As a first-year Biglaw affiliate, the store at which I labored had a beneficiant trip coverage. They gave all attorneys 4 weeks of paid trip annually, and when an worker left the agency, the store paid as much as 4 weeks’ value of trip time to the departing employee. Many corporations nowadays have open-ended trip insurance policies, which bosses say is preferable as a result of individuals theoretically can take off as a lot as they need. In actuality, everyone knows that such insurance policies permit employers to keep away from needing to pay out for unused trip time, and employers can use implied strain to maintain workers from taking an excessive amount of time without work. Whereas enthusiastic about such insurance policies lately, I questioned if there was something morally fallacious with somebody utilizing such insurance policies to take a protracted trip after which quitting even when they haven’t labored at a agency for a very long time.
Earlier in my profession, I labored at a midsized legislation agency that had an open-ended trip time. The agency allowed associates to take off as a lot trip time as they happy as long as they happy the agency’s expectations when it got here to billable hours. Individuals at this agency usually took an honest quantity of trip time without work for the reason that agency paid staff beneath market salaries and the holiday coverage was one of many perceived perks of working at this agency.
Throughout my time at this store, an affiliate arrived on the agency and bought married about 4 to 5 months later. The affiliate ended up taking about 4 weeks of trip time due to his wedding ceremony. This looks as if loads, however I imagine that the affiliate bought married exterior of our space and had deliberate his honeymoon months earlier than becoming a member of the legislation agency.
When the affiliate returned to work, everybody was shocked to find that he tendered his two-week discover. It appears that evidently our agency was not this affiliate’s first choice when it got here to employers, and he had been talking with of us at one other store for a very long time a couple of potential job provide. It simply so occurred that the job provide got here via proper when this affiliate returned from his honeymoon, and the brand new alternative was troublesome to cross up.
In fact, administration at our agency was not happy. Not solely had they invested time and sources into coaching this affiliate throughout his quick stint at our store, however they lately permitted him to take a protracted paid trip to attend wedding ceremony festivities and his honeymoon. The affiliate appeared contrite, and he provided to pay the agency again the wages he earned whereas taking his 4 weeks of trip. Nonetheless, the agency didn’t take the affiliate up on the provide, and I didn’t perceive the mechanics of such a proposal for the reason that affiliate presumably had tax withholdings that must be factored into any such decision.
My preliminary response to this affiliate taking a protracted trip and quitting was adverse because it left my store within the mud and all the different associates needed to share his work whereas my agency discovered a substitute. However now that I give it some thought, this episode could possibly be karma for the agency sustaining an unrestricted and ill-defined trip coverage within the first place. If the affiliate earned trip days over time on a set schedule, the agency may have knowledgeable the affiliate that he didn’t have sufficient trip time to take the journey. Nonetheless, the agency seemingly didn’t wish to be tied all the way down to such a coverage, and they also had been left holding the bag when an affiliate used the coverage to his benefit.
I’d love suggestions from readers on this subject, do individuals suppose staff have an ethical obligation to not act underhandedly to employers? My feeling is employers already take loads from workers, and staff ought to usually be free to make use of office insurance policies towards those that make use of them.
Jordan Rothman is a companion of The Rothman Legislation Agency, a full-service New York and New Jersey legislation agency. He’s additionally the founding father of Scholar Debt Diaries, a web site discussing how he paid off his pupil loans. You possibly can attain Jordan via e mail at jordan@rothman.legislation.
