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So my firm's start date is in literally 5 days (9/30), but I haven't gotten a communication from them since early August. I don't know what the WFH flexiblity is, whether I'm expected to be in the office full-time, where I'm supposed to go on my first day, what the orientation is like. At this point, I had expected that someone from the firm would be in contact with me. It's one of the top firms in NY, for what it's worth, so not some small operation that lets things slip through the cracks. Should I reach out to HR and ask them whether they've forgotten about me?

Don’t ask them if they forgot about you, but a simple check-in is fine.

The majority of this will likely be explained to you on your first day. So I would check in re first day start time and whether it's in office/attire.

Reasonable to be annoyed but it's not abnormal. Everything will be explained on day 1. Feel free to check in on the first day start time.

It would be perfectly reasonable in these circumstances to ask whether you should appear in person at the office or have a virtual orientation. Basically everyone who has started at a firm since April 2020 has on-boarded virtually.

As a general answer to just the thread title: yes, you should.

More specific to your situation, I would be even more annoyed if they hadn't told me whether orientation was going to be virtual or not within a week of the damn start date. Sounds like their recruiting staff doesn't have their shit together tbh. Would definitely reach out with a simple "Hi, I am starting on 9/30 and just wanted to check in on any information regarding orientation and expectations regarding in-person attendance" or something like that.

whats an updog wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 27, 2021 12:05 am

As a general answer to just the thread title: yes, you should.

More specific to your situation, I would be even more annoyed if they hadn't told me whether orientation was going to be virtual or not within a week of the damn start date. Sounds like their recruiting staff doesn't have their shit together tbh. Would definitely reach out with a simple "Hi, I am starting on 9/30 and just wanted to check in on any information regarding orientation and expectations regarding in-person attendance" or something like that.

Update, it's now 3 days away and no news. It's still early on the East Coast, so we'll see. I think it's implied that orientation is in-person. The firm went 100% back in-person over the summer, and at no point did they announce a change in policy when Delta hit.

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 27, 2021 9:25 am

whats an updog wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 27, 2021 12:05 am

As a general answer to just the thread title: yes, you should.

More specific to your situation, I would be even more annoyed if they hadn't told me whether orientation was going to be virtual or not within a week of the damn start date. Sounds like their recruiting staff doesn't have their shit together tbh. Would definitely reach out with a simple "Hi, I am starting on 9/30 and just wanted to check in on any information regarding orientation and expectations regarding in-person attendance" or something like that.

Update, it's now 3 days away and no news. It's still early on the East Coast, so we'll see. I think it's implied that orientation is in-person. The firm went 100% back in-person over the summer, and at no point did they announce a change in policy when Delta hit.

So have you reached out to them though? There's no point speculating about their state of mind, just contact them.

Yeah, I totally get being annoyed (you should be), but I don't understand continuing to wait for them to say something. Reach out and ask what the deal is so you can be prepared to show up in-person or virtually.