with the state, but with the community – with philanthropists and others.
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Is it true that one cannot compel rest from labor in a paternalistic manner in a modern economy? Here is an example from the Israeli Law on Working Days and Time Off , which compels a limitation of the number of hours of work per day and sets down weekly days of rest. A similar obligation can also be found in the writings of our Sages on the Laws of Slavery.
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The social perspective notwithstanding, the modern economy endeavors to avoid setting limits on the number of work days or the number of hours per day. It does so on the assumption that the removal of barriers will improve financial outcomes. The issue of sabbaticals is a social, rather than an economic one: the approach should be to encourage people, rather than coerce them.
I find the position of those free market supporters who reject legal intervention on the issue of the sabbatical to be unacceptable. In the same way as the State of Israel legislates for provision for pensions. Do you also oppose the law on pensions? Is there any difference between them and, if so, what?
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Organizational Difficulties
The prerequisite for implementing the sabbatical idea is that the employee’s position should be guaranteed at the end of the sabbatical (similar to maternity leave.) This commitment reduces the number of employees systematically (about one seventh at any given time) and will compel the company to improve efficiency, so as to be able to function with 80% of the staff, with some of them on sabbatical.
It is our contention that, in actual fact, the absence of coercion would be instrumental in helping companies achieve greater efficiency, since it is in any case impossible to sustain employees at 100% of effective productivity.
Another benefit towards improving company efficiency would be that those skilled employees on sabbatical could easily be called in to assist in any crisis situation requiring immediate additional manpower.
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It would be impossible to rely on 80% staffing levels, and therefore the company would need to maintain a larger workforce.
Similarly, in contemporary terms, there is a need for expertise: this would require training members of staff for other positions, too. Some experts can only be replaced with difficulty, for example: a Physics teacher can’t replace a Tanach teacher, or an ophthalmologist a cardiologist.
The only option is to limit the length of the sabbatical to a few months: a term of absence we could absorb in human resources.
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The question of expertise will lend itself to the development of polyvalence in the workforce, and the company’s sustainability without its key figures will also improve. I think a Physics teacher should be capable of replacing the Tanach teacher; in general, companies can reorganize so that there will be enough manpower to cover for terms of absence.
And teachers actually do take sabbaticals, which should indicate that it’s feasible.
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In addition to the sabbatical, there should therefore be a separate regulation requiring every employee to spend a few months training for a different position in the company.
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Where is the Money and When?
Along the lines of pension funds and advanced study funds, a new fund would be created, entitled the “Sabbatical fund”, which would become available only when the employee takes sabbatical leave.
The State of Israel should also grant significant tax breaks for those who open sabbatical savings plans, but it should not pay out to anyone who has not worked or made contributions to the fund. It should be those who have made the effort in the six working years who should enjoy the benefits of a sabbatical.
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The State of Israel already makes a contribution to the cost of advanced study funds by giving tax breaks.
Given the difficulties companies will have in terms of funding and their re-organization, the optimal length for a sabbatical leave should be three months.
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A full year is preferable. A full year is the accepted term for an academic sabbatical and in the education system only a complete year cut off from the routine will create a sense of freedom and significant refreshment. Nonetheless, if needs must, one could start off with three months and then look to increase the definition of the time period.
Does the problem of freedom truly stem from the fact that people “are spending too much time working”?
My impression is that a significant part of the problem with freedom lies in issues of personal responsibility, such as “negligent” individual financial conduct, the use of consumer credit and so on.
Year after year and, possibly, in successive generations, statistical data consistently point to the fact that the number of Israeli households with overdrafts is excessive.
If one needed to prioritize initiatives intended to “increase freedom”, does the freedom from enslavement to the workplace truly have priority over enslavement to banks and irresponsible consumerism?
מנחה
Does the problem of freedom truly stem from the fact that people “are spending too much time working”?
My impression is that a significant part of the problem with freedom lies in issues of personal responsibility, such as “negligent” individual financial conduct, the use of consumer credit and so on.
Year after year and, possibly, in successive generations, statistical data consistently point to the fact that the number of Israeli households with overdrafts is excessive.
If one needed to prioritize initiatives intended to “increase freedom”, does the freedom from enslavement to the workplace truly have priority over enslavement to banks and irresponsible consumerism?