Serious question on what vacation means in the BigLaw world

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News flash life is not about who could work the hardest and take the least amount of vacations or be “on call“ during their vacation. Life is about living. When you’re taking your last breath‘s of this life the last thing you will not regret is not working enough. Let’s all start to have some respect for our own real lives and give ourselves permission to really live and take the damn vacation unplugged. We are not machines. The emails and phone calls are not life or death. We are not doctors. Find coverage. And go. Trust your coverage. The world of law will still be there when you arrive. The partner will survive. Remember he makes five times more than you so he’ll be just fine.

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I usually wouldn’t reply to this because I agree with the concept and hate the idea of slaving away at a job at the expense of traveling, and just living life. But I’ll give the devil’s advocate counter because I gave a somewhat pro-biglaw response earlier.

They’re paying me $400k/yr before my 32nd birthday, and it’s more because I agreed to be available all the time than because I’m a genius. It’s a short term trade off I’ve made to buy future freedom. Responding to emails on vacation allows me to travel to the coolest places on earth today, and it will allow me to retire at age 38 if I want. More realistically I will retire in my late 40s and have more money than I know what to do with.

Of course I could work 30 hours/week today and live the hell out of my life. But I did that pre-law school and right now I value security more than I value not responding to emails in Spain. I view the occasional vacation check-in as my end of the bargain. Not trying to suck the corporate teet too much, but I have a great life and I’m good with the construct.

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I’m at a V5, litigation 3rd year. Every vacation I’ve taken has been completely respected and I haven’t had to work. I’ve taken 1, 2 week vacations. And even took a month for my wedding/honeymoon. Not only has no one ever said a word to me disapprovingly, but I’ve been encouraged by my supervisors (senior associates and partners alike) to take vacation and to not be bothered. That said, I always check my email when I’m on vacation, and I’m above pace by 200 hours this year despite taking ~2 months worth of vacation this year, so I work a lot and have developed good rapport with my supervisors.

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I’m a 2nd year working in litigation and haven’t taken more than two days off in a row since I’ve started working. I think the lack of a long vacation is mostly due to the fact that I have had to take one random Friday off many times during the past year and a half to attend weddings...had ten weddings this past year! I’m taking my first big vacation this summer, ironically to attend a wedding in Scotland. I know I’ll be able to make up the hours before year end , but do worry about being gone for longer than a week. I’m planning to have my laptop with me and logon once or twice a day to check in.

Partners, how often do you expect to hear from your associate when she is in a different time zone and on vacation?

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