How many vacation days are you taking this calendar year? Forum

[Anonymous User]

I’m mostly interested in biglaw peeps, but this is open to everyone: I want to understand what the norm is for how many vacation days people actually take. A lot of firms either have “unlimited” or like, 20+ days, but that doesn’t really indicate an effective number. (I do not take a lot at my biglaw firm and want to compare.)

[zhenders]

Quick recommendation on the poll to maybe get a bit more insight: would you consider adjusting the poll to reflect how many weeks people take, and whether their firm's vacation policies are allotted or unlimited? If that interested you, you might do something like the following:

Allotted vacation days, and taking less than 2w
Allotted vacation days, and taking 2-3w
Allotted vacation days, and taking 3w+

Unlimited vacation days, and taking less than 2w
Unlimited vacation days, and taking 2-3w
Unlimited vacation days, and taking 3w+

It's a pretty standard belief that unlimited vacation firms tend to result in a lot less vacation time taken, so clarifying that might be helpful

[smokeylarue]

Curious about this too. I'm at a firm with an "unlimited vacation" policy. I took like 7 vacation days last year (which seemed like a lot compared to my co workers). Seems like most of the associates in my office take about a week off every year. Maybe my office is just full of losers, but this to me, seems too low.

[Anonymous User]

Normal biglaw, not really sure what our vacation policy is. I've taken 1 vacation day in 2 years but I don't bill that much (~1500 first year, ~2000 this year). I would say the norm is 5-10 days per year.

[Anonymous User]

Biglaw litigation, midlevel, secondary market.
On pace for 2300 or so hours.
"Unlimited" (ha!) vacation policy.
Took 2 weeks already this year and planning to take the weeks of Thanksgiving and Christmas off as well, so just about 3 full weeks total. I've been quite busy this year but had time for two weeklong trips plus a couple of long weekends here and there. I'd say I've taken a below-average amount of vacation compared to associates in my office, but that's due to the luck of the draw on my cases. I'm hoping to take 3-4 weeks next year.

[Desert Fox]

Five days

[Pokemon]

12 hour month roll:
7 business day vacation days but had to work 1 day and a half, last December.
6 business day vacation.
Two other 3 day weekends.
Two personal days that weee not vacations.

Total: 13.5 - 15 business days. I plan on taking a few vacay in December late November, so my calendar year would probably be 16-17 business days.

[LaLiLuLeLo]

we get 4 weeks but I only took 6 days like a fool. Will definitely take more next year. Nobody really bothered me which was really nice.

[cfcm]

18-20.

[sublime]

I took like one or two days before this last month, where I took 3. Will probably take the week of thanksgiving and a week or so around xmas.

Many at my firm are take the full 4 week allotment, but I wanted to build out a safety net if I were to get fired or whatever.

ETA: junior biglaw NYC litigation.

[Anonymous User]

24. 20 this year + 4 rollover from stub year.

My firm doesn't roll over vacation days with the exception of the stub year, so not taking vacation is just leaving money on the table.