The employer
"How come you’ve got all this time to swan around the country?" This is a common question from people whose eyes are temporarily green.
When my boss John Welsford was appointed as the director and, at the time, sole employee of Mercia, the sabbatical was a master stroke in my opinion. It should be noted that, 25 years later, John has benefited from it twice. My contract entitles me to 3 months paid leave on completion of 10 years service. The only people who don’t think this is a great idea (and suggest I’d presumably rather have been paid a bit more over the years instead) tend to be teachers!
If you visit the Mercia homepage it will tell you that:
"Mercia is one of the UK’s largest providers of training and support services to the accountancy profession. We have been providing independent practices with effective solutions for over 20 years and have an enviable reputation for providing the highest standard of practical professional training and a wide range of support products and services. In addition we are renowned for offering exceptional service and value for money."
Support comes in a variety of ways: training (in courses all over the UK); marketing (including the production of budget booklets and cards); technical support (including a whole host of audit and specialist assignments manuals).
My role involves a lot of lecturing (particularly on charity accounting and auditing issues) and editing the Mercia audit manual and some specialist assignments manuals. The lecturing involves me in a lot of travel to all corners of the country and lots of other places in between. As I do most of this travel by car or (for Scotland and Ireland) by plane, I thought it might be nice to spend the sabbatical doing something that would leave behind a slightly smaller carbon-footprint. This has been offset to a large degree by the support team following round in a car; but it’s still better than some things I could have done.