Taking a Medical Leave of Absence? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Has anyone taken (and come back from) a medical leave of absence while working in BigLaw?

Without too much detail, I'm a first year about seven months in at my firm, and I am Not Well, health-wise. I've been doing all the treatment I can do while still working full time, which is both... not much, and very slow going. I cannot leave my condition as it is and am running out of options.

There's a treatment option I haven't tried yet that might make me significantly better. I'd need treatment twice a week for three weeks, during business hours, that's going to put me out/down for the day. I can't see a way to do this and not do serious damage to my hours, which are barely clinging on as it is.

I was thinking about asking my doctor to approve a medical leave of absence for the treatment time plus a bit longer to recover/just in case-- the firm has a policy for this and would continue to pay my salary.

Has anyone done this, and how was coming back/ramping back up? Were you ostracized or ignored when you went back to work? Did people actually respect the leave, or did they keep making you work?

Thoughts and/or advice much appreciated

[Anonymous User]

I have seen this once at my office (smaller secondary market office) and medical leave was respected unlike vacation. You may feel inclined to politely offer to help as much as you can while you are out, but DO NOT do that. Take the leave and let them know you will be offline and unavailable. If you open the door even an inch, someone will jam right through with assignments, etc.

If you're corporate, I feel like now is better than later since summer tends to slow a few things down while execs. vacation and then ramp up after Labor Day, but others may have different experiences.

Good luck and hope you recover well!

[LBJ's Hair]

^this. take it, make clear you won't be available, don't respond to emails while you're out. your teams will respect it. (also you're a first year, they can get along fine without you)

[2013]

This is a no brainer. You should take the leave. Who cares what happens at your firm when you get back. If they treat you poorly, tell them to fuck off and lateral. You shouldn’t put off any medical treatment because of a job.

You don’t qualify for FMLA yet, but I doubt a firm would want the PR nightmare of firing a first year on medical leave.

[Anonymous User]

This is a no brainer. You should take the leave. Who cares what happens at your firm when you get back. If they treat you poorly, tell them to fuck off and lateral. You shouldn’t put off any medical treatment because of a job.

You don’t qualify for FMLA yet, but I doubt a firm would want the PR nightmare of firing a first year on medical leave.

OP here. The firm has its own paid medical leave policy that kicks in after three months. The real incentive for me to use it is that being on leave gets rid of your billable requirements for the leave time, and I'm already behind from onboarding (without enough work to make up the deficit).

I do worry that they'll try to push me out or refuse to give me work once I come back, especially if I refuse to take on work while I'm out.

I'm also terrified of explaining to the partners/department head that I'm going on leave. I really don't want to say why I'm going past "medical treatment," and they aren't supposed to ask why, but I worry they will and don't know what I'll say.

[OfThriceandTen]

This is a no brainer. You should take the leave. Who cares what happens at your firm when you get back. If they treat you poorly, tell them to fuck off and lateral. You shouldn’t put off any medical treatment because of a job.

You don’t qualify for FMLA yet, but I doubt a firm would want the PR nightmare of firing a first year on medical leave.

OP here. The firm has its own paid medical leave policy that kicks in after three months. The real incentive for me to use it is that being on leave gets rid of your billable requirements for the leave time, and I'm already behind from onboarding (without enough work to make up the deficit).

I do worry that they'll try to push me out or refuse to give me work once I come back, especially if I refuse to take on work while I'm out.

I'm also terrified of explaining to the partners/department head that I'm going on leave. I really don't want to say why I'm going past "medical treatment," and they aren't supposed to ask why, but I worry they will and don't know what I'll say.

You should absolutely use the leave, do no work while on leave and do not worry about them trying to push you out. The person you responded to is completely correct -- if there's even a modicum of pushback, you should lateral. This is your health and is much, much more important than a job.

Explaining what you explained in your OP is more than enough information for the people you are talking to internally at the firm, and if anyone asks for more information, state clearly that you are not comfortable divulging. If there is any implicit or explicit request after that for more information, tell HR.