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How do you bring up work/life balance at a place that doesn't bill (in-house, unconventional firm, gov., etc.)?

If they don't have a second-look type interview, at what stage is it okay to ask, if at all? How do you tactfully bring it up?

Anonymous User wrote:How do you bring up work/life balance at a place that doesn't bill (in-house, unconventional firm, gov., etc.)?

If they don't have a second-look type interview, at what stage is it okay to ask, if at all? How do you tactfully bring it up?

Tough to say. I would avoid being the one to start talking about "work-life balance" as it may signal to the interviewer that you aren't willing to put in long hours when required (even if the exact opposite is true). In my experience, interviewers will usually bring up the topic on their own, at which point you can ask more about it.

I wouldn't just drop term 'quality of life' or 'how many hours do I work' in the pre-hire stage, but it could be tactful to say 'I have a family so I was wondering what time do people in the office usually stay to' or something along those lines.

Anonymous User wrote:How do you bring up work/life balance at a place that doesn't bill (in-house, unconventional firm, gov., etc.)?

If they don't have a second-look type interview, at what stage is it okay to ask, if at all? How do you tactfully bring it up?

If they don't advertise in the job posting about work-life balance, assume it doesn't exist.

pml87 wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:How do you bring up work/life balance at a place that doesn't bill (in-house, unconventional firm, gov., etc.)?

If they don't have a second-look type interview, at what stage is it okay to ask, if at all? How do you tactfully bring it up?

If they don't advertise in the job posting about work-life balance, assume it doesn't exist.

This, assume it does not exist if they do not bring it up. And if you bring it up, there is a considerable chance that they will either lie to you or you might have differing opinions regarding what is work life balancw

I have an in-house job with excellent work-life balance. We actively sell it to potential hires. If it's not brought up explicitly, there are ways of asking without asking directly. For example, you can ask the interviewer to "describe a typical day"- which may give you a sense.

That said, it was my experience that work-life balance was usually telegraphed. When I interviewed at another shop, several people I interviewed with mentioned the hours were longer than they expected. When I interviewed at my current shop, several people remarked without prompting that the company had great work-life balance.

pml87 wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:How do you bring up work/life balance at a place that doesn't bill (in-house, unconventional firm, gov., etc.)?

If they don't have a second-look type interview, at what stage is it okay to ask, if at all? How do you tactfully bring it up?

If they don't advertise in the job posting about work-life balance, assume it doesn't exist.

Not the case at all when talking in-house. The Job postings are often mostly HR gobblygook.

nealric wrote:

pml87 wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:How do you bring up work/life balance at a place that doesn't bill (in-house, unconventional firm, gov., etc.)?

If they don't have a second-look type interview, at what stage is it okay to ask, if at all? How do you tactfully bring it up?

If they don't advertise in the job posting about work-life balance, assume it doesn't exist.

Not the case at all when talking in-house. The Job postings are often mostly HR gobblygook.

If employers actively use work-life balance as a selling point, it achieves the same result as if they had put that in the job posting. My point is if they don't mention/actively sell work-life balance as a perk, OP should assume none exists.

Imo don't ask about work/life balance. If they're the ones that bring it up, then sure you guys can discuss it. Otherwise, don't bring it up yourself, I don't see how it could help you and could actually risk hurting your chances.

I previously worked at a plaintiffs' side firm with non-billables. Like others have said, it will vary. I would not bring it up in the interview. I agree with "describe a typical day" scenario, especially for government work.

My hours were pretty consistent, (8-6ish), but the employer also expected me to work half days on Saturdays (in the office), and I was not aware of that in the interview.

For any job, the suggestion above re: "describe your typical day" makes a lot of sense. Phrases like "work life balance" should never be used in an interview I don't think. It's a marketing phrase, and it's a placeholder phrase that carries a stigma of "this person wants it easy" that more natural conversation doesn't generate. I'd never be put off by someone asking me if I end up tying loose ends on the weekend a lot, but if someone asks me if I feel like I'm able to have good work/life balance, there's a good chance I'm instantly a bit defensive, if only because it seems disingenuous or skeptical.

If you are struggling to get answers on this, maybe try and ask about firm culture, which usually/naturally leads to the work-life balance conversation.

Agreed that you should not use the phrase "work-life balance" in the interview unless one of the associates/partners does so first.

Even if HR says they have good balance, most people ignore it because employees are easily replaced.

It's important to see how many people use their vacation days vs how many they offer, for example.

In reality, it's rare to find the right balance at the right time. Lean in isn't real.

Whatever your interviewers say is likely next to worthless anyway. You really need to find someone - a co-alum, a friend of a friend - who can speak candidly about the place. Otherwise it will always be a dice roll.

Has anyone had an interviewer say work/life balance sucks?

I've had three jobs before going to school and it's always been "oh, we try hard to make sure our employees have balance and flexibility - it makes for the best employees!" and then you start and it's like "NO SIT AT YOUR DESK AND STAY THERE!".

Anonymous User wrote:Has anyone had an interviewer say work/life balance sucks?

I've had three jobs before going to school and it's always been "oh, we try hard to make sure our employees have balance and flexibility - it makes for the best employees!" and then you start and it's like "NO SIT AT YOUR DESK AND STAY THERE!".

I never had a WL balance sucks statement, but I remember one NYC biglaw interview I did I had a couple of secondary interests listed of how I spend my free time such as at organization Y doing X. The managing partner, who was conducting my interview, picked it apart saying verbatim, "Do you want to be a lawyer or do you want to be a X"? The message was sent.

Anonymous User wrote:Has anyone had an interviewer say work/life balance sucks?

I've had three jobs before going to school and it's always been "oh, we try hard to make sure our employees have balance and flexibility - it makes for the best employees!" and then you start and it's like "NO SIT AT YOUR DESK AND STAY THERE!".

I have had this happen with biglaw interviews including a person saying "I would go somewhere else if you have the option"

jchiles wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Has anyone had an interviewer say work/life balance sucks?

I've had three jobs before going to school and it's always been "oh, we try hard to make sure our employees have balance and flexibility - it makes for the best employees!" and then you start and it's like "NO SIT AT YOUR DESK AND STAY THERE!".

I have had this happen with biglaw interviews including a person saying "I would go somewhere else if you have the option"

I've also had a senior associate interviewer at a biglaw firm tell me "I prefer my junior associates are at their desk at 6pm so I can easily find them"

How to tactfully ask this question after receiving an offer? Don't want to come off as lazy (I'm not) but also want to make sure the qol is in fact better.

Anonymous User wrote:Has anyone had an interviewer say work/life balance sucks?

Not in the legal field, but in my pre-law days I actually interviewed with an acquaintance who had been at the company a few years already. He told me in no uncertain terms which parts of the job sucked, and what kind of life I could expect. He did say the rewards were worth it, and I believed him.

Anonymous User wrote:How to tactfully ask this question after receiving an offer? Don't want to come off as lazy (I'm not) but also want to make sure the qol is in fact better.

Consider framing it as part of a broader query where you want to make sure you are assessing the salary offered fairly in light of all of the benefits being offered, both monetary (bonus, 401k match) and non-monetary (flexible hours, PTO, workload). Ideally you'd leave the impression of being perfectly willing to work hard, but reasonably expecting compensation to be commensurate.

Anonymous User wrote:How to tactfully ask this question after receiving an offer? Don't want to come off as lazy (I'm not) but also want to make sure the qol is in fact better.

Have you considered reaching out to a junior associate for coffee? You could frame it as a "looking to see if I 'fit in'" kind of thing, which would (hopefully) keep the conversation casual and less sales pitchy.