Sabbatical: Gratitude in Action

First, let’s start with a short intro on who Kris Seale is and
then meander our way forward in time to the year 2024
when 260 of his 518 employees took a 30-day sabbatical.
Yep – you read that right!
KRIS: I’ve never had another job other than working at FDL.
I don’t know what’s like to work for someone else.
SFD: What?!
KRIS: Well, as a kid in high school I worked for my dad,
he owned a funeral home. I got an Accounting and Finance
degree from Baylor University and never wanted to be in the
funeral business. When I graduated, my dad and a friend had
just bought a business and for some reason they trusted a
22-year-old kid to run it. I think I was their last resort.
SFD: Maybe they had faith in Baylor!
KRIS: Yeah! When I started in this business 40 years ago, we
had 4 employees. I’ve spent my career devoted to the funeral
profession, especially FDL and the companies with it. I had
a big change in 2003 when I had to figure out some things. I
was not where I wanted to be personally, so worked on myself a bit. I realized that if I professed to be a follower of Jesus
then I had to act like it in every aspect of my life. I had to
devote myself to my wife, my family, and the business to take
care of the community I’d established with the people at the
business. That meant getting rid of stuff in life, like getting off
committees and boards. It really changed the way I looked at
life, to make time for what I was prioritizing.
A few years later, in ’07 and ’08, the country was in a financial
crisis. FDL was not. We were strong and made it through that
time even stronger. In 2009 when I looked back and considered
how we had weathered the financial storm, I felt like
God had really blessed us because of the way we had invested.
I was thinking, ‘What can I do to recognize and celebrate how
God has helped us?’
SFD: In my head, of course, I’m thinking
do what everyone does – give
your employees sabbaticals. Not!
Giving back as a means of gratitude
is a far more common action.
But instead, as Kris said, he had what
he thought was a ‘crazy’ idea.
KRIS: I was reading the John Maxwell Leadership Bible. In
Leviticus, there’s a summary about the sabbatical year and
a year of jubilee. I thought, what can I do to recognize and
celebrate that God had helped us?
Sabbaticals are a time of rest, restoration, repairing relationships,
reflection, and refocus. Lots of ‘r’ words! I felt like giving
everyone a 30-day sabbatical was a way in which I could
potentially honor God for what God had done for us. When
this idea came to my mind I thought it was crazy! I didn’t
think as a business we could do this.
So, I went to my group of friends who were like my board of directors
for them to say no, that’s crazy. To a man, everyone said
it’s something you have to do. Not what I expected to hear. So I
took the sabbatical idea to my management team and thought
they would say 30 days off from work is too much. Everyone to
a person said this is something you have to do.
Finally, I went to the Board of Directors, who are older people
and primarily traditionalists. I thought for sure they would
say no. Again, to a person, everyone said this is something
you have to do.
SFD: This vetting is a key take-away. Kris neither dismissed
the idea that, as he says, was impressed on his heart, nor
did he ignore the caution signs he was feeling about the
idea being too far outside of reality. His advice, should you
be burdened with an idea or you feel lead to do something,
is to check with friends and associates to find out if what
you’re sharing is something others hear in your heart and
they can give you good advice on what to do.
KRIS: We had to figure out how to
do it. We’d offer the sabbatical every 7
years. We would tithe, give 10%, that’s
how we came up with 30 days off. (Plus,
employees get an additional week of vacation
time at another point during that
year.) The sabbatical is not mandatory,
employees get to elect to participate or
not. We set up guidelines so everyone
has a plan: 1) get 7-9 hours of sleep per
night; 2) have an hour of mediation or prayer daily; 3) read
a book; 4) have a service project lined up or go on a mission
trip; 5) repair a relationship if need be; 6) blog at least 4 times
in the 30 days to let the company know what’s going on. We’ve
used those same guidelines same for 2017 and 2024 – they
seem to be fair.
SFD: Intentionality and having a structure with guidelines
is the second key take-away. A sabbatical is not just time
off, going home and eating on the couch. Kris advises
it’s doing an activity that helps you and doing work that
helps others. The greatest advantage comes when you’re
working on yourself and giving back to others. Kris has observed
this combination is when people really start seeing
things in a different way.
KRIS: In 2010, we had our first sabbatical year. Well, actually
it began the end of December 2023, when I took the first
step and went on sabbatical. My CFO had come up to me and
said, “You have to go first. No one is going to believe you mean
this unless you do it.” I took off all of January. I went to India
with a pastor and associates helping Christian pastors in India.
This set the tone for what the sabbaticals were going to
look like going forward. To be clear, nothing is mandatory, it
is all voluntary. Anything spiritual in nature we don’t require
but we do make it amiable to those who desire or need it. In
2010, we had 109 employees take off but the company has
probably tripled since then. In 2024, 260 employees signed
onto the idea of a sabbatical – about half our staff.
SFD: How does it work? You can’t just have half your staff
leave for an entire month!
KRIS: Everything has to be planned out to a T. For example,
accounting can’t take off Jan Feb or March. Also, everyone in
the same department can’t all take off the same month. Who
gets to go when is judged by tenure – they get the first options
as when they want to go. This year, most took off in summer
as they have kids so they got to travel and do things otherwise
they wouldn’t get to do with family. Or, the sabbatical might
be the first time they’ve ever done a service project, like with
Meals on Wheels or Habitat for Humanity. They get to serve
others in their environment, which helps them see how blessed
they are.
 

