Just over a year ago, Anna Kae Todd began a unique chapter in a professional career that’s spanned nearly 30 years.

Late one afternoon, she tidied her desk, changed the voice mail, walked out the door – and waved goodbye.

It was the beginning of her first-ever leave of absence, an experience that has proved invigorating and immensely satisfying.

“I’ve learned that time is a gift,” says Todd, who will return to work at Bow Valley College on Jan. 2, 2002.

“The thing I still marvel at are all the people out at two in the afternoon, having coffee, taking walks,” says Todd. “There really is another world beyond work.”

As vice-president, academic, at the Calgary vocational school, Todd relishes her job. It’s demanding, engaging and flexible. The mandate to educate inspires her.

But when Todd left on a 12-month leave, there was no apprehension or guilt. Trading in a business suit for a comfy sweater and a pair of slacks was seamless.

Todd is the first person at Bow Valley College to take a leave under a new policy implemented a few years ago. Like many businesses wrestling with issues of retention, recruitment and burnout, the college saw leaves as a way of refreshing employees.

Todd paid for the leave through a deduction plan and wasn’t required to take an education or training component. (Short-term leaves at Bow Valley, however, do require some form of learning component.)

“I had originally planned on beginning work on my doctorate . . . but as the time grew nearer, I decided not to let schooling interfere with my education,” says Todd, who has extended her leave with some unused vacation time.

“I decided that travel was the best education I could give myself.”

And travel she did. Free time allowed her to visit China, Tibet, Greece, Turkey, London, Dublin, Cuba and the Baltic. Her husband, whose company doesn’t offer leaves, made two trips. Friends joined in other adventures.

At home there was time – one day a week on average – to watch her granddaughter Zoe grow into a walking, talking little person.

There was time to regularly visit a friend who was operated on for a cancerous brain tumour.

And time allowed her to continue her volunteer work, and even help campaign – “a first” – during the civic election.

Little pleasures felt wickedly delightful. Things like: having coffee with a friend at 2 p.m.; laying in bed listening to the morning rush-hour traffic report; and not having to stay up until 4 a.m. to finish her reading for the next night’s book club meeting.

Todd remained busy, but the leave created an easy air about it all.

Jerre Paquette, president of the faculty association at Calgary’s Mount Royal College, wishes that leaves of absence and sabbaticals could play more of a part in today’s working lifestyles.

“I think we should have a number of people, not a debilitating number, coming and going (on leaves),” says Paquette. “It makes us a richer, more interesting community.”

MRC, like Bow Valley College, allows staff to save for a professional leave by deducting a percentage of money off each paycheque. (A common plan, for example, is to deduct 20 per cent for four years, and then take the fifth year off.)

MRC offers a limited number of sabbaticals where the college funds the leave and the recipients provide a plan of action. “Sabbaticals have been appealing to me as a diversion from the routine of my job,” says Paquette.

“Even though my job is flexible and wonderful, and I love coming in, a break really allows me to focus without the daily distractions.”

But whether people take a leave to further their course of study or just to reflect, he suggests they plan ahead and focus on their goal.

“My first sabbatical, I wasn’t disciplined enough and treated it like a holiday. I was aimless . . . not really accomplishing what I wanted,” he says.

“In that case, you come back feeling terribly unsatisfied.”

As appealing as leaves may be, Paquette and Todd feel not enough people take advantage.

Derek Chapman, an industrial and organizational psychologist at the University of Calgary, says the financial commitment is probably the greatest obstacle. And, he adds, people climbing the corporate ladder likely fear it will take them out of the loop.

Chapman says he has heard that more private-sector firms are offering leaves, but hasn’t seen enough empirical data to call it a trend.

He believes leaves present tradeoffs. Companies hope the employee will return with more skills and increase the bottom line, Chapman says.

But the returning worker may return demanding a higher salary, or may have become more marketable and may leave the company.

Todd, who helped develop the leave policy at Bow Valley College, says employees make a commitment to return to work for a minimum of one year. They are guaranteed a job upon their return at the same salary.

Replacing employees on a temporary basis, or using those financial resources to explore other areas, also provides the bonus of bringing new ideas.

On Jan. 2, when Todd closes this chapter of her life and returns to work, she’ll bookmark lessons learned.

Work will become a primary focus. That’s her nature.

But her travels, the “blessing” of being able to share in a friend’s fight with cancer, and the walks, reading of books and shared ice creams with her granddaughter will remain.

Her hope is to maintain the perspective that time is truly valuable, and that balance between work and what’s good for your inner self is important.

She has known this, but now the concept is sharper, more defined.

It’s what time teaches.