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my god what did I do to myself.

Why?

zot1 wrote:Why?

cause I can turn 30 billable hours into a whole week in teh office til 11pm.

This actually worries me more than anything. I am really good at buckling down for a couple weeks at a time, i.e., for finals, and then doing next to nothing the rest of the semester. I've realized I go either like 20% or 200%.

But you get fancy dinners delivered to you...

zot1 wrote:But you get fancy dinners delivered to you...

Yeah DF, is it really THAT bad?

DCfilterDC wrote:

zot1 wrote:But you get fancy dinners delivered to you...

Yeah DF, is it really THAT bad?

30 dollars of pasta pushing ur guts makes it worse.

Desert Fox wrote:

DCfilterDC wrote:

zot1 wrote:But you get fancy dinners delivered to you...

Yeah DF, is it really THAT bad?

30 dollars of pasta pushing ur guts makes it worse.

Okay but at least you're not a roofer working in Arizona over the summer.

zot1 wrote:

Desert Fox wrote:

DCfilterDC wrote:

zot1 wrote:But you get fancy dinners delivered to you...

Yeah DF, is it really THAT bad?

30 dollars of pasta pushing ur guts makes it worse.

Okay but at least you're not a roofer working in Arizona over the summer.

I did some roofing in Arizona during a summer years back. It's hot as hell but there's really no mental stress. I liked it better than a mind numbing office job I had previously.

whenever im pulling my monthly all nighter i just think about how my other friends dont have real jobs and are pussies. then i realize they havent invited me to chill in months.

it must be like a never ending legal writing homework

JohannDeMann wrote:whenever im pulling my monthly all nighter i just think about how my other friends dont have real jobs and are pussies. then i realize they havent invited me to chill in months.

Clyde Frog wrote: I did some roofing in Arizona during a summer years back. It's hot as hell but there's really no mental stress. I liked it better than a mind numbing office job I had previously.

OMG. This. I have been thinking this since I started work.

JohannDeMann wrote:whenever im pulling my monthly all nighter i just think about how my other friends dont have real jobs and are pussies. then i realize they havent invited me to chill in months.

Crushing yet very true realization. Granted most of my friends are making far less and wishing they had my job, it still sucks.

money without free time is useless. at least my dog has a very expensive dogwalker because I can't come home before 7pm.

Tell me more

WestOfTheRest wrote:

Clyde Frog wrote: I did some roofing in Arizona during a summer years back. It's hot as hell but there's really no mental stress. I liked it better than a mind numbing office job I had previously.

OMG. This. I have been thinking this since I started work.

Yep. Any type of labor job is going to be tough at first but once your body adapts it's actually cathartic. In an office job the stress just keeps building and building until you ultimately quit or get a script for anti-depressants.

Clyde Frog wrote:

WestOfTheRest wrote:

Clyde Frog wrote: I did some roofing in Arizona during a summer years back. It's hot as hell but there's really no mental stress. I liked it better than a mind numbing office job I had previously.

OMG. This. I have been thinking this since I started work.

Yep. Any type of labor job is going to be tough at first but once your body adapts it's actually cathartic. In an office job the stress just keeps building and building until you ultimately quit or get a script for anti-depressants.

There's also the sense of accomplishment that comes with labor jobs that doesn't come with office jobs. The whole, the reward for good work is more work mentality. What's more, as a lawyer you are paid to not screw up. There is doing it right and doing it wrong. Thus, there is no reward for doing it right, since that's the baseline. With labor jobs there truly is a spectrum and great work is recognized.

But yea, roofing was very cathartic. My biggest complaint was the type of coworkers around me (lots of hard criminals and druggies), but come to think of it, biglaw coworkers aren't any better.

WestOfTheRest wrote:

Clyde Frog wrote:

WestOfTheRest wrote:

Clyde Frog wrote: I did some roofing in Arizona during a summer years back. It's hot as hell but there's really no mental stress. I liked it better than a mind numbing office job I had previously.

OMG. This. I have been thinking this since I started work.

Yep. Any type of labor job is going to be tough at first but once your body adapts it's actually cathartic. In an office job the stress just keeps building and building until you ultimately quit or get a script for anti-depressants.

There's also the sense of accomplishment that comes with labor jobs that doesn't come with office jobs. The whole, the reward for good work is more work mentality. What's more, as a lawyer you are paid to not screw up. There is doing it right and doing it wrong. Thus, there is no reward for doing it right, since that's the baseline. With labor jobs there truly is a spectrum and great work is recognized.

But yea, roofing was very cathartic. My biggest complaint was the type of coworkers around me (lots of hard criminals and druggies), but come to think of it, biglaw coworkers aren't any better.

