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Hows the WLB of AM at Deloitte USI?
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Here we go again.
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I've been in the same position a few times and have just kept the partners above me to updated as to who said no. Sometimes the partners respond with "Oh, so and so has capacity. Let me ask them." I feel like pulling hours on your fellow associates is a good way to make your fellow associates less likely to want to work with you voluntarily going forward. I like to let the partners "force staff" when too many folks say no since we're all typically "busy."
While I understand the frustration, do not ask to have access to their hours. Its off putting to others. Instead, try to be a good senior associate to work for an build relationships sith the juniors you like. I’ve learned that this new generation is much more particular. If they like you, they’ll do anything you need, but if they don’t, they stonewall…
That's very true. I will drop everything and work till 3 am for the partners/srs who treat me well (clear instructions, giving every doc I need or uploading to dms, cc'ing me on relevant threads or forwarding attachments, answering questions within 36 hours, and showing that they care about clients' interests), but the one or two partners who can't do that... they're the very bottom of my list, and I'm not doing a weekend or evening for them, period. I struggle with this bc they must be overwhelmed if they can't do the bare minimum to loop me in, they probably need the most help, but I can't help if I don't have context. they've bitten my head off too many times for trying without adequate info for me to play that game again.
Constantly running into this issue and would not do that. If I asked 3-4 juniors and they are all busy, I discuss with the partner. I never want to force a file onto an junior (or “honeytrap” one) because I’ve had many issues with juniors just not turning docs within the desired timelines (and those are juniors who agreed to take a file to begin with). If someone does a good job I make sure the partner knows. And if someone keeps dropping balls I don’t hide that either.
Tell the partner who said no and ask if they know anyone has capacity. If everyone keeps saying no to you though, you might need to take a hard look at your management style.
My firm is a free market one where seniors about to be up staff their own matters, usually with suggestions from the partners, but we get a lot of free reign. So there has been seniors who basically get stuck doing their own work unless they really had a partner that force staffs people for them.
Not implying you're a bad senior associate, just make sure everyone is actually busy, which is actually the case most of the time.
Are you in charge of staffing just your own matters or also other people’s matters? If the former, I agree with the other commenters thus far that you should punt to partners. If the latter, that’s usually an assigning partner’s or practice manager’s job and you should absolutely have access to hours. Welcome to management.