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Telling Boss About Law School
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 10:18 am
by DaftAndDirect
Subject says it all. I work in a field where going off to law school is pretty much unheard of and definitely not likely to be received well. Even my former co-workers who ran off to B-school got chewed out by the head honcho.
I think I'm going to do this either today or tomorrow. Can anyone share experiences/advice?
Re: Telling Boss About Law School
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 10:34 am
by TooOld4This
Why are you thinking of doing this? You won't be leaving until August, right? Two weeks notice is standard, unless you are in certain professions, where a month is standard. Even senior executives generally only aim for 2 mos.
Your employer would not give you a heads up about a plan to fire you. If they have demonstrated that they will be belligerent when you give notice, then there is no way I would give any more notice than is standard if you were accepting a new job. The reference already will be damaged since the decision is not respected. Don't leave them in a lurch, but there is no reason to give 5 mos notice either.
Re: Telling Boss About Law School
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 10:56 am
by Villanova3
Do not do this until 14 days before classes.
Re: Telling Boss About Law School
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 11:01 am
by Flanker1067
I second what others have said about timing. Also, if you are in a situation where your employer doesn't care about what's best for you and doesn't respect your decisions (it's business), then you don't owe them similar considerations. My advice, tell them and don't take what they say personally.
Re: Telling Boss About Law School
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 11:15 am
by bruss
TooOld4This wrote:
Your employer would not give you a heads up about a plan to fire you. If they have demonstrated that they will be belligerent when you give notice, then there is no way I would give any more notice than is standard if you were accepting a new job. The reference already will be damaged since the decision is not respected. Don't leave them in a lurch, but there is no reason to give 5 mos notice either.
+1
Seeing as how you don't need a letter of rec from him and this job doesn't seem to have much to do with the legal field; fuck em, just put in your 2weeks.
Re: Telling Boss About Law School
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 11:17 am
by juicyj
I'm giving my employer a 1 month notice, but that's only because I like the people I work with. However, if it was the opposite where I didn't have respect for them OR especially if they didn't respect my decision to advance my personal well-being. I would definitely only give two weeks.
P.S. You might want to see if you can get a doctor's note for one day short of two weeks so you can start to prepare for school.
Re: Telling Boss About Law School
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 11:22 am
by Shooter
I told my immediate boss because she's cool and I didn't want to keep her in the dark. Then I told a vp, trying to leverage the fact that I got into a top school and could potentially defer if I was given new responsibilities in a few months. Didn't work, but my situation made it worth a shot. I still work there and will until I ship off to lawl school.
Re: Telling Boss About Law School
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 11:29 am
by HellOnHeels
My boss knew because she wrote me a recommendation. I have already sent in my seat deposit, and as soon as it clears the bank, I'm giving official notice. It takes about six months to train someone to fully train someone to do my job, and we're already understaffed. I wanted to give them as much notice as possible.
However, for your situation, where they're going to get angry that you are leaving, two/three weeks.
Re: Telling Boss About Law School
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 11:36 am
by Samara
My immediate boss knows, but her bosses don't. Other people who know think I'm doing an evening program to stay working, haha. I only told my boss because I completely trust her and I was confident she would want to keep me on as long as possible. (And I asked for a LOR)
In your situation though, where you know that they react badly, I would not say anything until two weeks before you're ready to leave.
Re: Telling Boss About Law School
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 11:55 am
by outsidethescope
Tell them now, funemployment till LS!
Re: Telling Boss About Law School
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 12:01 pm
by PolySuyGuy
DaftAndDirect wrote:Subject says it all. I work in a field where going off to law school is pretty much unheard of and definitely not likely to be received well. Even my former co-workers who ran off to B-school got chewed out by the head honcho.
I think I'm going to do this either today or tomorrow. Can anyone share experiences/advice?
My boss wrote me a glowing recommendation for law school. However, I told him all about deferring and lead him to believe that I would defer for two years.
If I decide to go this fall, he will be upset so I won't tell him until two weeks and one day before law school starts.
Re: Telling Boss About Law School
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 12:05 pm
by ben4847
Villanova3 wrote:Do not do this until 14 days before classes.
Re: Telling Boss About Law School
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 12:05 pm
by ben4847
outsidethescope wrote:Tell them now, funemployment till LS!
good point. If you can collect unemployment, why not.
Re: Telling Boss About Law School
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 12:26 pm
by romothesavior
Agree with the others. If your employer would respect this kind of thing, maybe give them a heads up as courtesy. But if they're gonna throw a fit, don't put yourself in that kind of situation for months. 2 week notice is TCR.
Re: Telling Boss About Law School
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 12:45 pm
by bruss
PolySuyGuy wrote:DaftAndDirect wrote:Subject says it all. I work in a field where going off to law school is pretty much unheard of and definitely not likely to be received well. Even my former co-workers who ran off to B-school got chewed out by the head honcho.
I think I'm going to do this either today or tomorrow. Can anyone share experiences/advice?
My boss wrote me a glowing recommendation for law school. However, I told him all about deferring and lead him to believe that I would defer for two years.
If I decide to go this fall, he will be upset so I won't tell him until two weeks and one day before law school starts.
Awkward lol
Re: Telling Boss About Law School
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 5:12 pm
by apollo2015
Skip the two week notice stuff, unless the employer would give you two weeks notice before firing you.
