FWIW I asked my husband if he would hire an IT project manager who had not worked for a while or worked at Mc D's in between jobs. He said a good IT manager should be prepared to move where the jobs are and shouldn't be out of work. I explained the ex-pat situation and he said in that case it wouldn't make any difference to his decision whether he worked at Mc D's or not...bearing in mind he is a Brit.

it was an example, could replace task with any job, it's how you bullet out your work....and don't knock cleaning work, it's not half bad money.

got to get past the HR person first though, someone who doesn't have a clue.

people don't have holiday time, you live to work here, not work to live, so it's very unusual for people to take long holidays, never mind a sabatical, but as USB mentioned, it does happen, depends on your field.

Only in California my friend.

Elsewhere we work 365.25 days a year, burned out or no. I'm working at the moment whilst ill, and glad for the work, lest it be outsourced.

I think we're past what's helpful to the OP now, but interesting nonetheless.

Yes you have to get past HR. But you are assuming they'd think McD's etc is ok too.

One thing that also comes into play is that here there is quite a divide between "blue collar" and "white collar". So I think a manager who was working at a blue collar type job would be very suspect, probably even more so than a gap in employment.

Also, when I was hiring, I would have noticed someone who was currently out of work, and had been for quite a while, because I would be more worried something was really wrong and their knowledge might not be current. I would not have been so worried by a gap followed by employment.

Again, it depends.

Look, you said that working at Walmart was "going all the way to the bottom," not me. I was just pointing out that there are people in this forum who have done just that, and thus might find your comment offensive -- as if working at Walmart is only for the scum of the earth and something to be ashamed of. If that's not what you meant to say then perhaps you should have phrased it differently, because it certainly sounded like that's what you were saying.

Since I'm "wrong" all the time, I'm bowing out of this. I'll be curious to see how the status thing works out, though...

~ Jenney

Dear Jenney,
I can only say I'm sorry if I offended you in any way. It certainly was not my intention. I would have hoped that other people that found themselves offended would have reacted as well. They did not , so I take it noone here found me offensive.
Again, thanks for your contribution to our problem

You take it wrong...

I'm in Chicago

Is your company based in California?

I've worked for the biggest high tech firm based in Illinois (think about it) and there were no sabbaticals.

I've worked for a company based in California and there were sabbaticals, which were discontinued when a company based in Texas bought the company. Needless to say I was about that.

Some of this is local job market; there are a lot of tech people here and some fierce competition for jobs.

every company I've worked for both here and in the UK has had a sabbatical program of some sort. Those would be

EA - HQ in Redwood City, CA
ATVI - HQ in Santa Monica, CA
Muckyfoot Productions - Guildford, England
ATD - Warwick england

all had a program for sabbaticals...

I have a suggestion - with you being an RN , you getting a job will not be a problem. And if you work Baylor shift you can potentially earn what? like $80K with overtime. That's a nice income, so stick out for a few months in the UK and then move over here and you can be the bread winner and he can be a stay at home dad.

Hi BramaBrit ,
your suggestion is quite feasible if only my husband's status would be secure, but as we've already been aware of it (and other people acertained it) it is not...so we do not have a lot of time to lose.
After all, if it all comes to that, I guess it will have to be the case. I know that we can manage on my ending salary, the only thing is that I myself will have a 2 year gap in my career, so my salary again and employment will be in question (although a lot less than my husband's especially with all the nursing shortage going on worldwide...)
Also, there is something else...that bothers me the most. I would love to stay home for at least awhile in order to breastfeed, but I guess at this point that is a luxury for us...

California and England.

I've worked for tech companies based in at least four states in the US and only one, the CA company, had sabbaticals. And yes, these are high-pressure, high-burnout jobs.