I used to wear my work ethic like a badge of honor—first one in, last one out, always volunteering for the hard assignments. I really believed that if I worked hard enough, success would just follow. But now I’m starting to wonder if I was just… easier to exploit. The praise never turned into promotions, and the people who clock out early but play the politics game seem to be the ones moving up. I’m not bitter (okay, maybe a little), but I do feel betrayed by the whole “hard work = success” myth we were sold in school. Anyone else waking up to this late?

As someone who came into the law game as an older person my experience has been that people will promote the people they want to be around for 8 hours a day over the ones who work hard for 12.

You say politics but it’s interpersonal relationships that trump everything.

We spend half our lives at work

Ever heard the phrase “work smarter, not harder”?

Hard work alone isn’t enough. Need to also self promote, have an angel (partner/superior) in your corner, think strategically and realistically, and not burn yourself out.

F - so much success can be attributed to dumb luck, sometimes it be like that. It's helped me take everything in strides.

I’m still very much a believer in hard work, it pays off in the long run.

The harder I work, the luckier I get. Other people have dumb luck sometimes, nothing you can do about that. Keep going out there and keep creating your luck, as little or as much as you want.

That was me a few years ago...until my (now former) boss promoted a less qualified coworker over me. Now, I do what I can to keep my head above water and nothing else.

Maybe it is just not the right place.

I think this is pretty clearly the case. I work hard and it doesn’t really matter to my career prospects. Every career progression I’ve had has been either luck or relationship driven more than it’s been merit driven. Mostly I’m just doing it because the work needs to be done and I take pride in doing it well. It also does have the benefit of earning you respect, autonomy, and better job security which are good things.

One thing you might consider from management’s perspective is sometimes it is hard for them to notice hard work. You might think about how to show that you’re doing good work in reviews. Track your accomplishments and develop ways to talk about them in ways that are easy to understand in your performance reviews.

Whether your manager actually cares or is just going to promote favorites over you anyway depends on who the manager is. But my opinion is that how good you are at your current job usually doesn’t have much to do with whether you get promoted. And it’s human nature for people to just promote people they like. Also whether malicious or not, a lot of times good workers aren’t moved from their position because they want that work to continue to be done well and they like that you’ve taken on more than what you needed to so yes you’re basically being taken advantage of.

Focus on your relationships internally and always assume that if you want a promotion it might be best to go to another company and take a step up in position that way. It’s unfortunate but it’s just how the world works in my opinion.

At the end of the day it’s not about how many hours you put in, but the quality of your work and the relationships with clients, colleagues, and especially supervisors. This includes being reliable and knowing they can trust you in a variety of situations. Also soft skills like getting your billing in on time, asking the right questions, and admitting when you don’t know something and trying to find out the answers from the right people sometimes go much further.

Hard work can really pay off - IF you work for someone who sees through the BS and recognizes hard work vs. ass-kissing. It really hinges on working for the right company.

I see this from both sides honestly. I have to keep telling myself ... to thy own self be true, and do what the job requires of me to meet my own standards ... or I feel like somebody's getting robbed along the way.

I know this is a cyclic thing within me, but it also explains a lot. I feel like I'm doing justice to the job, but then there seems to be resentment from people around the, there is resulting push back to where I begin to feel like I'm doing less than what I was hired to do.

The resulting depression and anxiety makes me wonder if I should be looking for greener pastures, but something or somebody wakes me up.

I hope that makes some sense.

I suggest taking time to reflect on how you define “work”. It can be tricky as lawyers, who often play a lot of different roles. For example, almost all lawyers need client development and the trust building skills which are often overlooked or dismissed by those really working hard at the legal aspects/docs. Project management is also something not everyone thrives at but can be invaluable and value proving. Not to invalidate your frustration, because it’s real.

I just left a firm to start my own thing because of this exactly.

what firms don't typically say, but should, is that doing great work and meeting your hours is a baseline expectation, not a path to promotion. it will get you decent reviews and a good bonus. but without more, that's simply meeting expectations for a good associate, not laying the foundation to become a partner.

in my experience, people who get promoted to partner fit into one of three categories: (1) they have developed direct client relationships and can handle those matters effectively and with minimal supervision, such that they have their own pipeline of work (which is great for the firm, as they don't have to worry about whether the partner will struggle to stay busy); (2) they fill a need that the firm can't currently meet (either because the associate has unique expertise that others don't have, or they have expertise in an area where the firm is over taxed); (3) there is some other political/interpersonal need to make the person a partner, and the firm decides that satisfying that need is worth the risk of an otherwise unprofitable partner (i. e., rainmaker/client insists and threatens to leave otherwise, even though the future partner can't work independently without supervision). For categories 1 and 2, being a great associate and hitting your hours are necessary but insufficient criteria. For category 3, they may or may not, depending on the circumstances.

firms aren't very good at communicating these things clearly and instead list a bunch of amorphous criteria, as though it's a checklist, but it's not. the path to 1 and 2 is also highly individualized, so even if they were good at communicating it, they wouldn't really be able to fill in the details. the best way to figure this out is to discuss with partners who are open and willing to do so. that's tricky because some, particularly partners who aren't very good or don't have enough of their own work, will see future partners as a threat and encourage you simply to continue being a great associate. others may not see you as a threat to their work, but they rely on you so much that they want you to continue to remain an associate because they benefit. you gotta find someone who plays the long game and realizes that developing future partners who trust them is the best way to ensure *they* stay busy as the law develops and clients need different skillsets.