We received a few replies to our call yesterday for news on the way firms are handling the Christmas shut-down. In essence, we were hoping to find out if any firms were using the opportunity - a traditional down time in the calendar - to force staff to take unused annual leave.

Surprise surprise - notorious tightwads AAR are rumoured to have implemented a very tight scheme in which staff will lose almost half of their annual leave entitlements. This from an anonymous AAR spy last night:

put your annual leave in the bag, b*tch!

Re: your story on involuntary leave- Allens is closing Christmas Eve this year and re-opening on the 11th. All staff forced to take leave unless they have the approval of their section head to work during the office closure. No extra leave is given to compensate for this, so you’ve lost 8 of your 20 annual leave days for the year as the firm shifts the burden of a traditionally quiet period onto its staff (and justifies it by saying “the firm believes it is important for staff to spend this time with their families”). Interestingly, last year we re-opened a week earlier…

No doubt our best mate, AAR spokesperson Chris Fogarty, was behind the “spend time with your families” rigmarole.

Meanwhile, it appears Mallesons have finally gotten into the festive cheer by actually giving staff some extra leave. We received the following from an anonymous Mallesons spy yesterday:

Mallesons is closing on Christmas eve and will not officially reopen until 11 January. All told, staff are forced to spend 5 days of annual leave, but will receive 3.5 days of annual leave for free. If people have urgent work, they will not be required to take those 5 days, but this is subject to partner approval… I think everyone is pretty happy with the arrangement. Let’s call it a very minor solace for the sh*t that everyone has been through this year and for the almost laughable “bonus” we received.

We’re happy to call it a ” very minor solace”, but better than nothing!

What is your firm doing? Let us know - send the Firm Spy your news and views!

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