Totally this. If you’ve got somebody who is critical to the success of the business you do anything you can to keep them

It also buys them time to figure out if you really were critical and see who steps up to replace you. If at the end of the sabbatical you really were irreplaceable, they can fight a lot harder to keep you.

This happened to me. I ended up coming back and deciding I still needed to quit, and the CEO was understanding.