In years you don’t make your bonus, what do your billable hours typically look like? Are you missing it by a hair or is it normal to have some years where you’re only billing 1600? I just finished my first year and trying to figure out what a “normal” slow year looks like compared to a pandemic slow year.

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I saw this meme, which made me wonder!

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For me, I’m way off if I miss it. If I can see the writing on the wall a couple of months out, I don’t phone it in, but don’t actively seek out much new work, because why? At least I’ll have a few good nights sleep instead of a bonus.

If I’m close, I will have a really unpleasant couple of months and ask everyone for work to make it happen. Missing it by a few hours would be so painful—so I’m kind of in or out.

likehelpful

Yep. I frantically do hours calculations starting in Septemberish to see where I am.

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The average billables at my firm is about 1800-1900, depending on the year. We don’t pay bonuses based on hours.

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I’m gonna miss it by 100-150 hours this year.

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