I’m an articling student at a litigation boutique. I’ve been working crazy hours for six months straight. I would like to take three weeks of vacation to travel to Thailand with my boyfriend but I’m not sure how to ask or what the reaction will be.
— Rob
Rob, cultivating your personal brand as a reliable hard worker is not mutually exclusive with firmly establishing that your personal time is sacrosanct. Most firms mean it when they tell their articling students to take vacation. They need healthy, robust young men and women to send to dank, dimly lit warehouses in the middle of nowhere on due diligence assignments.
However, no one will push you out the door, insisting that you take a break. It’s up to you to be fiercely protective of your personal time. Not only have you earned that time off, Rob, you probably have a right to it under your employment contract or Provincial labour codes.
The only thing worse than not taking vacation is asking for permission to take vacation. Asking for permission sends the message that your personal life does not matter. So, why should the firm care about it more than you do?
When I worked at a large Boston firm, my fiancé and I planned a two week archaeological tour of southern Mexico. We booked a carefully planned trip just shy of hurricane season. At the time, we were living in separate cities and were looking forward to spending time together. This was post 9/11 when the deal flow had seriously dried up.
I was told that a large transaction might be coming down the pipeline around the time of my trip. I started to get nervous about the timing. I decided to ask the director of associate affairs if I should go. Big mistake. She told me in no uncertain terms that I should cancel my plans. I sought a second opinion from my beloved mentor. Without hesitation, he said that the best thing for my career was to cancel my plans or risk missing out on an opportunity to work on a long-term project, which were few and far between in those days. So, I called my fiancé and broke the news that I “had” to cancel our plans. He was incredibly understanding and supportive, which made me feel even guiltier. The firm did not pick up the tab for the cancellation fees. We rebooked the trip for a month later during hurricane season. Fortunately, it turned out to be a memorable vacation. In the end, that transaction never came through.
In hindsight, the response from the firm was fairly predictable. The fact that I sought their permission sent a conflicting message: although my vacation was already booked, I was willing to jettison my personal plans for the firm. There will always be another case, another transaction, another opportunity. You can never get that time back that you lost with your loved ones or to just to recharge.
Rob, you should be able take a worry-free vacation with your boyfriend if you have given adequate notice to your team members, properly delegated your responsibilities and set expectations accordingly. If you do it right, there should be no negative reaction. You are a professional and an adult, Rob. Don’t ask for permission to take vacation. Just take it.
Sandra Rosier is a former Supreme Court of Canada clerk who has worked at large firms in Toronto and Boston. Having come to her senses, Sandra currently practices tax law at a smallish Toronto firm. Her etiquette column for lawyers appears every other Monday at lawandstyle.ca. Got a question for Sandra? Email us.
Photo by Anderson Mancini