I’m the fallback associate for every partner’s weekend emergency. It started as being a team player, but now I’m the only one getting pings at 9 PM on a Saturday while the rest of my cohort has magically gone off-grid. The partners treat my availability as a given rather than a sacrifice. How do you stop being the fixer without looking like you’ve suddenly lost your work ethic? Is it possible to re-establish boundaries?

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Tell them you are the fixer and appreciate the big bonuses, but ask why comes next in your career and what happens when you graduate to the next role.
In other words: be proactive about it

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Try to say no more often. You can maintain your brand of being a team player if you respond to the 9pm email by saying “I am unfortunately tied up tomorrow, but can handle first thing Monday.” Especially if you don’t do it every time, you can gradually teach the partners that yes, you’re a team player who tries to help out when you can, but you aren’t always available.

You can also try to lean on your team: “hey, partner just emailed me but I’m [description of obligation or just “unavailable”]. Any chance you can respond?” (For years, I did this to the person immediately senior to me, who actually feels more pressure to respond to partner—now I’m that person, and I can tell you, it would work on me now that the roles are reversed.)

You can also ignore a Saturday night ping and hit em with the Sunday AM “sorry I missed this, I can address [specific time later] if that works.”

Or you can straight up ignore it and respond Monday. (After all, that’s what the rest of your team is doing, right?)

Which to choose depends on the nature of the ping (is it a real, client- or court-imposed emergency?) and your goals at the firm (do you want to be seen as the best or is good enough good enough?). Only you can pick the balance, I lean towards the “good enough” end of the spectrum.

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