How do you take a gap year from work?

Because taking a gap year at work and leaving or even staying but dedicating yourself exclusively to yourself is easier than it seems. In English it is called "gap year" or "career break". With us it is the so-called "sabbatical year", a break from work not only to switch off by dedicating yourself to extra-professional experiences, but also an opportunity to travel around the world, take a master's degree, learn a foreign language or other activities. How to do? It is enough to take a period of unpaid leave, or training leave, provided that the employer grants it after having assessed the personal motivations.

And if in Anglo-Saxon countries this type of "time out" is quite common, in Italy it is still the stuff of recent graduates waiting for their first job. In Italy, the sabbatical year was introduced with Law 53 of 2000, proposed by Minister Livia Turco. The law introduced parental leave, for maternity, training and serious family reasons, including a serious illness. L " gap year is an unpaid period of absence, at the end of which the applicant retains the right to return to the job.

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Leave can only be activated following a written and motivated request from the worker. Otherwise, it could be a form of flexibility to save a year of salary, with a "forced absence of the worker. The worker cannot carry out any other paid activity during this period, and at the same time request an advance on the severance pay to support training costs." or other reasons for which leave was requested.
The gap year can only be used once in a working life, and after at least five years of service. By changing company, the opportunity arises for the worker to enjoy a sabbatical.

So what's the problem? The employee does not receive the salary and does not increase contributions or length of service and the employer may not even grant leave. Leave for training reasons is not cumulative and does not even fall under social security coverage. Naturally, companies that grant a sabbatical year are offered the possibility of hiring a "replacement" with a fixed-term contract.