Hi guys. I've been working my 40 hours a week, plus nights and weekends for 4 years (been at the firm for 7 years) rounding out to 55-60 hours a week plus. I'm on salary. When is it okay to say something to management about how exhausted I am? I feel like because I'm on salary I can't say much, but I'm just SO tired and burnt out. I know management can't fix the problem right now, but am I doing myself a disservice by not saying anything at all? TIA

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I would not do this job on straigh salary.

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Are they giving you a $30,000 bonus, if not why are you killing yourself? Lawyers work these kind of hours because they want to make equity partner one day. I don’t really understand it for a paralegal position? Is the culture there that everyone does this? Is it the same with other firms in your area? I would be looking for a paralegal job with better work life balance.

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I’m in a similar boat. Salary means you may work or less than 40 hours without a change in salary. However, give yourself some grace. Put in these hours every other week to give yourself balance (or ever 1 week a month). If you say something about being on salary, be ready that if they honor an hourly pay, they may not allow OT.

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Not that I necessarily like this distinction, but per the department of labor and Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), paralegals do not meet the criteria to be considered exempt, so you have a good argument for them to make you salaried non-exempt which would still make you eligible for OT for anything over your state's OT limits. You should definitely look into this and you may even want to speak with an employment lawyer just to be safe.

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If your manager isn’t stepping in on your behalf they aren’t doing their job. This isn’t sustainable salary or not - yet you’ve sustained it for the past 4 years…. Time to speak up.

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Similarly, I tend to work a night per week and then about a half day on the weekends, but this is more like 45-47 hours for me. I do it to keep up and get ahead to avoid being buried. I've worked straight through Friday night through Sunday night before trying to dig out. I don't ask for extra pay. I doubt they would oblige me anyway. Take it to management. Frame it as hey, I have to put in all this extra time in order to keep up. Can I be compensated in any way for the extra time doing so? Call me cynical, but my take is that firms never care. They want the work done. If you don't like it then you could be out the door at any second. So I never ask. But then again I do get pretty nice bonuses, so there is that.

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Unfortunately, you have set an expectation and it may be difficult to walk it back completely, but you can start by cutting back some for a better work-life balance. Is there an opportunity to have your job description reevaluated? I started as a paralegal, but the duties were more aligned with Legal Ops Manager, so I presented a proposal to have my title changed which allowed me to be exempt. If they can't fix the problem right now, maybe there is a path to it in the future. Talk to them and see but make sure to get anything they agree to in writing.

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Take your salary and divide it by the number of hours you’re actually working each week. Watch your hourly rate drop down to something pathetic. Then you won’t feel so bad about talking to your boss.

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No way….!!! You’re doing too much, no bonus and on salary. Get out of there and get a life. I work my hours and nothing more — on rare occasions I’ll put in extra hours but that’s once in a blue moon. When I leave the office I disconnect and not my problem after hours. I’ll take care of it next day or when I get to it. Not a slave to work, health and family come first.

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