I feel you on the sense of accomplishment at the end of the workday. In regard to the co-workers, some of those guys are the realest people you'll ever meet though. I couldn't say the same about the co-workers I've known in an office setting.

Clyde Frog wrote: I feel you on the sense of accomplishment at the end of the workday. In regard to the co-workers, some of those guys are the realest people you'll ever meet though. I couldn't say the same about the co-workers I've known in an office setting.

I've had a hell of a time moving from construction into an office/professional environment. The two types of people are so different that I'm having to completely relearn work interaction, which I wasn't great at to begin with, but figured out eventually. It's way easier to deal with actual aggression than passive aggressive bullshit.

monsterman wrote:This actually worries me more than anything. I am really good at buckling down for a couple weeks at a time, i.e., for finals, and then doing next to nothing the rest of the semester. I've realized I go either like 20% or 200%.

I was the same way. The transition to working at a law firm—where you have to bill all your time—is brutal.

I mean, the ability to go at 200% for a couple of weeks is still valuable. The problem is learning to "coast" at 75% instead of 20%. I'm four years in, and I still haven't shed all of my bad procrastination habits. Procrastinating is massively self-destructive when you're at a law firm.

MarkinKansasCity wrote:

Clyde Frog wrote: I feel you on the sense of accomplishment at the end of the workday. In regard to the co-workers, some of those guys are the realest people you'll ever meet though. I couldn't say the same about the co-workers I've known in an office setting.

I've had a hell of a time moving from construction into an office/professional environment. The two types of people are so different that I'm having to completely relearn work interaction, which I wasn't great at to begin with, but figured out eventually. It's way easier to deal with actual aggression than passive aggressive bullshit.

Yeah I wasn't at the office job very long. Been doing mostly fence installation lately, which is basically digging holes and pouring cement all day, but it still beats the office job.

Clyde Frog wrote:

MarkinKansasCity wrote:

Clyde Frog wrote: I feel you on the sense of accomplishment at the end of the workday. In regard to the co-workers, some of those guys are the realest people you'll ever meet though. I couldn't say the same about the co-workers I've known in an office setting.

I've had a hell of a time moving from construction into an office/professional environment. The two types of people are so different that I'm having to completely relearn work interaction, which I wasn't great at to begin with, but figured out eventually. It's way easier to deal with actual aggression than passive aggressive bullshit.

Yeah I wasn't at the office job very long. Been doing mostly fence installation lately, which is basically digging holes and pouring cement all day, but it still beats the office job.

There are two problems with that kind of work: The pay is relatively low and the hours are uncertain, and eventually your body wears out and you can't do it anymore. The second part really sucks since you didn't make enough money to save for retirement before your joints were shot to hell.

MarkinKansasCity wrote:

Clyde Frog wrote:

MarkinKansasCity wrote:

Clyde Frog wrote: I feel you on the sense of accomplishment at the end of the workday. In regard to the co-workers, some of those guys are the realest people you'll ever meet though. I couldn't say the same about the co-workers I've known in an office setting.

I've had a hell of a time moving from construction into an office/professional environment. The two types of people are so different that I'm having to completely relearn work interaction, which I wasn't great at to begin with, but figured out eventually. It's way easier to deal with actual aggression than passive aggressive bullshit.

Yeah I wasn't at the office job very long. Been doing mostly fence installation lately, which is basically digging holes and pouring cement all day, but it still beats the office job.

There are two problems with that kind of work: The pay is relatively low and the hours are uncertain, and eventually your body wears out and you can't do it anymore. The second part really sucks since you didn't make enough money to save for retirement before your joints were shot to hell.

It's around $20/hr so it keeps food on the table until I go to law school. It's my good friend's company also and they're pretty well established so working 5-6 full days a week is generally the norm. It also helped that we didn't have much downtime this year because of the mild winter in Ohio.

Clyde Frog wrote: It's around $20/hr so it keeps food on the table until I go to law school. It's my good friend's company also and they're pretty well established so working 5-6 full days a week is generally the norm. It also helped that we didn't have much downtime this year because of the mild winter in Ohio.

Short term it's great, especially if it's steady work. I busted my ass on job sites, but I was also like an overgrown kid. Playing with power tools is fun. It's the long term part that doesn't work. My dad has done commercial HVAC work for the last 35 years, and he has gotten to the point where he has to have what is basically an apprentice who carries anything heavy for him because his shoulders are completely fucked. What's really sad about the whole thing is that he's really good at his job, and he loves it, but it is breaking him physically. He could probably go work for Trane or ITT tech or something, but he'd rather fix shit for real.