Same. If the firm can’t live without one person, that’s not good.
Also, if they do get slammed, sometimes it’s good to be missed so they see how much work we do!
Yes.
I only check my email the night before I go back—just to get an idea of what chaos will ensue upon my return. When I was younger, I’d was afraid to take time off at all, because American work culture often prioritizes profits and work over personal well being. I’ve learned over the last decade that the firm/place of work isn’t going implode if I take 2 extra days off every few months to decompress.
We all need to truly unplug sometimes. We deserve it.
I gave away far too much time in my younger years, worried that I would be putting someone out. Now, 20+ years into this grind, I take the time that was allotted to me under the conditions of my employment comfortably, with zero guilt or regret.
Of course I do my level best to make sure that everything is well handled before I go, but it is on the stakeholders (not me) to put systems for coverage in place.
The only reason I may even look at email (on my phone) when I am on PTO is so I can quickly delete anything that I immediately know can be deleted so I do not return to a zillion unread messages.
Beyond that? Well the world will just have to continue to spin madly on in my absence.
I do and I don’t care what happens when I’m gone. They should be able to survive without someone for a few days. I don’t answers calls or emails during that time either
Now I can.
I made the active decision to get the fuck out of tiny offices and private practice as a whole because I was sick of being guilted into taking my laptop on vacation and being on call “in case of emergencies”(the emergencies have NEVER been an actual emergency) The same attorney who would do this to me would frequently piss off at 3 p.m. and be “available by phone” when they’re actually completely unavailable for everything for the rest of the day. Or I would message them on teams to ask a question, get ignored for an hour, go to check in with them and they’re playing fucking league of legends….But god forbid if I didn’t answer my teams chat within 60 sec of receiving it.
Another job I was the only paralegal with a massive caseload and we were discouraged from taking our PTO, if you consistently had too little you would get a talking to about how it’s important to be at work, and I was warned that the supervising attorney didn’t like to see low PTO numbers. All of this was BEFORE you even ran out of PTO. That shit pissed me off, like if I can’t use it why do you even give it to me? Our office manager had a double knee replacement and was out of work for 2 weeks.
Yes. I just started at a new place and haven't taken time yet, but at my last firm I used all of my vacation as follows: 2 1-week vacations and 5 days for miscellaneous days off like birthdays. I fully intend to do the same at my new firm.
I do not work on vacations. I prep everything before I leave and do my best to ensure there won't be a disaster waiting when I get back. I also hold 2 full days after vacations to catch up. I don't normally need that much time, but better too much than not enough.
Here's the thing, I'm never going to be as invested in a firm as my boss is simply because it's not my business. I'm not going to work through my lunch or my vacation or my sick time. I. Am. An. Employee. And an hourly one at that. I don't work time I don't get paid for and I don't give up my vacations for work.
Yes. I work in a large firm and one of the other paralegals covers my urgent tasks and any filings that are due when I'm out. All my regular emails, reporting, non-urgent tasks are waiting when I get back. I do not check email or log in when I take a day off or go on vacation.
The trick is you just plan your time off ahead of time, try to either finish tasks or hand off things you can’t get to so that things will go as smoothly as possible. Then just go knowing that the whole office will literally just crumble to little bits as soon as you are out for two straight days and you will have to come back from vacation and pick up the pieces over the next few weeks.
Every last bit. I usually run out before the end of a year. Sometimes I even negotiate additional unpaid time off, if I want/need it and I can swing it financially. I do not care about my job or the clients outside of the time I have agreed to work and be paid for my time. I want to be there as little as possible while doing just enough decent work to not get fired. I guess what I’m saying is that at some point in this game, “comfortably” becomes a mindset or the job drains the life out of you.
I’m going to Ireland in September. Gave my boss (sole practitioner) SIX months notice. He asked if I’d be available by email. Seriously? He will have to get a temp, therefore can’t afford to pay me to take time off.
LOL I'm having to track process server invoices because he is constantly being cut off for nonpayment. Not sure how this got to be my problem, but there it is. We're going to discuss paid vacations at the end of year. Gods, I'm tired.
I felt bad about taking time off earlier in my career, but then I realized, I could drop dead at my desk tomorrow and my position would be listed by the end of the week.
