We can extrapolate a bit here from data on parental leaves. Research published in the Journal of Applied Psychology that looked at longer leaves—those lasting a year or more, as some new parents in Canada and Europe can command—found that being out of the office for that length of time really can cost you. Workers might miss career opportunities; their industry knowledge might erode. But leaves that last six months or less do not show a negative impact on a person’s career.
Parenthood does often hurt women’s careers, but that’s not because of maternity leave, which in the U.S. tends to be unpaid and short. It’s because employers unfairly perceive mothers as less competent and committed. To pick just one of several studies documenting this, research led by Shelley Correll showed that mothers were offered $11,000 less in salary, 79% less likely to be hired, and 100% less likely to be promoted than women whose parental status was unknown.
Men’s careers can be hurt by taking even short paternity leaves, though that may be slowly starting to change. (Bias against fathers is one of the fastest-growing areas of employment discrimination.) But there’s no evidence that taking leave for other reasons—surfing in Maui, training for a marathon, riding your motorcycle up the California coast—costs men one whit.
This is not to say there are never tradeoffs between time and money. But at least one study, by Ashley Whillans, Elizabeth Dunn and their collaborators, finds that people who prioritized time over money reported feeling happier one year after being surveyed, and that prioritizing time over money leads to stronger social connection. That’s why one of the best ways we can spend our money is to buy ourselves more time.
So why not buy yourself 12 weeks?
Suppose some amazing opportunity comes up at work and you’re not there to seize it. All I can say is that no one can be everywhere all the time, and many work opportunities come around more than once. But the chance to take a sabbatical, even one that’s only partly paid? That could be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. And there are lots of reasons to take a break in the middle of your career, rather than grinding it out until retirement.
Think about it this way: Money is the ultimate renewable resource. You can always earn more of it. But time is fleeting and finite. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.