Work leave

[Terminator2000]

In the spirit of Dash's work topic. How hard is it to find work in toronto.

I have a question regarding work.

According to work policy,

what are the conditions necessary to gain a work leave of absence.

I know some maternity is one and injury is another. A doctor has the authority to grant someone work leave without fear of getting terminated, until the person recovers.Medical reasons and surgery. Stress or traumatic life experience is another. (I heard divorce or depression qualifies under this category) or tragedy.

I also know that, it can depend on the employer/top boss in charge, that he can grant a work leave if you ask him - set up a meeting and ask him for permission - and state your reason - if your reason varies and doesn't apply to the following above categories. and he might grant it - depending on what he thinks of ur "special" reason.

I just want to take a year off. To pursue personal goals.

Work isn't life. There are more things in life than work. Yes, I know. Without work, there isn't much of a life.

Work to live?

or

Live to work?

My question is. If i wanted work leave, without pay. for a year. What are my chances? Anyone have experience with this?

 

[Terminator2000]

I agree with you: I work to live, fuck the other way around.

Now, back to your question: I think it won't work the way you envision it. If you leave, someone will have to do your job. If they have someone available, they don't need you = you're fired. If they don't, then they have to hire someone to do your job = again, your'e fired. If you think you're irreplacable, bear in mind that graveyards are full of those who thought the same.

Good luck.

I have a lot of money saved up. Enough money to keep me for a year (or more) but its true what you say. Its just too bad work is so inflexible and employers literally own you and workers dont have that many rights in the workplace or in the company. You're always expendable or useless.

In Canada (and the US) Life is measured and defined entirely by your work and nothing more. Personal goals or pursuits don't have any meaning. Work is the end and all that defines the importance and worth of a person's life. Very corporate society we live in. Its either money, bills, work, money, bills, work, money, bills, work, money, bills, work. No days off. Only a week every five months time off allowed.

Pretty sad how overworked we are.

Like, for example, say you worked for a couple years. Saved enough to keep you for a good amount of time. Have quite a fortune saved up to do quite well without work for a while. (Yet, you still want to keep your job). So if you dont need to work, you can pursue other things. Like a personal life. (Which we all agree is important to us. Work to live, notthe other way around.) Yet, companies/employers OWN us and decide our lives and with their policies and protocols, they decide/define how our time and lives are spent and consumed. Even, if we dont need to work so much/have a good sum of money to live off work for a while.

So, you decide you want some free time to pursue other dreams, aspirations. Go travelling. Visit some other countries. Pursue some personal projects. Expand your personal life/personal horizons.

We ALL have personal goals/aspirations/dreams. This I can say of all of you, withcertainty.

You cant. Unless, you're the boss,manager,CEO himself. Whom can take as many days off as he pleases.

Sorry for my rant. its just surprising what kind of society we live in and how our "freedom" and how much of a "free" country we live in.

If this seems like a random nonsensical rant. I apologize.


P.S. What also strikes me as funny is. How if you want time off, maternity leave. Say your wife is pregnant or girlfriend is pregnant or you're stressed. You have to ask the boss/manager/employer for "permission". Yet, the boss/manager/employer DOESN'T need a justifiable reason to take an extended leave of work absence for himself. he can go whenever he pleases.

 

[The Bandit]

When you get hired to do a job, you're expected to be there every day, they have a business to run. If you need a leave, they need someone to replace you. Just quit, and they wont have to worry about what to do with your replacement when you return. It's your choice, just leave...do you expect them to bend over backwards for your lifes decisions?

 

[Terminator2000]

...do you expect them to bend over backwards for your lifes decisions?

Yes.

Stick it to the man.

 

[C Dick]

I think that it is the opposite. If you have marketable skills, you can enter and leave the work-force as you wish. But if you are a key person, the owner or manager, you can't leave, because your investment collapses without you. A number of people at my work have asked for time off for various reasons, up to a year to travel around. The answer has always been yes, if you are valuable to the company, they will want to keep you. My reasoning would be that if an employee asks for a year off, you can either say yes, and he will appreciate it, and likely come back. Or you can say no, he will be resentful, do bad work, quit within six months and not come back.

 

[hoser1970]

Rebuttal to T2000's rant

T2000

Many companies offer an unpaid leave of absence to their employees.

Have you checked your companies HR guidelines? Spoken to someone in your HR department? Sat down and had a discussion with you manager about your desire to take some time off?

From the tone of your posts it doesn't sound like you have done any of the above. Instead you chose to come on an escort review board, register as a new member, and post your questions and rant here? Why?

It may be that you work for a small company, but you should still have a discussion with your employer. As C Dick noted, if you are a good employee (has many definitions, I know), they may be willing to accomodate you, once they have found someone to take over your duties. Please don't think that you are going to talk to them Tuesday and start your time off on Wednesday. It doesn't work that way.

