‘Should I tell my boss I’m taking holiday for a vac scheme?’

I’m doing a PGDL alongside a professional career with a view to switching to the Bar. I’m in a senior position in my current role but I’ve not told my colleagues or the directors about the PGDL and when I take annual leave to do mini pupillages, people just assume I’m going on holiday. Your current employer doesn’t own you outside of the time you are contracted to them; you can use your annual leave for whatever you like. I haven’t told my employer about my career change plans as it would cause a lot of uncertainty for them and there are so many variables (eg securing pupillage) that might mean I don’t ever get to make the switch, no matter how much I want to.

You should also check your employment terms with your current employer – I’m pretty sure my employment contract (with a law firm) states that I’m not allowed to be employed by anyone else at the same time unless cleared by the firm. May get you in hot water if they somehow find out.

I did this. Just took it as holiday. Converted vac scheme to a TC.

There is nothing immoral about not telling them. I would take unauthorised days off if I needed to.

If you want it bad enough and they don’t let you take the holiday. You’ll quit and do the vac scheme anyway. Trust me they wouldn’t give you the same consideration if it came to cost cutting. Companies aren’t (natural) people and don’t have souls, as much as some try to tell you.

I took two weeks leave to do a vac scheme without telling my then current job. I’d also been promoted about three weeks prior. As far as I was concerned it was none of their business how I chose to use my annual leave – and no real difference to faking a doctors appointment for an interview!

You need to think carefully about this. There are some real cow boy answers in these comments.

If you don’t tell employers and it turns out that your contract (like most of all Uk contracts) prevents you from working for someone else whilst working for your employer – then, if this employer finds out, they can fire you. If they find out.

If you tell them, there’s a chance that they might say no, so it might be better to take it as annual leave without telling them. But they might agree if you are upfront about career changing – don’t expect them to promote you to that senior role those – these don’t go to people who plan on leaving the company.

I’m sure you’ve done a million of these in your role – but this is where you need to risk assess it and balance the importance of doing the vac scheme (very important to getting a TC?) against the chances of employer denying you the chance to do it, or finding out and firing you – depending on how you choose to play it. I hope it works out for you. Not a bad place to be – but think through your choices – get a legal opinion on your contract first if you want something legal to rely on?