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Subject Expert
I found that name dropping COVID helped get things off my plate.
Mentor
Yes you need to put up boundaries for illness. This job is not worth more than serious health consequences and good teams cover for each other when someone is sick.
Honestly if you’re really sick and you can’t work, let the partner know that you’re not going to be able to get this done and that you’re not going to be able to check email regularly today because you have a non-mild COVID case and you’re going to be trying to sleep it off. The more you try to work through it the longer it’ll take to recover.
You should definitely tell the partner you have COVID and you should post Firm HR bc they should know too. As someone who recently had COVID, depriving yourself of rest at this point is going to make recovery a lot worse.
No one is indispensable, let alone in this job. Life will go on if you take a nap.
Coach
This happened to me as well and I just billed 9 hour days through it since no one else had the subject matter knowledge.
Hope you can put a boundary but I empathize to the extent you cant.
Coach
Tell them you are sick. Put on an OOO and then don’t look at your email until you feel better. It’s not complicated. If they keep emailing you, who cares? You told them. What they going to say? Seriously, take care of yourself.
The only times I’ve really not been able to work were food poisoning/stomach flu issues. I just checked my email every couple hours and told anyone I needed to tell that I couldn’t work right now. For regular sickness I just do the stuff that absolutely must be done and just stay afloat.
At our firm, HR will help run interference. That an option for you?
Subject Expert
Yes, tell him you cannot do it. Say stuff like: you have covid and a high fever that will not go down and you keep falling asleep. You need time to recover. You’re concerned about not being able to produce adequate work product in this state and would not want to drop the ball on anything. You’re concerned about delaying your recovery further by forcing yourself to stay awake. Be more firm - you’re not checking email occasionally, you’re just unavailable for the rest of the week. You’re terribly sorry for the inconvenience but you’re just so ill. Etc.
You have more leverage than you think here. They’re not going to fire someone for refusing to work through covid. Partner is slyly trying it but the firm as a whole is not going to support that HR/PR nightmare.
Yes, you need to hold firm and establish clear boundaries. Just let the partner know what’s up. You have COVID with a high fever and will not be able to work for the rest of the week. You will not be checking emails and will not be available for even “quick chats.” You will circle back on Monday to give them a progress report on your situation, and how you are healing. If partner is still being a jerk, get HR involved. If you’re concerned about your working relationship with this partner, you may get iced but do you really want to work for someone who will not be respectful of you, your health, or your boundaries going forward? If you entertain your partner, it’s only going to get worse and you don’t want to set this kind of precedent.
I know all that is easy to say for someone not in your situation, but no job is worth sacrificing your health. Very rarely (if ever) are people indispensable to a company. Your employer would not hesitate to fire you if it suited their best interests. Don’t forget to take your best interests into account and take care of yourself first and foremost.
Get well!
Agree with name-dropping of COVID. I also mentioned that I was concerned I would not be able to produce quality work product. Everyone was very understanding.
You need rest or else you’ll get sicker. I tried to push through and ended up getting hit hard for another week after. If necessary get a doctor’s note.
Please please please take all the rest you need. I got covid last year and forced myself to work through it (we had a very important closing). It destroyed my immune system (which took months to recover) and I ended up with severe fatigue to the point I couldn’t even go to the shops or look after myself. I was lucky in that it took 2 months for it to go away (some people have it for much longer). I couldn’t work so I had to take extended sick leave. And I honestly think that if I had just taken that week off to sleep none of that would have happened.
I hate that you even have to worry about this. Please take care. Why does the profession have to be this way??
Yea but that's not your problem, really, but you are suffering the consequences. Push back.
Get a senior associate involved to run interference. If you don't have a senior associate to protect you, prioritize that in the future.
Use the following phrase:
"I have COVID and am too sick to work. Please find another associate to help you with this. I will contact you in a few days to follow up."
If this doesn't work then please use the following phrase:
"Thank you for all of your mentorships in the past, but I can no longer work for a firm that will not value my health over profits. I am giving you my two weeks beginning now."
There is still a huge market for lateral associates at this time (probably not for much longer) and you can find a job with another firm very quickly.
Btw the legal job market is great so you should consider finding another place