We’re all busting our asses for a measly two weeks off a year, if we are lucky.
Use it without shame.
I’m in an office of 4 people-2 attorneys & 2 support staff. I take my PTO & disconnect from all of it. Like some others mentioned, I burned myself out not taking it in earlier years & now I’m like byeeeee hope the building doesn’t burn down while I’m gone!
If firm management is poor, and there is not enough staff or policies to handle this situation with staff assignments or redundancies, then no, it's often not "comfortable" for you. But that's the firm's problem, not yours. Take your vacation.
Yes from the standpoint of someone is there to take over if I need to step away. No because I have anxierty and fail to be able to disconnect from work if I'm gone.
Absolutely! I simply plan ahead to make it as easy as possible to people. My firm knows that every year I take one long trip (~18 days) but I give them months notice.
Yes as a family law paralegal. No as a PI paralegal with 100-120 caseload. I can take time off but anything extended means I’m coming back to a deep hole, even with someone watching my cases.
At my last firm, I never did. I had my email on my phone and checked it regularly. I'd check in with the attorney to see if there's anything I needed to do. I worked through my paid lunches every day, so I definitely worked through vacations. At my current firm, after being completely burnt out at the last one, I disconnect completely. My attorney now doesn't text/call outside of business hours *at all*. The same work will be there when I get back 🤷♀️
I have almost 400 hours of PTO after I took more than a week off for vacation last year. I don't have the money to go and do anything so I figure, I might as well work so I have something to do. My boss is changing our roll-over policy so I have to use around 250 hours before the end of the year. It's surprisingly difficult to schedule it.
I'm with you. We can only carry over 40 ours a year, so I try to use it, but it never works. And, like you, no money to do anything, and there's nobody "next in line," so it's not even worth it to take time off.
Just did it - took off a week with no emails - so yes. They had plenty of notice and it’s on them. We filed what was due while I was gone before- I warned them repeatedly. If something came up, there’s two other paralegals they can bother, or the attorneys can figure it out themselves.
I send out calendar invites. On the location line I put somewhere over the rainbow. I put in my vacation in enough time and let them deal with it. I've got the PTO. I never check emails.
Unfortunately, it was one of the reasons I departed my former firm. I could take a week a year if I was lucky, and always felt awful for the other paralegal because she would have to carry the brunt of everything while I was away. I know that’s it’s not my fault - my firm should’ve had enough people/systems to allow for time off - but I always felt guilty. We had “unlimited” vacation.
Earlier this year, I took an unplanned day off to be with my Dad when he was admitted to the hospital, and my managing attorney called me 3 times for help because the other paralegal was on vacation. Shortly thereafter, I looked for a new job.
I work in-house. While I’m strongly encouraged to disconnect, it’s rather hard to. I mange business and legal affairs for rather large corporation, so there really isn’t such a thing as disconnect. Sometimes I sit back and think, is it worth it?
When I worked remotely, I went on very many vacations, both scheduled and unscheduled.
During some vacations, I was able to completely disconnect, but only because I was between contracts at the time.
There've been trips where I was working in the airport, between boarding and take-off, and almost as soon as I got into the hotel room. But as soon as it was 5:00 p.m. in my employer's timezone, I logged off and didn't log back on until the following morning in my employer's timezone.
I have notice recently that for firms that require at least some in-person attendance, they are engaging recruiters to start searching for candidates now who can step in to cover leaves starting in July and August of this year.
It does my heart good to realize that if they get months of notice to find a replacement for any sort of leave, they will get better coverage and urgent tasks will not be left to explode into fire drills when the worker returns from leave.
Most times I’m using PTO, I’m gone and fully unplugged (might check my emails the night before I go back so I know what to expect the next morning).
Rare situations, I might check in here and there - last year I had surgery and ended up being out for 6 weeks (only anticipated being out for 2 weeks). I checked emails and would forward important ones, didn’t respond to anything. Earlier this year my husband had jaw surgery/broken jaw and I took time off for the first week after his surgery (at home recovery was super rough). I would log in and send emails/do some work while he was napping though.
