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I get your point, but my experience in doing this for a couple of decades is that this is more client driven than anything else.
Yes, gunner associates brag, and many want to be the top dog. And many partners want to see how many hours they can draw from their existing resource base without expanding that base.
But even if they didn’t, the reality is that the profession has changed and legal services have largely become viewed as a commodity. If firm A won’t deliver a high quality product in an unreasonably short period of time and at a competitive price, firm B will. My take is that this started with the Great Recession when there was beet little legal work available and an oversupply of lawyers. We started undercutting each other on price and promising unreasonable turn around times. The idea that a lawyer-client relationship was a long term relationship that was almost a partnership in some ways went away.
So while I agree that glamorizing burnout and associated behaviors is unhealthy, I think that it would be naive to think that the current climate is the result of associate behaviors or that associates have the ability to unring a bell that was rung by clients.
C2, I don’t think we are disagreeing at all, actually.
Frankly, the people that brag about meeting crazy billable requirements have probably also not pleasured their wife in a year’s time and that’s just not a sacrifice I’m willing to make.
- a gay attorney.
Between AA1 and AA2, I’m dying bc it’s true.
It’s because a lot of lawyers are very unsocialized and constantly want to one up others. Couldn’t agree more with this post. Sick of the whiners and complainers who do nothing to help themselves and just live to complain/show off their billables
Very true! But still not an excuse. As lawyers, we need to be able to advocate for ourselves, even with difficult partners.
And time for interests other than work!!
Yeah what the hell, my hobbies are the only reason I can do this job. Because I can finally afford them. Yeah I’d love more time but sure as hell not giving up having a life outside work. Screw that loser partner
I have to exercise and sleep to do this job, period. It is part of my job.
Totally agree, although I’ll admit that both fall by the wayside around closings.
honour -> honor
plz fix
Sent from my iPhone
Oh god the “Sent from my iPhone”
The worst part is that these people judge and make anyone who takes time to have a life outside of work feel terrible.
Rising Star
Eff that. If people want to spend their entire lives working, skipping vacations, family events, and doing nothing except working so they can be the big swinging dork at their firm, then god bless. They’ll be the richest person in the cemetery and end up in the same crappy box as the people who actually lived their lives. I don’t have a shred of sympathy for people who act like martyrs chasing the almighty dollar.
I don't actually think this is glamorized. I think overwork is a fact and burnout is just a byproduct.
I have seen overworking glamorized (or whatever word you want to use) ever since undergrad. We called it the “who’s busier game” meaning who had the most tests coming up, who had gotten the least amount of sleep, who had studied the longest, etc. (this was mostly amongst STEM majors). And then in law school - if I told someone I was okay with getting average grades to maintain my sanity and continue working to support myself certain people would look at me like I was crazy and then go into a soliloquy about their all nighters. Maybe glamorized is the wrong word but I’ve met so many people that take substantial pride in being workaholics.
I have to say, this is why I’m so grateful I’ve stuck in the public sector. Yeah, I work hard and yeah I don’t make as much as I could, but outside of trial, I rarely work more than 50 hours in a week, and my family actually sees me.
These people have no lives outside work so what else are they gonna talk about.
When your annual appraisal form includes marking you on 'ability to make personal sacrifices', there is a problem. When you're taught that overworking is good and you will be rewarded for it, you will wear burnout as your badge of honour since that's what's expected out of you. It is a conditioned response and it needs to change. Looking at the number of exits, the pandemic may have actually helped a lot of people in realising this.