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It’s bizarre to me that a partner wants to transfer on of the partner’s main tasks - fairly allocating work to associates- to you, the associate. OP, you are doing a great job managing your time and should be commended not told to somehow be responsible for other associates’ time.
Better to be the associate above the billing requirement than the ones below. Also important to show deference to your partner. I’d ask for less work for a few weeks/month and then resume so you can say you tried to let others catch up.
The above is great advice. I’d refrain for asking for more work for about 2 weeks or so, to show some deference to this partner, then I’d go right back to what you were doing. You definitely don’t want to get behind on your hours because you’re trying to be too deferential - it’s really hard to catch up. It’s not your job to assign work, it’s your job to ask for it and then do the work well. You are over the hourly number for the year to date, so it sounds like you are doing a good job and people trust you with their work, which is great. You let the other associates worry about their own work loads, that’s none of your concern. Rock on, good job! 👏
Yeah, you're doing the right thing OP. The problem is the partner(s) always saying yes to you and not distributing the work around. They have the big picture overview of capacity, you don't.
But sure, backpedal on asking stuff for a time and then go back to what you were doing.
Can you discuss with other associates what their workload is like? I know associates are competitive but you could build good rapport and reputation by showing you’ll work together. Maybe I’m naive though. I just like good workplace environment 😉
Luckily I feel that I work in a good environment (no competitiveness at least within our practice group). Our practice group only has 2 senior patent agents (12+ years experience) and one of them is part time. There are no associates and the rest of the group is partners and senior counsel. I could ask the agents - I am the most junior in the group (I am the only junior person), so they usually give me work as well and I know when they are busy or slow due to asking for work. I usually don't need to ask too often either, about once a month and I've noticed that it's typically when everyone is starting to get slow as well. So, the foregoing is why I am confused about how I can remedy the situation.