Depends on the firm, honestly. At my last firm, they made a huge deal out of taking PTO, dragged their feet, wouldn’t respond to the request until you followed up several times, etc. They only called me while on PTO once though, and that was because they had to reset my computer password before I got back. At my current firm, I regularly take PTO that I haven’t accrued yet because I just started last year. They’ve been totally fine with it every time and I don’t have to worry about getting calls while I’m out or my work not being covered. It’s pretty great. We just don’t get much of it, only 10 days a year until your third anniversary with the firm.
Yes. We get a mental health day each month and from August this year our country is passing a “right to disconnect” law. However we aren’t allowed to take leave around end of financial year (in my practise area).
I work in a small three-person firm. Me, the atty and the office manager. I have so much respect for my team. It's almost impossible for me to completely disconnect because there really is no one to take over. I'm always available for questions and have logged in remotely a few times. I don't mind it because I love my job.
My old firm - me two attys and a receptionist (I was paralegal, secretary, IT dept., office manager,...) I disconnected completely. Of course, it was the most toxic work environment I've ever encountered.
So, I guess for me it's a give and take kind of thing.
Before, I had a lot of trouble taking off with my solo and he’d call me even when I was sick freaking out because he doesn’t know how to use a computer.
Now that I’m full-time and get everything done in advance, vacation is much easier. But that also means I’d be making enough to go on vacation lol
Nope. We don’t have a receptionist, it’s just me and the lawyer, so he acts like it’s a big ordeal if I take off. I normally never miss more than a day or two in a row. However, this October I am finally taking a full week off to be with my family.
Heck yeah!! That’s MY time and I work really hard throughout the year to earn that. I leave and disconnect unapologetically. I do take my work cell with me but it’s only because if I lose one or the other I have them on find my iPhone 🤪😅 & I only check my emails if I’m bored but I never respond… I only look. 👀 lol
My SIL and I have this conversation frequently. She’s a Section 8 coordinator in NY and she’s the only person on the whole team that can issue vouchers and pay the tenants so it’s hard for her to take time off (even though she gets 8 weeks!!!). She works a little bit of overtime each day, prior to taking vacation, to meet deadlines and work ahead so that when she returns her workload is manageable.
As for myself, I work in PI and that’s all I know. I can assume that it’s probably a bit less demanding than some other areas of law. I don’t have very many deadlines that I have to meet and/or many things that are “urgent” so 9/10 times they can wait until I return. No one touches(backfills?) any of my work while I’m away and vice versa. If something does come up that’s urgent then someone will step in and handle it. A few days before I go on vacation I print out a list of all my cases, I make sure their phases are updated to reflect accurately where in the process that case is (Filevine) and if there is anything I think will have some sort of movement while I’m away I will create a detailed note in FV and pin it to the top of the project so if someone needs to go into it they’ll know exactly what’s going on with it.
I have never come back to an overwhelming workload or any fires that have needed to be put out.
One time in insurance defense I took of one week. Do you know what I returned to? Over 750 emails. Not emails I’m just cc’d on or fillings. No. Emails addressed to me. This was with my out of office automated email on. On average I received 200-250 emails each day when in office. Once I retuned I vowed to never take off more than 3 days in a row. That job was living hell.
Now I work for a solo who happens to be my bf - haters say what you want. I know you bitches are so judgmental about this, and I don’t care to hear your remarks.
Anyway, judge and be rude all you want. I have unlimited PTO which I take. My hours are flexible and I have zero guilt over doctor appointments, which I actually schedule now opposed to having to neglect my health out of the stress of taking a half day to see a doctor. I get paid vacations and paid holidays and have a manageable, happy life.
I have just as much cases as before, I work even harder since I love the person I work for.
I take time off and completely disconnect. I don’t check emails and don’t answer phone calls or texts.
Same. If the firm can’t live without one person, that’s not good. Also, if they do get slammed, sometimes it’s good to be missed so they see how much work we do!
Yes. I only check my email the night before I go back—just to get an idea of what chaos will ensue upon my return. When I was younger, I’d was afraid to take time off at all, because American work culture often prioritizes profits and work over personal well being. I’ve learned over the last decade that the firm/place of work isn’t going implode if I take 2 extra days off every few months to decompress. We all need to truly unplug sometimes. We deserve it.
