Does anyone have experience with taking a vacation prior to parental leave, or have you seen another associate at your firm do it? My spouse and I are expecting our first child in early-to-mid October. We also have a week-long vacation planned with my spouse's family in late July. The vacation was planned before the pregnancy and, for various reasons (chief among them not looking like a tool to Spouse's family), I would prefer to take at least a few real days off and not just work through or skip it.
I have only told a handful of other associates about the pregnancy so far, but I will likely have told most of my deal teams and assigning partners by the time of the vacation. This is partly because I don't want to drop it on them with the minimum required notice, partly because there are some mentorship relationships involved where I think the partner would be surprised at not having been told earlier, and also partly because I will inevitably get staffed on longer-term matters over the summer where I'll need to make clear that I will be on leave during signing/closing/filing date/whatever.
I suspect that taking a week-long vacation two months before going on leave for 10+ weeks will be frowned upon generally, for obvious reasons. Curious how egregious others think this would be. FWIW, I would have no problem with using the vacation immediately prior to the leave (i.e. the week or two before the baby) to extend the leave, but that feels different to me.
I'm a 3rd/4th year to the extent that it matters.
Vacation and Parental Leave Forum
Forum rules
Anonymous Posting
Anonymous posting is only appropriate when you are revealing sensitive employment related information about a firm, job, etc. You may anonymously respond on topic to these threads. Unacceptable uses include: harassing another user, joking around, testing the feature, or other things that are more appropriate in the lounge.
Failure to follow these rules will get you outed, warned, or banned.
Anonymous Posting
Anonymous posting is only appropriate when you are revealing sensitive employment related information about a firm, job, etc. You may anonymously respond on topic to these threads. Unacceptable uses include: harassing another user, joking around, testing the feature, or other things that are more appropriate in the lounge.
Failure to follow these rules will get you outed, warned, or banned.
-
Anonymous User
- Posts: 432633
- Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am
Re: Vacation and Parental Leave
Congratulations.
First off, vacation and parental leave are very different things. Parental leave (as you'll find out) is very rewarding but it is also absolutely NOT a vacation, so there should be no issue at all with you taking the July vacation (and taking the full time off, not just a few days). As a junior/midlevel, your firm can replace you easily for a week or so, especially given the current state of the markets and the overcapacity among most associates. Vacation is something we all need and something you've earned because it's a benefit your firm provides and presumably you've accrued it based on your having worked at this firm - so use it how you want because otherwise it's tough to last in this job.
FWIW, I am a relatively senior associate now and have taken 2 separate leaves of 12 weeks each for when my children were born (earliest one was when I was a 4th year) and it was fine. I also took I think pretty close to my maximum vacation days in those years.
I consider myself pretty well regarded at my firm based on my reviews, so my experience has been that as long as when you're "on" and working you're doing a great job, firm's are accepting of you using your full vacation and leave benefits (and if they're not, it's time to move to a firm that is accepting of it).
First off, vacation and parental leave are very different things. Parental leave (as you'll find out) is very rewarding but it is also absolutely NOT a vacation, so there should be no issue at all with you taking the July vacation (and taking the full time off, not just a few days). As a junior/midlevel, your firm can replace you easily for a week or so, especially given the current state of the markets and the overcapacity among most associates. Vacation is something we all need and something you've earned because it's a benefit your firm provides and presumably you've accrued it based on your having worked at this firm - so use it how you want because otherwise it's tough to last in this job.
FWIW, I am a relatively senior associate now and have taken 2 separate leaves of 12 weeks each for when my children were born (earliest one was when I was a 4th year) and it was fine. I also took I think pretty close to my maximum vacation days in those years.
I consider myself pretty well regarded at my firm based on my reviews, so my experience has been that as long as when you're "on" and working you're doing a great job, firm's are accepting of you using your full vacation and leave benefits (and if they're not, it's time to move to a firm that is accepting of it).
-
Anonymous User
- Posts: 432633
- Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am
Re: Vacation and Parental Leave
I don't think anybody is going to say "gosh how dare they take vacation right before a newborn child is about to absorb every spare waking (or sleeping) moment of their life - shame on them." Babymoons are a thing for a reason, so you're not doing anything crazy. Take your vacation when you want (as long as it doesn't conflict with a deadline you were aware of before booking it) and don't look back.
-
Anonymous User
- Posts: 432633
- Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am
Re: Vacation and Parental Leave
Having one week left in my parental leave before going back to work.... Parental leave is most definitely NOT a vacation and anyone who has children, most likely nearly all of your partners, will know that. There shouldn't be any issue with taking a vacation prior to parental leave. And most people use all of their vacation or nearly all of it at the end of parental leave anyway.
-
bwh8813
- Posts: 185
- Joined: Sat Nov 14, 2015 12:21 pm
Re: Vacation and Parental Leave
Take all your vacation and all the parental leave that's offered. You're the only person who would remember whether you do or don't and you'll regret it down the road if you don't.
Want to continue reading?
Register now to search topics and post comments!
Absolutely FREE!
Already a member? Login
-
Anonymous User
- Posts: 432633
- Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am
Re: Vacation and Parental Leave
Senior associate at a v5 -- I took my full vacation and 100% of my parental leave for the birth of my child all within the same year. Not only was it not a problem -- everyone was wonderful about me taking this time. I certainly recommend you taking all of your vacation and parental leave.
-
Anonymous User
- Posts: 432633
- Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am
Re: Vacation and Parental Leave
I'm 100% for taking all of your vacation, but I'm not sure this is accurate. There's one associate on one of my teams who seems to be going out on vacation like once every month or two. I think taking all of your vacation in 2-3 big chunks (plus Xmas week) is far less noticeable than sending OOO blasts to your teams for 10 different long weekends, plus a couple extended periods. The former sounds normal whereas the later stands out. Point is, it matters how you do it.
But to be clear - taking a week or two a couple months before you become a parent and then taking a couple weeks when you do, followed by parental leave is not going to raise any eyebrows.
