The real question is - did the company fire him for that? I'd wager a guess that it did not. So, it worked out for him.

I don’t know the details as I didn’t work directly with him, but from what I understand he was trying to get a sabbatical to figure out some life stuff, but eventually he had to quit, which was not his desired outcome as he needed the income and didn’t have the time to find another job quickly.

getting a sabbatical is different from a raise/promotion. one signals that you have other things going on/you don’t care anymore, the other seeks to assert that you are contributing a lot and should be rewarded for this

> turns out, everyone else considered that poisonous behavior.

But did he get his raise?