Pee-wee Herman, a hero in so many ways and here commemorated via crop art, lived his life as one large sabbatical awash in mirth and imagination.

WorldatWork is a large, multi-national HR consulting firm that has wandering tendrils in various places to improve employee performance and such. Their website and lingo are perplexing, though HR people no doubt speak that language. An unrelated article sprang their new sabbatical # on us. 29%?

• A word about the source’s source

One Megan Preston Meyer, an author from Duluth who now hails from Switzerland (as one does), lived a corporate life before hanging up her Business Casual. She took a year off to write a book (as one does), and soon found herself creating children’s books, business books, recorded versions, and more—plus ideas for further endeavors.

Megan provides big inspiration for us BreakAway practitioners. She actually left the office, launched a savvy business, and moved somewhere both far away and idyllic. She seems committed to her blossoming garden of products and potential, though does now fantasize the unthinkable: Going back to the office for fresh blood:

I want to kind of refill my corporate bucket, so that I’ve got more inspiration…

• Forever seeking a fresh # for unpaid sabbaticals

Thanks to WorldasWork for announcing that 29% is the new, magic number. But…do we believe it? (Apologies: This site claims to be an expert in such info, yet humbly admits to often being skeptical and flummoxed by the sketchy research, noise and static, and smoke and mirrors!) That said…

• Gusto, a payroll processor, reports that 6% of employees took unpaid sabbaticals in 2022—double the rate of 2019. (Think: Pandemic.)

• The Society for Human Resource Management asserts that 5% of employers offer paid sabbaticals; 11% provide unpaid leaves.

• Meanwhile, a 2019 Society for Human Resource Management survey found that 16% of companies offer sabbaticals, but only 5% are paid.

So…in conclusion! Our cause has a lot of work to do, and any # or math to prove our points can be…fuzzy. But that’s OK; we accept life’s unknowns, challenges, and aspirations with open minds and arms. That’s the mindset of seekers and leapers.

But maybe we DO need to dig deeper into this fresh-ish core data stuff. Like we often used to, back when MYBA launched…right about now…in 2008.

(HEY, HAPPY 15TH ANNI, everybody!)

And we send kudos and high 5s and American green jello to Megan Preston Meyer, once of Duluth, now of Switzerland, writing books and building her own brave new world. Sabbaticals, self-employment, creativity, Europe, a big idea. That’s a full boat! Enjoy every minute, Megan.

And as for the rest of us? We appreciate the inspiration. And today’s information. In which we once again ask the simple question: How many employers DO offer sabbaticals, anyway?

Well, we’re not sure. And the # seems about the…same as it ever was. But we KNOW the appreciation and demand for BreakAways is bigger than ever.

We can thank Covid, The Great Quit, and worker empowerment for these evolutions. See? Sometimes the silver lining (and wings) come out of what we on this site call The Bad Thing.

We wish The Bad Thing on no one. But be ready. That, or perhaps pennies from heaven may be falling in your future soon. Be ready. Your world awaits. Everything is right on schedule.

Keep the faith.