Biglaw Holiday Decision Tree: Do You Have To Work The Friday After Thanksgiving?

How can you tell if you need to be working on Black Friday? Allow us to help make your decision easier.

ThanksgivingEd. note: This post was originally published on November 21, 2013. We republish it today as a public service to any Biglaw folks who are wondering if they need to go into work today.

My first “Black Friday” (that’s the Friday after Thanksgiving for those who reject consumerism in all of its forms) while working in Biglaw, I went into the office. My second Black Friday, I went to the therapist. I didn’t make it to my third one.

Thanksgiving is this week, and while you certainly shouldn’t have to work on Thursday, Friday is a different matter. So, we’ve put together this helpful decision matrix to figure out if you actually have to drag yourself into your Biglaw office on Friday… or if you can sleep off your turkey hangover surrounded by your family and/or the escort you paid to make your holiday feel less empty.

Ed. note: As an aside, in the past we got a complaint over the “immigrant” item in the decision tree. Anyone who has worked in Biglaw for any length of time will recognize the issue: bosses who want to appear accommodating will pile work on lawyers who they perceive as uninterested in the American holiday and, more importantly, the plight of lawyers with visas that prevent them from pushing back on those assignments.

Should you go to work the Friday after Thanksgiving?