I realise that I have offered a dualism and that the answer is probably somewhere in between but what do colleagues think is the best fit. I certainly know colleagues who take a long 'study leave' and produce very little, so I am not sure that is the best option - neither does research easily fit around a busy work life. What do you thik?
I think that study leaves should enable people to enrich their knowledge and understanding. In the long run, this should help them to be more productive.
I agree that study leave should be enriching. But how long does it take to get enriched? Two weeks, three months, a year?
It depends on what you want to study. If you plan to go and visit another research group, so to widen your knowledge, and learn new methods and techniques, maybe a month or two may be sufficent ...
What about time for write-up. I work best when I have a certain number of projects on the go (I am not sure what the optimum is but if I am not busy enough I tend to slow down an take it easy). So, for me, taking time off to write up might not be the best idea, instead I would prefer my management to allow me to offer a work plan so that I can work more effectively. It just seems that they offer me nothing or a long period of study leave. Where is the happy medium?
I agree with Pr. Fazio but all depend of the local system reality. I have had two long "period of study leaves" (sabbaticals) during the last 22 years as a regular professor in my University and each time I did took about a month or two for my own personnal professionnal development benefit, the rest of it was "eated" by catching up for just finished or ungoing granted researches and master/PhD students following. In our system (in Québec-Canada) I just don't know any colleague that did quite differently and the actual neo liberal orientation of the Universities goes in that direction so... do your best to have a personal professional development benefit from your leaves and... try to survive.
There is a point there. Since long study leave is a right in our collective contracts, some (very few) are underproductive with it but the large majority of my colleagues are in a position where the leave is business as usual (those who do granted research particularly) just because in our system you can't letyour cv drop if you want to have any chance to be funded once again and the concurrency is fierce. I've also saw the change in the trade for the last 20 years or so and the results are not positive for young scholars who mostly don't have any chance to get their "serious grants" as a principal (first) researcher. As a matter of fact, I have postponed my next one year sabbatical for the last two years since I can't leave the lab without new grants and it is really unworthy to take the leave to do the same as usual (except the administrative standard meetings and the regular teaching (we are team-teaching at the graduate leave... conditionnaly to the finding of an adqaute colleague, competent for the courses, within the faculty).