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.
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.
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.
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.
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?”
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:
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.