Well into the sixth hour of hawking her children's clothing line at the recent Baby Faire trade show in Rosemont, entrepreneur Sue Heilbronner took a short break from the parade of strollers and expectant mothers to discuss her business venture. The Internet-based company, at www.y2wear.com, sells a line of baby clothing and accessories called y2tot aimed at mothers expecting babies in the year 2000.

Heilbronner, 33, launched the company soon after she and her husband, David, learned they were expecting a baby on Jan. 1, 2000. She miscarried, but continued the business plan and hopes to branch into a full clothing line once 2000 is in the history books.

If all of that isn't enough to keep her busy, Heilbronner has a day job. To keep a steady paycheck coming in, she never left her position as a federal civil rights attorney with the Justice Department. She works on y2wear at night and over weekends.

Heilbronner's case seems like the textbook example of someone who would benefit from a sabbatical. Despite several years of media attention, however, sabbaticals have never caught on in the American workplace. The perk peaked in 1997, when 23 percent of employers offered unpaid sabbaticals, and 5 percent offered paid ones, according to the Society of Human Resource Management, a trade organization. Those numbers fell the very next year. Today just 18 percent of employers offer unpaid sabbaticals while the percentage of employers allowing paid sabbaticals has climbed only slightly -- to 6 percent, the organization said.

Why are the numbers so low? One reason is the labor market. With low unemployment, companies are clearly trying to entice workers to stay on, which should bode well for the idea. But companies have restructured so drastically that many simply can't spare a worker for six weeks or more, the typical amount of time for sabbaticals. Another reason is trust. Some employers worry that workers will simply bank their sabbaticals and try to cash them out when they leave their companies. They also fret that some workers will use the sabbatical as a safety net to interview for other jobs while still getting their former salary. And they worry about how the notion will play with co-workers who have to pick up the slack when a worker takes off.

"It's not one of those clear-cut benefits," said Kristin Accipiter, spokeswoman for the human resources organization. "They can be good, but there can also be a lot of negatives if employees abuse the policy."

Like many others, Heilbronner never considered a sabbatical, despite working for the government, which trails only academia in the number of sabbaticals granted each year, the human resources group said. In most companies, competition for paid or even unpaid time away is fierce. Employees submit detailed proposals on their plans, which are many times lengthy public service stints.

"We rely on my income, and I'm very devoted to my job," Heilbronner said, explaining why she never considered leaving the Department to pursue her business dream.

At Wells Fargo, the San Francisco-based bank, employees who take sabbaticals must pledge to come back to the firm, though officials acknowledge this is nearly impossible to enforce. "We had a worker once who wanted to learn fine furniture making on a sabbatical to set himself up for retirement," said Tim Hanlon, Wells Fargo's senior vice president in charge of the program. "In that case, we knew going in what he wanted to do, and it was fine."

Mid-career workers just looking to jump ship with a safety net are another story, Hanlon said. "If we found out that was the intent, we would probably `call' the leave."

Irene Yee, a human resources vice president at the bank, took a six-week sabbatical in 1992 to compile an oral history with her father on the family's emigration from China and his subsequent six-month detainment at Angel Island. "It was something I never would have done if I had to squeeze it into nights and weekends," said Yee, who has worked at the bank more than 20 years. The opportunity solidified her positive feelings toward the employer, and she said it plays a role in keeping her there year after year. Still, only a handful of the bank's thousands of workers are chosen each year.

Today, Yee sits on selection committees for other sabbatical hopefuls, and offers this advice if you still want to pursue the idea: First, submit a highly detailed plan for your time. Yee outlined her project and what she would do week by week.

Second, she said, don't be shy about showing how passionate you are about the idea, even if it has nothing to do with your current job.

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