Just started and realized I will need to go away for a month for a surgery - what to do?

I just started working full-time at one of the top shops for M&A - not going to name it because it would be too obvious given my situation - after a 1 year delay. I was supposed to start full-time in 2021, but asked the firm to push me back to 2022 start to work on some personal projects. They very nicely agreed.

I am still in training right now but have recently discovered I will need to undertake a surgery where I will need anywhere between 2 weeks to a month off from work. It is not a very urgent surgery, I can theoretically push this off for a few months, but the underlying health issue does get exacerbated by stress & lack of rest, which I know I will have a lot of.

How should I approach this with my team? I feel like I have already overstretched their niceness and at this point, it would just look bad. 

10 Comments
 
Most Helpful

Get the surgery ASAP. That's the only answer.

Nothing in this world supersedes your own health, especially a job. Anyone who says otherwise is only perpetuating this obscene, anxiety-ridden corporate environment we've all joined.

Any reasonable human being would understand that things like this happen in life. Your career will be fine and waiting for you when you're healthy and ready to grind. 

 

Agree with what the other poster said, your health comes first 100% of the time. I don’t know your team, or your manager, but if you were on my team I would want you to ask for the time off and get your surgery asap. Over my years of running teams I’ve had a few cases like this come up (from brand new hires to a few years in) and it has NEVER been an issue; people are reasonable and they care about other people. The work can wait, that’s why you have a team. 

 

Was in a similar situation, literally just say you need surgery and X time off based on what your doctor/surgeon said. They will say “sounds good get well soon” and pass it off to HR who will pass it off to an Insurance provider that will have an agent get in touch with you to monitor your progress and see if you need additional time (which is fine btw). 
 

I took off 2 weeks FT, 2 weeks working 10 hours each week, then 2 weeks at 20 hours, and so on until FT

STONKS
 

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