Re: Telling Boss About Law School
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 8:41 pm
by dingbat
apollo2015 wrote:Skip the two week notice stuff, unless the employer would give you two weeks notice before firing you.
Don't be a dick.
Read your employment contract, find the clause re notice (mine says a month) and give that much notice (unless there's special circumstances to warrant more notice)
Re: Telling Boss About Law School
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 11:47 pm
by apollo2015
dingbat wrote:apollo2015 wrote:Skip the two week notice stuff, unless the employer would give you two weeks notice before firing you.
Don't be a dick.
Its about setting fair norms for both parties. If employers aren't committing to give the workers honorable treatment, then the workers would be foolish to not take that into account.
Re: Telling Boss About Law School
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 11:53 pm
by IAFG
apollo2015 wrote:dingbat wrote:apollo2015 wrote:Skip the two week notice stuff, unless the employer would give you two weeks notice before firing you.
Don't be a dick.
Its about setting fair norms for both parties. If employers aren't committing to give the workers honorable treatment, then the workers would be foolish to not take that into account.
...kay. Expect a less-than-honorable reference check then. Jesus.
Re: Telling Boss About Law School
Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 12:26 am
by spleenworship
Told some people I trusted. They outed me to a supervisor accidentally (dumbasses). Management was pretty evenly split on whether I was throwing my career away, or doing something awesome. Thank gawd I was union, or one of the supervisors would've found an excuse to fire me, the jealous prick.
My advice is that if you don't think your boss will like it, give them 14 days notice, unless a) your contract says more, or b) your replacement will require more training to come online.
Re: Telling Boss About Law School
Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 9:51 am
by JCFindley
ben4847 wrote:outsidethescope wrote:Tell them now, funemployment till LS!
good point. If you can collect unemployment, why not.
Because unemployment SUCKS when you are used to making 100k/yr (or anything more than twice minimum wage.)
I got all of a weeks notice before the gov contract I was working on was cancelled. They certainly will not give you much notice if they are planning on laying you off. I certainly wouldn't tell them now if you know they will react badly.
JC
Re: Telling Boss About Law School
Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 10:30 am
by ben4847
JCFindley wrote:ben4847 wrote:outsidethescope wrote:Tell them now, funemployment till LS!
good point. If you can collect unemployment, why not.
Because unemployment SUCKS when you are used to making 100k/yr (or anything more than twice minimum wage.)
I got all of a weeks notice before the gov contract I was working on was cancelled. They certainly will not give you much notice if they are planning on laying you off. I certainly wouldn't tell them now if you know they will react badly.
JC
If you are making 100k adn going to law school....
Re: Telling Boss About Law School
Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 2:38 pm
by PutSumGravyOnIt
I just went throught this as well, though I work at a nonprofit where policies and procedures aren't necessarily strictly followed (more relaxed business regs than most for-profits). I also work in 3 different departments in the company, doing split time for each one, so I told my 3 bosses. They each weren't happy, but considering our organization works with lawyers all the time, they know and value the work of lawyers.
I agree with the majority on this thread that you don't have to give anything but two weeks, but if you know people there well, or if there are other staffing issues from their side that you know about, it would be nice to give them heads up as soon as possible. It may help you get a great recommendation, but that's up to your judgment.
There could be some threat of premature dismissal based if you tell them several months in advance--bc what if they want to hire someone right away just to make sure they fill the position, then let you go to make the transition smoother?--but if you're part of a union, this is moot.
Re: Telling Boss About Law School
Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 3:19 pm
by ajax
TooOld4This wrote:Why are you thinking of doing this? You won't be leaving until August, right? Two weeks notice is standard, unless you are in certain professions, where a month is standard. Even senior executives generally only aim for 2 mos.
Your employer would not give you a heads up about a plan to fire you. If they have demonstrated that they will be belligerent when you give notice, then there is no way I would give any more notice than is standard if you were accepting a new job. The reference already will be damaged since the decision is not respected. Don't leave them in a lurch, but there is no reason to give 5 mos notice either.
Yes, but it's probably a bad idea to burn bridges. His/her employer could be a possible client in the future, or know possible clients. No reason to burn the bridge. Two weeks is appropriate when you find another job. Telling an employer that you're going to law school in two weeks just means you hid it from them the entire time. Probably a bad idea.
Re: Telling Boss About Law School
Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 4:02 pm
by Lvaughn714
I am having a somewhat similar debate. I took this job back in November and had already applied to LS along with applying to several jobs. My current employer took over a six weeks to get back to me and finally hire me, so I think it was reasonable that I applied to LS considering I didn't know if I would get hired or not, and I took the job not knowing if I would even get into LS. At this point, I have gotten into my dream school and things have gone down hill at this job since they hired a new person that is extremely dramatic and makes the work environment very uncomfortable ( to the point that there was a crazy blow up last week where he and i both left the office and our department heads both called in from their ski vacation after recieving an email from another coworker about the situation) I don't want to leave them hanging because I like the others I work with and they have been looking for a good person for this position for a while, but I also feel like if I tell them about LS now, they are going to throw it in with all the other drama from this new guy and things are going to be super awkward for the next few months.
At this point I plan to tell them latest one month in advance so hopefully things will calm down and they will still have time to find a replacement.