# Advice with work leave of absence **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 18, 2016, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advice-with-work-leave-of-absence/752592 "2016-04-18T20:23:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2016, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advice-with-work-leave-of-absence/752592/21 "2016-04-20T17:28:45Z")
**ThelmaLou** : Yeah, that kinda does make sense, and I see what you’re saying. You’ve given me something to think about. On the one hand, I’ve been doing the writing thing seriously for about a year now (though I’ve been writing in one way or another for most of my life) and I’m having some success with it. I suppose it could crash and burn at any moment (heck, sales have been crap the last couple of days after a phenomenal last month and pretty good first half of April), but I think I’ve reached the point where I’ve proven to myself that enough people like what I’m producing that I can sustain at least a certain baseline level of income from it as long as I keep the books coming. On the other hand, there’s a certain sense to only revealing what I have to reveal. I don’t have any close coworkers (as a telecommuter, I only interact with my boss regularly, and everybody else on an as-needed basis) so I doubt many of them would even care what I’m doing. I just want to make sure nobody thinks I’m taking time off for some secret horrible health thing or something, which I personally would wonder about if someone “just needed to take some time off” for an unspecified reason. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2016, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advice-with-work-leave-of-absence/752592/22 "2016-04-20T20:27:39Z")
Thank you for that thoughtful reply. I guess it depends on what you’d rather have people saying about you behind your back (provided you care at all about it). I worked at a place one time where our boss took six months off for some personal leave reason that to this day remains a mystery. We were all convinced he checked into an in-patient facility for some kind of addiction treatment-- maybe gambling. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2016, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advice-with-work-leave-of-absence/752592/23 "2016-04-20T20:41:11Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Thank you for that thoughtful reply. I guess it depends on what you’d rather have people saying about you behind your back (provided you care at all about it). I honestly don’t think I interact with 90% of my coworkers enough that any of them would have more than a passing thought about it, aside from how it might affect who they need to deal with to get things done that I used to do. As long as that was sorted, I see no potential problems. > [@](#): > > I worked at a place one time where our boss took six months off for some personal leave reason that to this day remains a mystery. We were all convinced he checked into an in-patient facility for some kind of addiction treatment-- maybe gambling. Exactly. I’d much rather my coworkers, if they care, know I’d taken time off to see if I could sustain a writing career than think I checked into rehab or was having cancer treatments or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2016, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advice-with-work-leave-of-absence/752592/24 "2016-04-20T21:37:18Z")
Since you say you are on good terms with your boss, how about “Hey boss, I’ve been thinking of asking for a year’s leave of absence to pursue my writing [which I assume he is aware of] full time. How much notice would you like if I do that?” ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2016, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advice-with-work-leave-of-absence/752592/25 "2016-04-20T23:03:05Z")
> [@Infovore](#): > > I honestly don’t think I interact with 90% of my coworkers enough that any of them would have more than a passing thought about it, aside from how it might affect who they need to deal with to get things done that I used to do. As long as that was sorted, I see no potential problems. > … That’s good. God knows, I’ve worked at places where everyone knew everyone so well that if you walked in wearing something new, there would be comments. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![ASGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/838e76/32.png) [@ASGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2016, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advice-with-work-leave-of-absence/752592/26 "2016-04-21T00:17:23Z")
First, I agree with CookingWithGas: “…you should review the written policy for leave of absence, if there is one.” At the beginning of my 8th year with my first employer I decided a leave was appropriate after I had worked for 10 years. A review of the company policy indicated a leave (of any duration) was possible. No reason need be specified. If granted, no assurance that my job would be there on return. I started making my leave of absence noises 18 months before my planned departure. Hearing positive, if unofficial, comments from management I officially applied 11 months prior. My departure time was open and the only thing we negotiated was the actual “last date of employment.” My immediate supervisor asked me how much I would be willing to delay if something crucial was going on. I said up to four months, which was plenty to cover any project I might be assigned. Good enough, leave approved without prejudice. I left on time, was gone for a year, and returned to my former position. A year was a long time in my field so significant catch-up was needed. I worked a lot of extra (not overtime) hours to show management that their decision was not a bad one. I think you should be ready for that when your return. I don’t regret that leave, but if I were to do it over it would have been for eight months. Catching up was a real bear. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advice-with-work-leave-of-absence/752592.md?page=1)