First year associate here...Do I need to tell anyone that I’d like to take the rest of the afternoon off if I’m not feeling great? I have an assignment with a partner due Monday, and I plan on billing it over the weekend. I just don’t want him to look at my hours later and wonder why I wasn’t doing it today...am I overthinking this?

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The way I’ve operated the last two years is I manage my own schedule and get things to people when I say I’ll get it to them. If that means I don’t work Friday but do work part of Saturday and Sunday, that’s always been fine.

Caveat being that if I NEED time off (like, I’m so sick I can’t move or think), I’ll let people know I’m unavailable for whatever period. That keeps people from throwing last minute BS my way.

But if it’s just a matter of “I’d rather get this done tomorrow and not today,” that’s what I do. Billing is billing, and no one at my firm is looking on what days I’m billing. Just the total number.

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talk on the phone or in person and say - i feel sick and need to rest today. Don’t worry I’ll get it done the weekend no matter what. Anyone who thinks that’s weird or wrong is a psycho.

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I’ve had plenty of days where I’m just not feeling it and I bill 4 hours. Nobody has said anything. Just be available in case someone calls you

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A3, I know exactly what you mean! The less I tell people I’m unavailable (which means I really am available, but only if/when something comes up), the more justified I feel in taking specific unavailable days.

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No, but if you don’t tell people then you might get “urgent” emails or projects and have to answer them. Letting people know you’re sick is a way to get a little more breathing room on that front (so you don’t have a senior associate sitting around fuming like Yosemite Sam wondering why you didn’t respond to an email in 15 minutes).

Provided you are hitting your overall targets and getting things done on time, generally speaking partners won’t care about the distribution of your hours (e.g. 4 on Friday and 4 on Saturday vs 8 on Friday). In over half a decade in biglaw I only worked for one person who micromanaged to that level.

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What if the senior associate coming back fuming like Yosemite Sam the next week? I swear I pulled the same bugs bunny routine she did over the Memorial Day weekend. Is a just a matter of the totem pole? Keep in mind I hit my hours for the month and checked me email for emergencies on Monday to make sure I was responding to people.

Here's a tip, partners probably don't look at your time as much as you think. I think the focus on outliers (sever under billing or over billing) so a half day off isn't going to raise alarms assuming you hit all deadlines etc

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I have no idea when my associates bill their time. That said, it is good to know when I shouldn’t expect quick responses to email.

I usually will let my supervisor know that I need to take a partial day and then I have my assistant mark it off in the system as such. Definitely better to be upfront I think especially if it’ll avoid any raised eyebrows or confusion next week. If you don’t make a habit of doing so I doubt it could hurt to just give a heads up.

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I would say something along the lines of “I’m not feeling great and I’m not going to be productive without taking a break. I’ll be back online _______. If I can’t get this done today, it’ll make its way over to you by Sunday. I appreciate your understanding.”

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