Year 2, week 31: holidays

So last week I had my first holiday since the start of my pupillage. I sometimes think that this whole self-employed freedom thing for barristers is a bit of a con really, certainly for the first few years at any rate. All that freedom you’re supposed to have and yet the truth is that if there are cases and there’s no-one else to cover then you have to be available. So I’ve been allowed one week in eighteen months and it’s only because there’s a new crop of pupils to cover the tiny cases that I even get that. But hey, at least I’m not in as bad a position as BusyBody.  She was lucky even to get a rent holiday whilst she was off having her child. If it wasn’t for the Bar Council guidelines she’d have even had to continue paying rent even during her maternity leave. Oh and if you think she’ll get any kind of allowance during that period, you’ve got to be joking. As HeadofChambers said only the other day: “You know, I can’t believe we’ve kept BusyBody’s room empty whilst she’s been away when she isn’t even paying rent. As if it isn’t enough that we subsidise women’s rent for the first few years only for them to leave when they find a rich man.”

When UpTights heard this, she started to get stuck in: “You know, that’s exactly the kind of remark I’d expect from a dinosaur like you.”

Which of course allowed OldSmoothie to slip in with: “Well, at least that’s one good thing we can say about you UpTights. There’s never been any chance of you disappearing on maternity leave, has there now?”

Welcome, once again, to the modern bar.

Comments

[Helen Ivy]

I can't believe you don't get paid maternity leave

[Abigail]

Not as a self-employed person, no. S35A of the Sex Discrimination Act applies specifically to barristers, and that might prevent HC letting the room to another.