Yet, the boss/manager/employer DOESN'T need a justifiable reason to take an extended leave of work absence for himself. he can go whenever he pleases.

As to your rant about how the "boss" can take as much time off as they like, unless the "boss" is the owner of the company, this is just not true. They would have to go through the same process as any other employee of the company: getting authorization from their boss.

As for the owner of the company, if he is indeed fortunate to be able to take time off work while trusting that his/her company is self-sufficient enough to allow him/her to do so, then why shouldn't they? They took on all of the risk of starting the company from scratch, investing their money as start-up capital, and working long hours (often for many years) to make the company a success. Who do you feel he/she needs to justify their decision to take an extended leave to? YOU?

 

[Mr. Dajodo]

You guys obviously have too much time on you hands.

Get back to work.

 

[Moraff]

I have a lot of money saved up. Enough money to keep me for a year (or more) but its true what you say. Its just too bad work is so inflexible and employers literally own you and workers dont have that many rights in the workplace or in the company. You're always expendable or useless.

They don't own you, you always have the choice of tendering your resignation. Unless you've worked out some other deal, the basic contract you have with your boss is that you will work for x hours per week and in return the boss will pay you $ as well as give you some paid vacation time perhaps. Workers have plenty of rights (especially compared to some other countries) which are laid down in labour law.

In Canada (and the US) Life is measured and defined entirely by your work and nothing more. Personal goals or pursuits don't have any meaning. Work is the end and all that defines the importance and worth of a person's life. Very corporate society we live in. Its either money, bills, work, money, bills, work, money, bills, work, money, bills, work. No days off. Only a week every five months time off allowed.

Perhaps that's how you measure your life, but for me work is merely the means by which I afford my life. And make up your mind, first you say no days off and then you say 1 week/5 months. (and that's better than the ESA's minimum of 2 weeks/year so already your employer is better than many)

Pretty sad how overworked we are.

Like, for example, say you worked for a couple years. Saved enough to keep you for a good amount of time. Have quite a fortune saved up to do quite well without work for a while. (Yet, you still want to keep your job). So if you dont need to work, you can pursue other things. Like a personal life. (Which we all agree is important to us. Work to live, notthe other way around.) Yet, companies/employers OWN us and decide our lives and with their policies and protocols, they decide/define how our time and lives are spent and consumed. Even, if we dont need to work so much/have a good sum of money to live off work for a while.

You can't have your cake and eat it too. Just because you can save enough that you don't need to work doesn't mean you have any right to expect your boss to keep your job vacant for when you decide you want to work again. Or do you expect that they will hire and train a replacement for you and then fire the guy when you want to earn some more money? Doesn't seem very fair to the poor guy who wanted to work.

And again, companies do not OWN you, you don't like their policies and protocols concerning the time that they are paying you for then quit.

So, you decide you want some free time to pursue other dreams, aspirations. Go travelling. Visit some other countries. Pursue some personal projects. Expand your personal life/personal horizons.

We ALL have personal goals/aspirations/dreams. This I can say of all of you, withcertainty.

This is true, and like all adults I have to temper "I want it all my way" to "I'll enjoy what I can have".

You cant. Unless, you're the boss,manager,CEO himself. Whom can take as many days off as he pleases.

Wrong, managers, bosses, basically any employee other than the owner has to answer to people just as you do to arrange for time off. They may get more time off than you do, but they probably also have a lot more responsibility that goes along with those perks too. And as for the owner taking the time off, well that's why he took all the risks of starting up and developing his (or her) company. If you want those perks, then take the money you have saved for that year of not working and start your own business.

Sorry for my rant. its just surprising what kind of society we live in and how our "freedom" and how much of a "free" country we live in.

Seems pretty good to me, but then again I understand that with freedom comes responsibility as well.

If this seems like a random nonsensical rant. I apologize.[/QUOTE]

Not nonsensical, just juvenile imo.

P.S. What also strikes me as funny is. How if you want time off, maternity leave. Say your wife is pregnant or girlfriend is pregnant or you're stressed. You have to ask the boss/manager/employer for "permission". Yet, the boss/manager/employer DOESN'T need a justifiable reason to take an extended leave of work absence for himself. he can go whenever he pleases.

First of all, if your wife or girlfriend is pregnant you don't get "maternity" leave. You are entitled to take "parental" leave after the child is born and you don't need your employer's permission to do so. If you wish to take a leave of absence before the delivery to help out then yes you would need permission as that is not an employee right under the ESA.

If you are stressed, then you get a doctor to say that you need some time off. Again no company permission required.

Obviously you've never been a boss/manager/employer (or at least not a good one) or you'd know that they can't take off on a whim for as long as they wish.


If you want to take an extended LOA from work I suggest you sit down with whomever in your company decides those things and discuss it with them. Since we know absolutely nothing about where you work or what kind of value you have to them we can't give you and idea of your likelihood of success at getting it. I would suggest you not share your views of the ease of management's life as they probably won't help your case in any positive way.