I am back from a delightful vacation. The vacation itself was spectacular, but it was made even better by my colleagues who were not on vacation.
My colleagues didn’t just send me off with good wishes, they took care of my work obligations while I was away. That in and of itself is not unusual. That’s what is necessary to keep an office running. What was special was that my colleagues looked into the crannies and crevices of my work and … moved on.
In other words, there was no penalty for me leaving the office and letting my colleagues see work I’ve done, work that was in process, and work I hadn’t quite figured out yet. Like so much in a dysfunctional workplace, nobody would actually confess to delighting in criticizing a colleague for his or her work product while the colleague was away. That would be wrong and antithetical to a productive work environment. And yet, many work environments fail to prevent the sort of dysfunction that fosters professional sabotage.
The Fifth-Year Dilemma: Do I Stay Or Do I Go (In-House)?
How to make the right decision, and why there might be another way to shape a fulfilling legal career on your own terms.
I’ve worked in many different places during my legal career and some places were better than others when it came to vacations. Some places, my colleagues let me know what they thought of my work product with a sly grimace and a passive-aggressive, “Not that you were handling it improperly, but I went ahead and fixed it.” Others were simply aggressive and told me I’d messed up everything that was on my desk. None of this is to say that I was a victim. I played the same game with my colleagues when my colleagues left the office. All’s fair in love, war, and work.
The truth is, however, savaging your colleagues’ work when you are covering for them is a jerk move. It’s a jerk move to them and it’s a jerk move to you as well. Despite the cultural and industrial disgust at taking time off, vacations are important. Vacations prevent burnout, are good for our health, and inspire us to desire to return to work.
American culture isn’t friendly to vacation, and the legal profession is even less open to the idea of taking time off. Lawyers are competitive, opportunistic, and tend to have a strong work ethic. One person can’t unilaterally transform a business culture’s attitude about vacation from discouraging employees from taking time off to rewarding vacation time, but we as individuals can make it easier for each other to go on vacation. Ultimately, if you are using a colleague’s absence to promote yourself, you are contributing to a culture of discouraging vacation, and in the end, that hurts you.
That’s what my colleagues did for me. I had some big problems on my plate that I could not resolve before I left. I briefed my colleagues as best I could and they handled the issues the best they could during my absence. And that was it. They welcomed me back. My boss gave me suggestions for moving forward because she understood my problems a bit more (after handling them herself). I was able to actually relax during my vacation because I knew I would have my team’s support while I was away.
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Absence can make the heart grow fonder, so long as it is the kind of absence that allows a person to fully disconnect from the stress of work.
Celeste Harrison Forst has practiced in small and mid-sized firms and is now in-house at a large manufacturing and technology company where she receives daily hugs from her colleagues. You can reach Celeste directly at [email protected].