Sabbaticals keep our attrition at bay
TLDR
- 37signals gives every employee a six-week paid sabbatical every three years, cutting attrition by removing the need to quit for a break.
Key Takeaways
- Average tech tenure in the US is 18 months, partly because quitting is the only way most workers can take a meaningful break.
- 37signals has run a six-week sabbatical every three years for roughly fifteen years; DHH calls the retention effect “magical.”
- Six weeks is long enough for genuine mental reset; two-week vacations are not, according to DHH’s framing.
- The retention argument is financial, not just humanistic: losing trained employees is expensive, making sabbaticals a straightforward cost trade-off.
- DHH argues founders benefit equally: sabbaticals surface fresh ideas and can prevent premature company sales driven by burnout rather than genuine desire to exit.
Why It Matters
- US tech pay is roughly double European equivalents, but without structural rest; sabbaticals are framed as a way to capture both advantages.
- A six-week break is cited as sufficient to test whether a founder actually wants to sell, versus simply needing time off.
- For operators building retention policy, the argument is purely economic: sabbatical cost versus replacement cost of experienced employees.
DHH · 2025-10-29 · Read the original