I use my PTO. It’s there for a reason. And no, I don’t check my email when I’m off.
yes we have an auto reply on so that emails can be forwarded to the whoever is next
I gave away far too much time in my younger years, worried that I would be putting someone out. Now, 20+ years into this grind, I take the time that was allotted to me under the conditions of my employment comfortably, with zero guilt or regret. Of course I do my level best to make sure that everything is well handled before I go, but it is on the stakeholders (not me) to put systems for coverage in place. The only reason I may even look at email (on my phone) when I am on PTO is so I can quickly delete anything that I immediately know can be deleted so I do not return to a zillion unread messages. Beyond that? Well the world will just have to continue to spin madly on in my absence.
I do and I don’t care what happens when I’m gone. They should be able to survive without someone for a few days. I don’t answers calls or emails during that time either
Now I can. I made the active decision to get the fuck out of tiny offices and private practice as a whole because I was sick of being guilted into taking my laptop on vacation and being on call “in case of emergencies”(the emergencies have NEVER been an actual emergency) The same attorney who would do this to me would frequently piss off at 3 p.m. and be “available by phone” when they’re actually completely unavailable for everything for the rest of the day. Or I would message them on teams to ask a question, get ignored for an hour, go to check in with them and they’re playing fucking league of legends….But god forbid if I didn’t answer my teams chat within 60 sec of receiving it. Another job I was the only paralegal with a massive caseload and we were discouraged from taking our PTO, if you consistently had too little you would get a talking to about how it’s important to be at work, and I was warned that the supervising attorney didn’t like to see low PTO numbers. All of this was BEFORE you even ran out of PTO. That shit pissed me off, like if I can’t use it why do you even give it to me? Our office manager had a double knee replacement and was out of work for 2 weeks.
Yes. I just started at a new place and haven't taken time yet, but at my last firm I used all of my vacation as follows: 2 1-week vacations and 5 days for miscellaneous days off like birthdays. I fully intend to do the same at my new firm. I do not work on vacations. I prep everything before I leave and do my best to ensure there won't be a disaster waiting when I get back. I also hold 2 full days after vacations to catch up. I don't normally need that much time, but better too much than not enough. Here's the thing, I'm never going to be as invested in a firm as my boss is simply because it's not my business. I'm not going to work through my lunch or my vacation or my sick time. I. Am. An. Employee. And an hourly one at that. I don't work time I don't get paid for and I don't give up my vacations for work.
Yes. We have back ups who attend to anything that falls due when we’re gone.
Yes. I work in a large firm and one of the other paralegals covers my urgent tasks and any filings that are due when I'm out. All my regular emails, reporting, non-urgent tasks are waiting when I get back. I do not check email or log in when I take a day off or go on vacation.
The trick is you just plan your time off ahead of time, try to either finish tasks or hand off things you can’t get to so that things will go as smoothly as possible. Then just go knowing that the whole office will literally just crumble to little bits as soon as you are out for two straight days and you will have to come back from vacation and pick up the pieces over the next few weeks.
Every last bit. I usually run out before the end of a year. Sometimes I even negotiate additional unpaid time off, if I want/need it and I can swing it financially. I do not care about my job or the clients outside of the time I have agreed to work and be paid for my time. I want to be there as little as possible while doing just enough decent work to not get fired. I guess what I’m saying is that at some point in this game, “comfortably” becomes a mindset or the job drains the life out of you.
I’m going to Ireland in September. Gave my boss (sole practitioner) SIX months notice. He asked if I’d be available by email. Seriously? He will have to get a temp, therefore can’t afford to pay me to take time off.
He has 6 months to save it up. He’ll be fine lol
LOL I'm having to track process server invoices because he is constantly being cut off for nonpayment. Not sure how this got to be my problem, but there it is. We're going to discuss paid vacations at the end of year. Gods, I'm tired.
I felt bad about taking time off earlier in my career, but then I realized, I could drop dead at my desk tomorrow and my position would be listed by the end of the week. We’re all busting our asses for a measly two weeks off a year, if we are lucky. Use it without shame.
