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Did some tasting today! Reeve in Sonoma.
Hi , how the value momentum company would be??
Need advice. I’m a super senior content EP at a well known agency in the U.S., where I’ve been for quite some time. Checked out http://Glassdoor.com, and I make at the high end of the ranges for similar agencies. In the past year I’ve also taken on additional responsibilities (outside of traditional EP duties) that have doubled my workload and raised my profile quite a bit. How should I go about brining up a sizable salary bump (some creatives and even planning peeps earn more with much less responsibility)?
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An interrupted "vacation day" is not a vacation day
NORMALIZE TAKING BREAKS! People burnout in the long term because they’re so afraid of taking time to rest and recharge. You do much better work when you’ve had a chance to give your brain a break. Even with covid and wfh I took 3 five day long vacays this year. And no one came after me. Each was during a month I was slow or between cases. I see associates across the spectrum on this. Some taking no time off and others who max out their time and honestly the ones that take time off are so much better to work with.
You’re asking the wrong question. How many billables are you posting and are you available when you’re not in the office. Nobody counts days. Everyone looks to attitude and availability
Being available during a vacation isn’t taking a vacation. That’s the point.
Taking breaks is important for your mental health. But at big law, you have several issues competing against vacation time. At $1,000-$2,000 per hour, your clients don’t care about your mental health; they are paying a premium for premium service. You may say that’s a partner’s problem; in which case, take your vacation and plan on leaving big law within 4-6 years. The long term strategy requires you to carve out your own time without sacrificing the appearance of your work ethic. That means different things for different people at different firms. For me, that’s meant taking 1/2 of my vacation time in half and whole days with abandon, while also checking email hourly to avoid gripes. And then, I take the other half in longer vacations (1-2 weeks) while taking care to shift work and still check email daily. It’s not the answer everyone wants to hear, but it’s the answer for lawyers who want a 20 yr career in big law making $500–3m.
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Take long breaks. I was dying and taking 2 weeks off for like the first time in years was amazing. If you’re going to be out for a week, it just feels short and you may find yourself working. Long breaks are the only time you really get vacation. I’ve done lots of long weekends and such but I always end up working a bit on those. If I was you I’d try and do 2 weeks straight once a year and take the rest of it as several long weekends. If you want to do more at once, that’s fine too, when you actually ramp down, makes little difference to the firm if you’re out 2 weeks vs 3, but might make a huge difference to you.
At the end of the day, you’re an adult. Get your shit done. Transition your matters responsibly. It’s not school, you don’t need permission from the teachers to take a break. Don’t worry so much about what everyone else is doing. If you’re a good associate and a value add, that’s all that matters.
Take your vacations, don’t be annoying about it. But take them. I took all 20 every year for 8 years. I may have to join a call 1/10 days of vacation a year or review some drafts on a train but, it was still worth it to take a break.
Op, it is 100% possible. I have take 20-25 days a year off for years, usually in one block of 3 weeks and the other two weeks in blocks of 3-7 days, often bracketing a regular weekend or holiday weekend. And I never check email or phone when I’m away, after because I’m in the backcountry. I do it by planning ahead, exceeding all expected metrics, and doing great work. And I’m rigid about the boundaries. If a judge tries to set a hearing or trial over a vacation I tell the judge that I’ll be out. I’ve never been turned down. If a client needs something, one of my partners covers for me. I reciprocate. I have never cared what’s frowned upon but dumbasses who don’t have a life. And to folks who say “well that won’t work at my firm” I say that they either do t have the gumption to assert themselves (very likely ) or they are with an f’d up firm (much less likely, because VERY few firms would fire and excellent and highly productive partner or associate for simply taking vacation). I’ve been a partner in three major firms, the last two hard charging V25s. it’s not only possible but essential for you to take time away.
Same here to echo OP. I always take vacation off the grid for this exact reason. No cell service = no contact. You have to be really excellent to pull this off (not to sound like an asshole but it’s true), so this means being ultra responsive and responsible when you are at the office, hitting billable and then some, volunteering for the non billable garbage that comes up, etc etc.... because that builds up your political capital to a point where you can take a real, genuine break. For me the trade off is worth it. A two week break with zero work, no emails, no contact, no nothing, just in nature, is priceless. And for me it’s essential for a long term career as a litigator. Pre-covid I did this twice a year, now with covid I have found that things have become so flexible that I don’t crave the total disconnect as much, since I’m not at the office and have a lot more flexibility to (for example) go off on a Friday afternoon hike. But once things start ramping back up again I am sure I’ll go back to my 2 week off the grid vacays.
20 days in a row? Probably frowned upon. 3x 1 week? Go for it.
No 20 days throughout the course of a year
That’s exactly as much as we get. Even so, most people I work with seem to take little/no vacation. Depressing. I took two weeks (1 week x2) in 2020 and it felt above average for my case teams.
You need to have frequent breaks if you want to have any chance of making it in the long run.
People work so much nonstop and one day they wake up and just break down and decide they want to leave the law and open a bakery.
I do it. But I’m probably in the minority. And of the 20 days I’d say half are mostly uninterrupted and the the others are more mildly interrupted.
Depending on the size of your group, I would argue a large uninterrupted time (week to three weeks straight) is a lot less of a disruption than taking little Fridays and half weeks here and there constantly. I only do M&A so this perspective’s mileage may vary.
Maybe. Sometimes this year, with WFH, I just decided I’d take a Friday afternoon to myself - zero disruption.
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I take it every quarter like clockwork, but I sense it's can be group specific.