Associate Life Survey: That Was A Real Holiday?
In last Wednesday’s ATL / Lateral Link survey, we asked you whether you billed over Columbus Day Weekend this year.
We received 1,175 responses, and were pleasantly surprised to learn that 26% of you had a pleasant three-day weekend. Associates in Boston were most likely to enjoy a discovery-free Columbus Day, with offices at Bingham, Goodwin Procter, and Ropes & Gray reportedly closed for the day. Overall, 46% of Boston respondents reported that they had not worked over the holiday weekend, followed by 36% of respondents in Philadelphia.
Of course, not all respondents were so lucky. As one associate commented:
One of the name partners threw a hissy fit when someone asked for the time off, because “Columbus Day isn’t Christmas, and this weekend is just like every other weekend.” We were only absent one associate on Monday. Everyone else not a partner was working.
Nice.
Of those who spent time at the office, though, only 65% said that their office was actually open. Among worker bees whose offices were actually closed, 52% said that they simply had things they needed to get done. Another 21% said that a partner had told them to work over the weekend, while 8% said a client had asked them to finish something. 13% said they needed the hours.
But two percent of respondents who worked over Columbus Day weekend even though the office was closed said that they just “wanted to impress people,” which is just sad roughly consistent with prior holiday surveys.
Overall, about 58% of respondents who worked over Columbus Day weekend believed that the work was worth it.
—
Justin Bernold is a Director at Lateral Link, the sponsor of this Associate Life Survey.
(29) Comments
Comments
pretzels, etc.
FIRSTTT
2nd!!!
Fourth!!!
CATS!
"pleasantly surprised to learn that 26% of you had a pleasant three-day weekend"
I'd be pleasantly surprised if you had a pleasant thesaurus.
please, stop with the lolcats.
Boston is a great city to go to school in and to.... wait, that's it.
"'Everyone else not a partner was working.'
Nice."
NICE!?!?!
What the hell does that even mean? Does the tipster mean all the other deal teams at the firm was off or his firm was the only firm to be working?
"Gifted" minds must think alike.
"Of those who spent time at the office, though, only 65% said that their office was actually open. Among worker bees whose offices were actually closed, 52% said that they simply had things they needed to get done."
Perhaps you should actually open that pleasant thesaurus, pleasantly expand your vocabularly, then actually close it.
I thought the Thesaurus was extinct like Ellie's diet of non fast food.
Everyone is a winner at Skadden DC.
7-
Choke on your oversized tongue, you waterhead.
Hey, leave Triggy7alone!
Balls Deepok Chopra
Literally, guys at my high school literally would use the same adverb in every sentence. It was literally no big deal.
Happy Caturday!!!!!!!
What does he mean by literally?
Will Ferrel - Semi Pro
it is almost noon and ELIE has posted nothing.
17: We should be so lucky. Maybe we will have more days like this.
Ellie is still eating breakfast. Leave him alone, he is a growing boy and will need his strength for later when he eats lunch.
Ellie's mom
Yeah 17, also jonesing for the Elie.
BREAKING NEWS:
Elie fired. Lat to take over on temporary basis.
Mystall = Skadden DC of bloggers
Columbus day?!? Are you seriously thinking that you should get a break from Columbus day? Get over yourself. Next you are going to tell me you want a day off for Lincoln's birthday. The only holidays that warrant days off are Christmas, Easter, 4th of July, Thanksgiving, and New Years. Or your religion's equivalent.
People who want these 'holidays' off are lazy.
If our employers want/expect us to come into work, they should not designate these days as "Firm Holidays"
If our employers want/expect us to come into work, they should not designate these days as "Firm Holidays"
My tiny no $ firm was open on Columbus Day. I didn't even bother asking if we had off.
I didn't know there was a holiday and I had to look it up on wikipedia to find out what day of the calendar was being discussed - blah to of you with closed offices :P
Columbus Day is a fake holiday in a lot of ways. First, very few private business give time off for it. Second, it's ajoke that we even celebrate Columbus for discovering America when (i) there were native people here for tens of thousands of years before Columbus, (ii) he discovered the Carbbiean islands, not continental US or Canada, (iii) the Vikings settled in Newfoundland in the year 1000 or so, 492 years before CC, (iv) Columbus basically butchered or enslaved the natives that the "white mans diseases" didn't kill off, (v) there is evidence suggesting that the Chinese and/or Polynesians made it to the west coast before 1492.
Most firms will add a day off for the Friday after Thanksgiving (which is *not* a federal holiday) or tack on a day off for 12/24, 12/26 or 12/31 when those days fall certain ways on the calendar.
I guess that I misunderstood the question when you posted it. My big firm was open on Columbus Day as it is a non-holiday in California. Schools and universities are in session and life goes on as normal except for federal courts and the post office. When you asked if we worked on C. Day "weekend", I thought you were asking if we worked on Saturday or Sunday -- which I didn't because my office is super slow. However, Monday the 13th of October -- yes we all worked -- again, it isn't a holiday on this coast.