Anonymous wrote:You said yourself it's an unspoken rule not to leave town w/n 3 weeks of said big meeting.

So why did you schedule something w/n that time frame? And your boss doesn't sound encouraging about it so I'd take that as a huge hint.

It's bad optics even if technically you wouldn’t be missed.

This

I agree with this PP but to me that's not a good manager.

I’ve been a low level manager stuck in the middle of this type of re-writing and here’s my guess. You going would be absolutely fine, for the company and the presentation. Being back in time for final edits means at most there’s a delay in getting to the product that your boss wants and he will have to think about/manage a little more around your absence. But, she is worried about sending that message because if everyone who needs to contribute to this presentation felt free to be out, her life would be a more complicated and she would have delays on multiple components and *maybe* she would end up with a slightly less ideal product and more work for herself. So she doesn’t want to encourage that even no it doesn’t really matter in the end.


It’s been my experience that what managers really like, and the people they promote, are the people who make their life easier, mostly through doing high quality work that they don’t need to fix and by not needing a lot of managing.

So basically you have to decide how much you care. Is this really the only 3 week period or are there other artificial emergencies going on all the time? Is this otherwise a good place to work? Do you generally like your boss? Is this where you want to use up some of the good will that you have been working to build? Is your job pretty secure and/or are you hoping for a promotion?

All of those things matter a lot because I’d be fine to go away and take the hit if I really thought it was reasonable for me to think that I wouldn’t be needed when I booked it. But I’m very good at my job and not particularly interested in being promoted AND there are constantly deadlines and presentations and there’s really no time I can be away without it being annoying for other people, so there’s not that much benefit to moving my trips around my guess of when we will be busy. YMMV.

Anonymous wrote:Your boss has told you what she would do, which is what she expects you to do. Now make a choice. I’d reschedule a long weekend after that conversation with my boss.

+1
I would have rescheduled bf the conversation w/ the boss. After talking to her there’s zero question, unless you don’t ever want to move up and are happy being looked at by your boss as one who doesn’t prioritize work.

This is so fact dependent, it’s really hard to give good advice. But your boss said not to go. So, if your boss is important (has hiring/promotion/bonus authority over you; is respected by the c-suite), then you have your answer if you care about this specific job.

I will say that I once had a boss tell me to skip a wedding for which I wasn’t even taking a day off work (during my big law days). I said no. It was yet another indication that Big Law wasn’t for me. BUT I was well liked/respected at the firm and during my exit interview (for a job that would have been viewed as equivalent or better), I was specifically asked if he helped drive me out. Turns out the firm was actually pissed he was so “strict” with good associates (it wasn’t just me) and it was specifically held against him when it came to picking the next office head, so you really just never know. The nicest partner at that firm is the most important now and it is *not* a firm where you would think that would be true (almost the opposite).

How many PowerPoint slides are we talking about here? Also, is there a long speech that you have to prepare for? Are you preparing a detailed report that's more than 20+ pages, if the CEO asks for more details?

I just don't understand why being out one weekend is this big a deal.