FUNERAL DIRECTORS LIFE
FDL offers many tools for Funeral Directors. There are
3 main divisions in the company, each developed over
the years as the need has arisen. All products exist to
provide assistance for funeral homes and to help funeral
directors have a better life.
FDL, the main company, offers:
• Digital marketing packages
• Aftercare programs
• Lending and accounting
• Audio visual services like advertising and social
media posts
• Live-streaming service (called Encore) of funerals
• Public information via podcasts, blogs, and live
television programs
• Passare – allows you to manage your business and
connect with families from one platform
• A double-concept software that addresses administration
needs and has a planning center for families,
enabling families can plan funerals on their own.
• Parkway Advisors:
• A registered advisory that works with funeral
homes to invest with insurance companies
• FDL investment style was so strong during the ’08
financial crisis so they started their own registered
advisor business to help others.

SFD: How do those still at work,
those taking up the slack, feel
about others in their department
leaving for a month? Even taking
off for a week sometimes feels
like it’s almost more work than
it’s worth, given the prep time and
then the catchup overload.
KRIS: It’s cool to see everyone step
up and support others, to see how
we can get the job done. We want to
make sure when people come back
it’s not a burden of getting caught
up. One thing we learned from 2010
is no new projects during the sabbatical year.
Almost every Friday, I meet with those who have just returned
from their sabbatical, about 10-11 people usually.
That’s probably my favorite part – getting to hear all their
stories and what they experienced. I hear how much they’ve
grown. There are multiple stories of repaired relationships,
brother, sister, father, mother. That is powerful and a testimonial
to the process. We’re all looking for how we can improve
ourselves and how to benefit those around us. We use
the scriptural commandment “to love each other” as one of
our company mottos. We say LEO – to demonstrate we love
each other. Think what the world would be if more communities
and nations worked under that type of command.
SFD: Here’s your third big takeaway – when you’re relaxed,
you want to be and are more kind to others. Taking time
off - be it the afternoon, a quiet evening, or a month sabbatical
- is critical for your health and for all those in your
path. Kris says he hears how much people needed a rest
– and that they often didn’t know how much they needed
it. The ultimate thing coming out of the sabbaticals is that
everyone is more committed to being kinder to others and
more loving to others.
SFD: You mentioned your company has tripled in size
since you began these sabbaticals. You also shared that
when employees are on
sabbatical, their friends
jokingly (or maybe not
so much so) ask, ’Is the company hiring? I want to be a part
of that!’ People love this idea! Can you share other ways it’s
helped the company?
KRIS: It’s really more about how good it is for the staff but
one positive for the company is that we get to take that sabbatical
year to step back and see where we are as a company.
Since we’re not taking on any new projects, we can consider
what we need to work on and what we want to do in the future.
We’ve had unbelievable growth since 2010. We made
this commitment and now we see all these blessings. We
started the sabbatical to show God our appreciation and on
top of that, now we’re getting blessed. I’ve learned you cannot
out-give God, it’s impossible!
SFD: Have any other companies taken up this sabbatical
year idea?
KRIS: Yes. We have about 150 sales managers in the field
throughout the US who work with funeral homes on a daily
basis. They let the funeral homes know they’ll be gone for
30 days. That always brings up the question, ‘What are you
doing for 30 days?’ Half a dozen of the funeral homes have
created sabbaticals for their people. I’m really glad our success
has had an influence on them. Spouses of our employees
have spoken to their employers who like
idea and they have instituted their own
sabbaticals. Lots of positive effects on our
people and the company.
SFD: This fourth takeaway might be
the biggest: you can do this! Kris encourages
others to have the courage
to step out. Sabbaticals are possible!
Even if you are a small business, you
have friends who will help you take up
the workload. In turn, maybe next year
they’ll ask you to help them have their
own sabbatical. In the funeral business,
stress and emotions are high
but there are slower times when you
are capable of stepping back for the
ever-important recharge. SFD: What do you foresee for the future? Be that your
company or the funeral industry.
KRIS: I went on sabbatical this year and came back more energized
than ever. The last 15-20 years have been volatile in
the industry. I see the best days are ahead, not behind us. I see
the profession responding well to the new funeral consumer.
We might be a little late but we can reshape the profession to
have a better appeal and provide more relevance for consumers
to use our services. FDL has several
projects going into next chapter that
will help our clients improve their businesses,
to gain market share through
the programs we offer.
I see across the profession, 95% to 98%
of the people want to serve families and
communities better. FDL was created
because none of the funeral directors ever wanted to collect
money or have clients think they were taking advantage of
them. Most directors want to let their clients plan ahead of
time so they’re not having to make emotional decisions. Funeral
directors want to take care of people, they are not in it
for the money.
The feeling I have now is different than I’ve had the last several
years. I feel like the profession is going to come around
and at the end of day we will win. I’m excited about the future
of the profession. A big issue is that for the last 15 years, the
industry has focused on problems, and no one was delving
into solutions. We made an executive management decision
to stop focusing on problems and start working on solutions.
SFD: So, there you have it – yes, a year of company-wide
sabbaticals is possible and in fact is a reality for FDL. Such
an endeavor is not to be taken lightly – you need a real
desire to help others, to seek help from others, to plan how
to not burden others with your time away, and equally, a
plan on how to assist those in need of your time and help.
Grounding your decision in gratitude transforms your action
from some selfish decision to just get out of work to a
gift for everyone; the ripple effects of kindness matter for
all in your sphere, which can touch the whole world. Preparation
mixed with commitment can result in all those ‘R’s”
Kris mentioned and more: rejuvenation, relaxation, restoration,
repairing relationships, rest, reflection, refocus, and
respect for all life. The final R is waiting on you – ready?