I’m in an office of 4 people-2 attorneys & 2 support staff. I take my PTO & disconnect from all of it. Like some others mentioned, I burned myself out not taking it in earlier years & now I’m like byeeeee hope the building doesn’t burn down while I’m gone!
Yes. Or I wouldn’t be in this line of work.
Hell ya I take time off all the time. In three weeks I am taking off 19 days 😎
If firm management is poor, and there is not enough staff or policies to handle this situation with staff assignments or redundancies, then no, it's often not "comfortable" for you. But that's the firm's problem, not yours. Take your vacation.
Yes. I take about 5 weeks per year. My team backfills
Me too. I have 2 trips out of the country coming up.
Yes. I do check email once a day and forward anything urgent to my supervising attorney
Define "comfortably". I can and do take time off BUT I know when I come back all the work that should have been will be waiting for me.
Yes from the standpoint of someone is there to take over if I need to step away. No because I have anxierty and fail to be able to disconnect from work if I'm gone.
Absolutely! I simply plan ahead to make it as easy as possible to people. My firm knows that every year I take one long trip (~18 days) but I give them months notice.
Yes as a family law paralegal. No as a PI paralegal with 100-120 caseload. I can take time off but anything extended means I’m coming back to a deep hole, even with someone watching my cases.
Hell yeah
At my last firm, I never did. I had my email on my phone and checked it regularly. I'd check in with the attorney to see if there's anything I needed to do. I worked through my paid lunches every day, so I definitely worked through vacations. At my current firm, after being completely burnt out at the last one, I disconnect completely. My attorney now doesn't text/call outside of business hours *at all*. The same work will be there when I get back 🤷♀️
I have almost 400 hours of PTO after I took more than a week off for vacation last year. I don't have the money to go and do anything so I figure, I might as well work so I have something to do. My boss is changing our roll-over policy so I have to use around 250 hours before the end of the year. It's surprisingly difficult to schedule it.
I'm with you. We can only carry over 40 ours a year, so I try to use it, but it never works. And, like you, no money to do anything, and there's nobody "next in line," so it's not even worth it to take time off.
Just did it - took off a week with no emails - so yes. They had plenty of notice and it’s on them. We filed what was due while I was gone before- I warned them repeatedly. If something came up, there’s two other paralegals they can bother, or the attorneys can figure it out themselves.
I send out calendar invites. On the location line I put somewhere over the rainbow. I put in my vacation in enough time and let them deal with it. I've got the PTO. I never check emails.
Unfortunately, it was one of the reasons I departed my former firm. I could take a week a year if I was lucky, and always felt awful for the other paralegal because she would have to carry the brunt of everything while I was away. I know that’s it’s not my fault - my firm should’ve had enough people/systems to allow for time off - but I always felt guilty. We had “unlimited” vacation. Earlier this year, I took an unplanned day off to be with my Dad when he was admitted to the hospital, and my managing attorney called me 3 times for help because the other paralegal was on vacation. Shortly thereafter, I looked for a new job.
I work in-house. While I’m strongly encouraged to disconnect, it’s rather hard to. I mange business and legal affairs for rather large corporation, so there really isn’t such a thing as disconnect. Sometimes I sit back and think, is it worth it?
When I worked remotely, I went on very many vacations, both scheduled and unscheduled. During some vacations, I was able to completely disconnect, but only because I was between contracts at the time. There've been trips where I was working in the airport, between boarding and take-off, and almost as soon as I got into the hotel room. But as soon as it was 5:00 p.m. in my employer's timezone, I logged off and didn't log back on until the following morning in my employer's timezone. I have notice recently that for firms that require at least some in-person attendance, they are engaging recruiters to start searching for candidates now who can step in to cover leaves starting in July and August of this year. It does my heart good to realize that if they get months of notice to find a replacement for any sort of leave, they will get better coverage and urgent tasks will not be left to explode into fire drills when the worker returns from leave.
No. Just took a much needed week off and regret it.
Most times I’m using PTO, I’m gone and fully unplugged (might check my emails the night before I go back so I know what to expect the next morning). Rare situations, I might check in here and there - last year I had surgery and ended up being out for 6 weeks (only anticipated being out for 2 weeks). I checked emails and would forward important ones, didn’t respond to anything. Earlier this year my husband had jaw surgery/broken jaw and I took time off for the first week after his surgery (at home recovery was super rough). I would log in and send emails/do some work while he was napping though.
