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Yes. Get a new boss.
My firm is really encouraging of a balanced life and provides ample sick, vacation, and personal time. Especially during a pandemic you should be permitted time to recover when you’re sick!
Same, and I am reading these comments and I am shocked!
I’ve been 11 hours while deathly ill with the flu. I don’t know how I did it or what quality there was. Another time I was pregnant and had the flu but boss insisted I get on a bunch of calls. The CLIENTS were like “uh are you okay? You really don’t sound well”. On these calls I could barely get a sentence out without wheezing and was absolutely delirious. It wasn’t until the clients started to say something that my boss told me to log off until I felt better. And in case you’re wondering, the flu can really fuck up your baby in utero. These people don’t care about you. You’re just a number. If you are sick, tell them, put an OOO on and log off. Fuck them.
IME unless you’re in the hospital, unconscious, or on serious meds, people will still expect you to be responding and available, but if they know you’re sick they’ll at least try to leave you alone/go easy on you. When I’ve been out sick I’ve usually ended up working at least a half day or so.
Tell them you have covid and to stay away
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I’ve found that everyone I work with is very respectful of sick days, but as a whole, in law firms there’s a general expectation (unless you’re physically incapacitated) that you’re still watching your email and responding.
Your boss should not be assigning new work though, that’s terrible. If nothing else they should be selfish and want you to rest so you can get better quickly to do more work rather than prolonging the illness. This profession can be brutal at times, and I hope you’re feeling better soon.
God the legal profession needs a serious culture change. You are unable to live up to your potential as a professional and critical thinker if you don’t take time for yourself. This should not be a competition about who works the “hardest” by grinding themselves down to oblivion no matter the expense on your personal life and health. Take the sick day and set your boundaries.
Even if you're able to take the whole day unbothered, you have at least 8 billable hrs to make up later.
The thing I hate most about the sick day conversation is that you'll have to make up for that time. In other professions, you get real sick days and vacation days.
Do you “have” to though? If you want a bonus, yes. But I can’t live life like that. Esp in litigation where I know I will work 8+ hrs days multiple times, I don’t stress to try to catch those hours up.
I think it depends how sick you say you are. As a junior, I tended to downplay the extent of my illness and hesitated to affirmatively boundaries about availability. If you say “I am sick, I have X, I won’t be able to work today” most non-monsters will leave you alone.
Firm dependent and group dependent. I had a more senior associate at my old firm (seemingly on purpose) send me non-pressing work to do on sick days - I’m talking stuff that she didn’t look at for days. At my (smaller, less prestigious) firm, people are very nice about sick days and handle things themselves unless I tell them I’m fine and can handle it.
SA1: I think at least a couple times I asked her if it needed to be done that day and the answer was yes. After those instances I just assumed the answer would continue to be yes. Now that I’m getting a bit more senior myself, I might send an email to a junior associate when they’re out of office, but I’ll specify that they can get to it when they get back.
I got reprimanded once for not answering my emails- I had the flu with a temperature of 103 and I was passed out all day and when I tried to remind them of that fact I was told not to make excuses.
Bad boss. Remember him/her and when you get out. Don’t refer them work and make sure your friends also in the industry, know as well. Law firms are interchangeable - partners should really realize they are training potential business partners who will be in the industry for 20-30 years.
Set the expectation that you won’t work on a sick day. Put an out of office for the day and rest.
I get no flack for taking a sick day and those days are respected for recuperation.
Rising Star
Sometimes you gotta set the boundaries if you are sick and cannot work and don’t mind taking the reprocussions - then set an ooo message and log off. If you are not sick enough to risk the consequences of logging off do the work that cannot wait.
I think the best way to deal with this is to get people to cover your matters for you. Send an email to other people in your group at around your level and ask if they can cover for you with respect to your active matters. Then CC them when responding to email re said matters saying so and so is covering for me today because I’m OOO. Ideally you would have done the same favor for people in the past so that people are willing to do this for you
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Put an out of office in emails saying you are out and cannot reply by phone or email right now. I like the post about asking a few colleagues for help covering.
I’m not in a firm (in-house) and I have the same issue with time off.... Part of the problem is that people expect it since they can get information to you instantly now you can instantly have an answer for them… So what if you’re sick you can still get to your email
Setting boundaries may be a lawyers most valuable mental and physical health technique.. Everybody gets sick and needs an assist once in a while. Make sure you flag things that you can’t count on rescheduling like perhaps a court date or a filing deadline, put on the out of office assistant with a general marriage for people outside the office and a specific “I am I’ll and turning off my phone to rest” and then turn off your phone.
You absolutely deserve sick days. Your boss shouldn’t be doing this to you.