time off from work

[marionseven14]

Does anyone have PR advice for those of us in the working world who need to take a lot of time off for interviews? How can I avoid getting fired/despised/the evil glare for taking over a week a month off for my interview tour, since these interview often require me to be away for 3 days, including travel? It's not my fault that my application is more popular than I thought it would be!

~someone experiencng too much of a good thing~

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[xanthines]

I was completely honest with my boss. Then again, she and I have a good relationship and she wrote me a letter of recommendation. I assume this is not the case for you.

It sounds like you have several interviews in which case I think the chances of gaining an acceptance is quite high. Unless it is very likely you're going to get fired just come clean and explain the situation. The worst-case scenario (aside from getting fired) is that you have to take some time-off without pay.

-X

Does anyone have PR advice for those of us in the working world who need to take a lot of time off for interviews? How can I avoid getting fired/despised/the evil glare for taking over a week a month off for my interview tour, since these interview often require me to be away for 3 days, including travel? It's not my fault that my application is more popular than I thought it would be!

~someone experiencng too much of a good thing~

 

[freddytn]

I was in a similar position myself. The only other advice I would offer is to offer your boss ways to make up for your absence such as coming in on weekends / staying later than usual when you are not gone for interviews. Or if your job allows it to try to do work while you are away at the interviews (i.e. writing reports / papers / analyzing data / etc ...) It would at least be seen as an offer of good faith to your boss.

 

[Reckoning]

Use your vacation time! It belongs to you and you don't owe your boss an explanation of what you are doing with it. Tell him/her it's "personal". Or that you are looking at going back to school. My situation was equally dicey or more so given how popular layoffs are in my industry these days.

Eventually I came clean with my boss and he was cool about it BUT that was after I recieved enough interviews that I felt confident that I would get in somewhere. Who knows? I could be a marked man for next round of layoffs but I held off telling my boss until I felt a layoff wouldn't kill me.

It sucks being slightly dishonest about it, but loyalty in my industry ain't worth the paper your contract is printed on. Sad but true.