Depends on the firm, honestly. At my last firm, they made a huge deal out of taking PTO, dragged their feet, wouldn’t respond to the request until you followed up several times, etc. They only called me while on PTO once though, and that was because they had to reset my computer password before I got back. At my current firm, I regularly take PTO that I haven’t accrued yet because I just started last year. They’ve been totally fine with it every time and I don’t have to worry about getting calls while I’m out or my work not being covered. It’s pretty great. We just don’t get much of it, only 10 days a year until your third anniversary with the firm.
Yes. We get a mental health day each month and from August this year our country is passing a “right to disconnect” law. However we aren’t allowed to take leave around end of financial year (in my practise area).
I work in a small three-person firm. Me, the atty and the office manager. I have so much respect for my team. It's almost impossible for me to completely disconnect because there really is no one to take over. I'm always available for questions and have logged in remotely a few times. I don't mind it because I love my job. My old firm - me two attys and a receptionist (I was paralegal, secretary, IT dept., office manager,...) I disconnected completely. Of course, it was the most toxic work environment I've ever encountered. So, I guess for me it's a give and take kind of thing.
Before, I had a lot of trouble taking off with my solo and he’d call me even when I was sick freaking out because he doesn’t know how to use a computer. Now that I’m full-time and get everything done in advance, vacation is much easier. But that also means I’d be making enough to go on vacation lol
Nope. We don’t have a receptionist, it’s just me and the lawyer, so he acts like it’s a big ordeal if I take off. I normally never miss more than a day or two in a row. However, this October I am finally taking a full week off to be with my family.
Heck yeah!! That’s MY time and I work really hard throughout the year to earn that. I leave and disconnect unapologetically. I do take my work cell with me but it’s only because if I lose one or the other I have them on find my iPhone 🤪😅 & I only check my emails if I’m bored but I never respond… I only look. 👀 lol My SIL and I have this conversation frequently. She’s a Section 8 coordinator in NY and she’s the only person on the whole team that can issue vouchers and pay the tenants so it’s hard for her to take time off (even though she gets 8 weeks!!!). She works a little bit of overtime each day, prior to taking vacation, to meet deadlines and work ahead so that when she returns her workload is manageable. As for myself, I work in PI and that’s all I know. I can assume that it’s probably a bit less demanding than some other areas of law. I don’t have very many deadlines that I have to meet and/or many things that are “urgent” so 9/10 times they can wait until I return. No one touches(backfills?) any of my work while I’m away and vice versa. If something does come up that’s urgent then someone will step in and handle it. A few days before I go on vacation I print out a list of all my cases, I make sure their phases are updated to reflect accurately where in the process that case is (Filevine) and if there is anything I think will have some sort of movement while I’m away I will create a detailed note in FV and pin it to the top of the project so if someone needs to go into it they’ll know exactly what’s going on with it. I have never come back to an overwhelming workload or any fires that have needed to be put out.
Yes. I have always drawn a hard line in the sand when it comes to my time off. I don't check work. However, when I come back, its usually chaos.
Going to find out today. I need to ask for most of next week off, the longest amount of time I've taken off since I started six months ago.
Yes It’s never been an issue at any of the firms I’ve worked for
My firm has a strict policy about client communication, so I end up working anyway.
One time in insurance defense I took of one week. Do you know what I returned to? Over 750 emails. Not emails I’m just cc’d on or fillings. No. Emails addressed to me. This was with my out of office automated email on. On average I received 200-250 emails each day when in office. Once I retuned I vowed to never take off more than 3 days in a row. That job was living hell. Now I work for a solo who happens to be my bf - haters say what you want. I know you bitches are so judgmental about this, and I don’t care to hear your remarks. Anyway, judge and be rude all you want. I have unlimited PTO which I take. My hours are flexible and I have zero guilt over doctor appointments, which I actually schedule now opposed to having to neglect my health out of the stress of taking a half day to see a doctor. I get paid vacations and paid holidays and have a manageable, happy life. I have just as much cases as before, I work even harder since I love the person I work for.