Community Perspectives: What do you do when your company suddenly notifies all employees that you are expected to work long, hard hours, on weekends, vacations and holidays?

In-house legal professionals talk about how they handle sudden changes in company policies.

Community Perspectives: What do you do when your company suddenly notifies all employees that you are expected to work long, hard hours, on weekends, vacations and holidays?

(Author) Counsel
My company (100 employees in the health industry) took a page from Elon and notified everyone that we are expected to work hard, long hours, and that we’re to be available for all weekends, vacations and holidays. I’ve taken five vacation days this year, most of which have been interrupted, and though weekends are normally “free” (work starts rolling Sunday night) holidays are often interrupted. So practically this doesn’t change anything, but I’m very irked about this transitioning from “above and beyond” to “expected”. What do I do?

Some notes: Leadership change is not possible, they just capped salary for everyone and did some demotions in order to pay everybody less.

General Counsel Responses:
- Ask to be compensated appropriately for your 24/7/365 work life? But really, just leave.

Counsel Responses:
- Vote with your shoes or wait it out for a leadership change.
- Go somewhere run by sane people.
- You should leave for your own good - before you are irrevocably damaged by this kind of environment. You should also leave for the good of society- let them know this is not normal and should not be tolerated.
- I hate this kind of management. No leadership skills at all.
- It’s not sustainable.

Attorney and Associate Responses:
- Run for dear life.
- If you are smart enough to be a lawyer, you can pivot and find another job and/or start a side hustle until it replaces your income.
- Ridiculous. The world is heading the other way to prioritize mental health.

In-house? Be a part of the conversation on Fishbowl (anonymous).

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