A VOLUNTARY BREAK CAN BOOST SALARY

Taking time out can improve your career prospects - if you gain the right experience, says BARBARA McCARTHY

PROPERTY prices in Hong Kong are among the highest in the world. Retailers in Causeway Bay pay more than €4,500 per square metre a year, making the area the third most expensive shopping district in the world after New York’s Fifth Avenue and Paris’s Champs Elysees. High rents mean high commissions for agents and the chance to build a lucrative career and amass a nice nest egg. Ten years at the top of the property business was enough for Ann Marie O’Donoghue who decided in March 2002 that she wanted to do something different with her life. The Nenagh-born agent signed a one-year contract with Goal, the charity, to work as a volunteer programme administrator in Malawi, in central Africa. “I was highly impressed with the Malawians,” says O’Donoghue. “This is a country in which 65% of the population lives on less than €2 a day.”

It was a far cry from the glittering streets of China’s financial capital, but O’Donoghue was so affected by the experience she decided to sign up again. “I feel humbled when faced with such strength of character. Some aspects of our western lives seem so insignificant in comparison,” she says. In September, she was posted to Afghanistan.

A sabbatical year was originally prescribed by Mosaic Law to be observed every seventh year as a sabbath during which the land was fallow and all debtors were to be released.These days, although still predominant in university circles, it is a voluntary arrangement whereby an employer gives an employee time off work — paid or unpaid — over and above their usual holiday allowance.

A sabbatical is a unique opportunity for companies as well as employees, according to Rowan Manahan, managing director of Fortify Services, a Dublin-based outplacement and career management firm. “It can be an equitable arrangement for both sides,” he says. The kind of people taking sabbaticals, Manahan says, tend to be those who have already achieved success within a company and are very clear about which direction their career is going. These can range from 'players', who have worked hard their whole lives, to those in middle management. “Sabbaticals don’t happen to people who are just drifting along, following the current,” he says. “The kind of people I see contemplating them are thinking in much broader terms — five to seven years down the line.”

The choices available depend on time and resources. Some travel, some do voluntary work abroad, others learn a new skill or take time out to be with their families. Some people use the time to complete a personal project such as writing a book. Martin Reilly, an audit director at Deloitte & Touche, Ireland’s largest multidisciplinary professional services firm, took 1999 off to travel. Having achieved the title of audit manager, a career goal, Reilly thought it was the right time. “I was always career oriented. I started at Deloitte & Touche after graduating from Dublin City University in 1995 and worked my way up to a management position. It was important for me to establish myself before I took a career break.” Reilly visited America and Asia before taking a job in banking in Australia. “I was more mature when I returned, more focused,” he says. His employers agreed and he was promoted to audit director three years after his return.

Deloitte & Touche says each case is looked at in detail before time off is given. If the employee is valuable to the company, it will accommodate that person as best it can. “A lot of the time when people have lived abroad, they bring back a fresh perspective,” says the company. It employs more than 700 people in Ireland and there are eight employees on sabbatical leave at the moment. The company advises those who are considering taking leave to seek advice from a neutral party. “A spouse or work colleague will give you a very one-sided opinion. It is important to talk to somebody you are not closely involved with.”

The benefits of a break are obvious to Andy Spearman, of Goal, who says that people return more positive and more motivated. “It is character-building as people are faced with situations they have never experienced at home.” There are gains for employers too. “Living in Africa with very little money while helping the poor shows that people are willing to invest time and energy into something where there are no financial rewards.”

Of course, that also means that extended career breaks can be expensive. Ciaran Rooney, a construction studies teacher, took a career break in 1989 to teach woodwork in the Gambia, in west Africa. Rooney became a project manager with the kind of opportunities that he would never have had in Ireland. He found it difficult, however, to save any money to buy a house and has returned home to establish a base.

Some employers will attach strings to any sabbatical, according to Brendan McGinty, director of human resources at Ibec, the employers’ group. “Some companies will offer unpaid leave but may expect you to take a course or work elsewhere to gain more experience (on returning to work).” He adds that even though staff may be promised the same position with the same salary, they may be working in a different department on their return. It also works the other way, he says. If an employee is due a promotion and there is nothing within sight for six months to a year, they can leave to hone other skills and look for a promotion on their return.

Most large companies have a sabbatical scheme which depends on the economic environment. In the early 1990s, Virgin Atlantic airways, reeling from a drop in revenue caused by the recession, offered unpaid leave of three to six months to 600 staff members, who kept their travel benefits on Virgin flights during their time off.

Even now, an employee can take a career break of up to one year as part of the company’s standard human-resources policy, though they do forfeit their benefits during the time off. VSO, the international development charity, questioned professionals aged between 21 and 45 about their attitudes towards career breaks. More than half of respondents believed career breaks would improve communication and problem-solving skills as well as the ability to adapt and work under pressure. However 60% said that concerns about falling behind in their career and the cost of such a venture put them off.

Living and working abroad can benefit people’s salaries, according to Philip O’Connell, senior professor at the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI). “Most senior managers within the ESRI have worked abroad at some stage, either on sabbaticals or otherwise,” he says. “People who have worked and lived abroad at some stage in their lives can earn up to 10% more than people who have worked only in Ireland.”

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