Do people generally get weekends off at big law firms in Canada?

[Internationaljd]

And how much of a difference there is  in terms of work/life balance between US and Canadian big law firms?

[Pantalaimon]

I think as a junior you're unlikely to do zero work on a weekend. I've been doing anywhere between 2 hours and 16 hours, but the median would probably be around 6.

[easttowest]

Really depends on what’s going on. I have worked through weekends and I have done no work whatsoever and I have done a few hours on Saturdays (I always try to keep Sunday free). 

[disgruntledpelican]

Depends on the practice and firm. I’ve never had a free day on the weekend or holiday as something seems to always come up in a busy transactional practice. My experience is that Saturday and Sunday are not protected from “ASAP” requests, meetings, calls and the like, it’s treated like any other day by some other partners I work with. 

[BlockedQuebecois]

5 minutes ago, disgruntledpelican said:

Depends on the practice and firm. I’ve never had a free day on the weekend or holiday as something seems to always come up in a busy transactional practice. My experience is that Saturday and Sunday are not protected from “ASAP” requests, meetings, calls and the like, it’s treated like any other day by some other partners I work with. 

To be honest, if you've never had a free day on a weekend or holiday (and therefore have worked every day of your career), I think that's more of a boundary setting issue on your end than an accurate reflection of big firm life. 

Even my friends at absolute sweatshops have at least one day of the weekend to themselves fairly frequently, outside of maybe reading a couple emails. 

[disgruntledpelican]

29 minutes ago, BlockedQuebecois said:

To be honest, if you've never had a free day on a weekend or holiday (and therefore have worked every day of your career), I think that's more of a boundary setting issue on your end than an accurate reflection of big firm life. 

Even my friends at absolute sweatshops have at least one day of the weekend to themselves fairly frequently, outside of maybe reading a couple emails. 

Fair. I live in perpetual fear of pushing back as my attempts to do so have always been met with "well everyone's getting crushed, so you have to do your part" and plenty of my colleagues are also in a similar situation of literally working every day. Maybe I should step back and qualify that I may not be exactly pulling full days on every single weekend day and holiday, but half days at the very minimum coupled with lots of waiting time for people to get back to me and therefore still being chained to my virtual desk.

2021 has simply been a brutal year.

[easttowest]

That’s so shitty. Might as well go to NY.

[disgruntledpelican]

7 minutes ago, easttowest said:

That’s so shitty. Might as well go to NY.

Considered it and had an offer in-hand for SF. Decided it wasn't worth it. Looking to go in-house ASAP.

[easttowest]

I guess if you’re planning on leaving and they can’t fire you, there should be no meaningful repercussions for being less available. It’s not like you’ll be looking to these people for a reference since we all jump ship in secret anyway.

[Rashabon]

My recollection is that you lateralled to your firm, right? That could be part of what's driving your workload issues. Less built in workflow streams and relationships, and if you are coming in as a mid-level, the firm is going to push as much as possible down.

Edited December 24, 2021 by Rashabon