If you work for a large law or consulting firm beyond senior manager would you ever expect to.get an interrupted holiday?

[Bakeo]

As the title says!

No. I would hope for one, but would not necessarily expect one.

Uninterrupted holiday*

Hopefully, but not necessarily

I got your typo, same answer!

@reasonablesettlement. In a non-fee earning role?

Ha no. My dh spent two weeks on the phone during the summer

Nope. I think it comes with the extra responsibility in the role.

How come you guys are on Mumsnet? . Or are holding the 'babies' like me.

It depends what is going on - when the risk of hard Brexit was high, then leave was a luxury. If your firm is handling a complex merger or reorg, then expect to be interrupted.

Absolutely not. Just not at all feasible.

Cohle. Which? My OP or update?

Non-fee earning but responsible/accountable (and accepting senior management salary?)

At home learning how to do garden leave!

Not at all. My position means I could step away for a day or two at most and critical functions would tick over but there are people relying on what I do to drive the business. I can go on holiday, it just isn't ever uninterrupted.

No

No but I had a system. I would phone my secretary at times (set by me) and people could ask her to pass on a message/request for a conversation. I had an agreement that if anyone wanted to speak to me outside of those times a couple of my partners would screen the request first. In return I had a similar system with them and their secretaries. It worked well for the most part, mainly because I accepted I'd have to available a bit so made my own terms for that.

Your OP - sorry!

I left the City and moved to a similar role outside of London, which affords me far more flexibility. Huge pay cut though.

@reasonablesettlement pretty much - commercial role.

Ironically I worked in same environment pre-children and had to cover for those with kids and am still judged socially for having given up career.

Thanks all. That's all I needed to know. Will revert back to being adoring DH/DW. 🙄

So Bakeo - why the question?

I find the same as PPs but I don’t think it’s healthy at all and some people act up on it totally as it makes them look/feel more important than they really are.

Where’s the cut off though? I am of the view that unless there’s some god awful problem with a case or a client and someone needs urgent advice then why can someone not have a short amount of time to decompress away from the office? If you don’t have a competent team who can manage things for a few days then that’s a big problem.

Urgent question about a client issue? Fair enough, if no one else can help (probably unlikely to be a totally unique problem).

Random questions about stuff that probably could be handled by someone else or wait a few days? No - yet people seem to do these or expect these as well!!

There’s an element of ‘I’m so important I can’t possibly be free of my inbox for 2 days’ which I think is dangerous to people’s wellbeing.

Londonmummy66. I guess from that you are a partner.

Sometimes yes. I would expect to be able to go away for a week without my laptop, not while anything key is on though. Our partners nearly all disappear for a couple of weeks in July / August. I don’t really count a quick email on their phone as interrupted though and would expect to check emails.

I don’t think it’s healthy at all

It's not and I actively don't allow it from anyone under my direct management. Get off of Slack, take your email off of your phone, and go relax!

Completely uninterrupted at that level is unusual. But I would expect people todo their best not to bother me unless absolutely necessary and would do all in my power to set things up so that I didn't need to be disturbed while away. When I worked for a very large corporate at that level, it was a standing joke that the two weeks before any meaningful holiday were the most stressful and hectic because realistically, I'd be doing as much as possible of the work that might be done while I was away. It wasn't unusual to be at work all hours in the final days before leave.

And usually the calls etc would be in the first few days while people got to grips with work, even with all my preparation.

I haven't had an uninterrupted holiday since before I was a trainee!