Sabbatical leaves of absence

I kept hearing about this. From what I understand, its a religious "retreat" or a type of leave of absence due to health reasons. I looked it up on wiki but nothing really substantial to help me understand what it is exactly and how do you qualify for this regarding your place of employment.

I have plenty of questions or will ask for advice depending on understanding what this is from posters and their clarification on this. And I'd appreciate any kind of legal links for this or any experiences as well.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

a religious leave is not just an excuse for a mental health day. In my experience, people that need to take off for religious holidays are more than willing to make up the time, or even take extra shifts to make up for it.
By law (american) and employer must give the time, but I think he/ she can request a note from the leader of that religion in that area proving that it is indeed a holiday.

here is just something I was able to pull up on google:

Religious Observance

1. Management to make accommodations for religious activities. Kirtland AFB, 15 F 126 [NN]
2. Agency to grant an employee time off for religious observance except under unusual circumstances. Social Security Administration, 17 F 79 [NN]
3. Except in emergency situations, compensatory time will be granted for personal religious observances. Interior, 29 F 122 [NN]
4. Agency to grant time off for religious observance without respect to the agency's need for the employee's services during the period in question. Justice, 29 F 1 [NN]
5. Permitting employees, when practicable, to be absent from work in order to observe religious holidays. Veterans Affairs, 31 F 32 [N]
6. Requesting compensatory time off for religious observances. Internal Revenue Service and National Treasury Employees Union, 38 F 107 [NN]
7. The earning and use of compensatory overtime for religious observances. Customs Service and National Treasury Employees Union, 46 F 67 [N]
8. Concerning compensatory time for religious observances. Patent and Trademark Office and Patent Office Professional Association, 48 F 53 [N]
from:
http://www.opm.gov/lmr/flra/leave2.asp

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I don't think it has anything to do with religion... I know professors on college campuses take 'sabbaticals', but they're really just vacations... my advisor took a vacation to help out with his daughters and just-out-of-labor wife. I think sabbatical is just another word for it. In fact, the dictionary (on my Mac, anyways) defines it as:

Sabbatical |səˈbatikəl| noun: a period of paid leave granted to a college teacher for study or travel, traditionally every seventh year.

Thats the only term I know it in.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

im a christian, i practice the sabbath regularly - its the best man... you just have a whole day to chill out and be lazy as heck....

you don't go to work, you dont buy stuff, you dont do manual labour....
All you do that day is sleep, worship, sleep, eat, sleep, sleep, sleep....

MMM I love my Sleep!!!

Additional Spam:
its also on saturdays (some ppl do sunday) and is a related to religion - if you want to know more you can ask me...

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

It all depends on where you work and what you employer and union (if there is a union) have agreed upon. It is not something open only to certain religions (at least in Canada, it would be against the law) so it boils down to 'needing time off for self oriented reasons', and again, what that is depends on the agreements between employer and employee. An example is that teachers (in my local district) are granted a certain amount of Sabbatical days a year, and in this case they can be used for any reason.

I was speaking idiomatically.

The only place that I know of the Sabbatical being practiced is in Academia. University professors at research institutions are permitted to take a sabbatical once every seven years. During this time, they are paid a partial salary at some nominal level, but they are freed of their teaching and administrative responsibilities. Typically, during the year hiatus, the professor will engage in some kind of scholarly activity - writing a textbook, working at a government research lab, collaborating with other researchers in the field, etc. My Ph.D. adivsor spent part of his sabatical year doing research at a university in England, and the other part working at GM helping them with some of their drive-by-wire control algorithms. You can also get a visiting faculty appointment at NASA for a summer or for a year. Of course, some of these are paid positions, so between that and your university sabbitcal salary , you're hopefully making enough to cover your normal salary plus the additional expenses.

Of course, the purpose of this whole process is to broaden the experience of the professor, hopefully germinating some new ideas as well as creating opportunities for new sources of grant money in the future. You only get 4 (or 5 if you got your first faculty position early), so make the most of them.

Outside of academia, and a few other specialties, you just don't see sabbaticals.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?