Quote:
Originally posted by lawyer_princess
Have any of you, or anyone you know, ever taken some time off? Frankly, I need a break. I need to a spend more time with my family. I'm stressed out and miserable.
Is it realistic to take off a year and work on my mental health?
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I know a couple of people who did this - one for "family" reasons (not sure what, but my impression was it wasn't her direct problem), and one for "if I don't get out of here for a while I'm going to snap and buy an uzi and shoot the place up" reasons.
The first was at my firm. They did tell her they would have a place for her (she was in a small, specialist department and had good relations with the partners, but wasn't a star and didn't possess any uniquely vital, irreplaceable skills that I know of). She ate the year she was off, and I think they may have technically frozen her seniority/pay when she came back to be sure she was really able to pick up where she left off (instead of using the first year back to catch up to where she should have been), but in practice they raised her seniority levels and pay on schedule upon her return. I do know that she was quite pro-active on her return about confronting people she felt were making an assumption about her having gone soft due to the time off, and hassled her department to formally acknowledge that her skills hadn't "backslid" during the year she was gone, other than losing the year itself. She ended up leaving because she didn't feel the department had enough work for her to develop, and they were sincerely sad to see her go but didn't object strenuously or make a counter offer.
The second was at a super-prestigious top 5 NYC firm that shall go unnamed, but which is not known for being a particularly humane place to be. He characterized the year off (which grew to 18 months) as a sabbaticle, I believe to write a book. There was no book, but he returned to work with no problems after the time was up and, to my knowledge, is still on partnership track (probably for the same reasons he nearly snapped - he is a highly strung perfectionist with something to prove).
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