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Not necessarily managing anxiety but when I am slow I am constantly annoying people on my team for work and even asking off team if I have done work for another team. In person and via email and save the emails in a folder in your inbox. You can even say that you have only had x billable hours this month. This helps my anxiety because I’m building an auditable account of being proactive and trying to get work. That way no one can say it’s my fault if I’m slow. Making it the team’s fault if I’m slow.
I’m saying I don’t think anyone will care whether you looked for work or not. They’ll just say, Associate 1 has been billing 10 hours per month, let’s start documenting performance issues whether or not they are reflective of his or her abilities to eventually fire them if they haven’t left by then.
When it comes to the question of “why are you slow” the answer will always be, you’re not close enough to the insulated group of folks being reliably fed work, relative to the amount of business the market yields at that given time. It’s multivariable, but if it lasts into the intermediate term, 99% of partners will say you basically aren’t good enough at your job (the connotation being “or else you’d be closer to that insulated group being fed work in order to not be slow”) and won’t say it’s just because of the market (despite it, in reality, being a function of both of those variables).
Also, you can ask your team lead what they think you should work on (BD, Pro Bono, etc.) during this slow period. Again, that way no one can say you chose to spend your time inappropriately.
Context is my firm is going through a merger and my entire group is slow
These are great tips, thank you
Coach
Unless this is a typo, 10 hours per month is unheard of. I think you need to speak with the head of your group. It seems likely that partners are looking to move as well, so you may be able to go with.
No, sadly not a typo.
What group?
This is a regulatory group
This sounds like heaven
No ❤️