Over Hours, Burnt Out Forum

[Anonymous User]

I’m a midlevel associate at a firm where my pay has been cut with no end in sight. Right now I am way over my hours and I have over 350 hours more than the next highest associate in our practice group. The partners just keep dumping work on me despite me repeatedly saying I don’t have any more capacity. Work isn’t spread out evenly.

Between the pay cut and the ridiculous hours I’m going to lose my mind. I’m not in a major market so it’s harder for me to move firms. This is the only firm I’ve worked for—I summered here.

Is there any play to fix this situation? I’ve told them to piss off in the nicest way I can which, frankly, wasn’t nice. It’s to the point where I hate absolutely everyone I see at work. Should I just start slowing down? Turning in sloppy work? Threaten to leave?

[Anonymous User]

Take back to back 2 week vacations, maybe a month or so spread apart? It's what I did -- works well enough.

[Dahl]

Don’t threaten to leave unless you have somewhere to go or are comfortable looking while unemployed.

Actually start looking. Try to find the most rational partner in your practice group and talk to them frankly, in the meanwhile.

[nahumya]

For the long term - (i) absolutely look at other opportunities so you know what your options are and (ii) get your own clients, which is how you get freedom from others' work.

For the short term, if some of the work is for the same partner, ask which projects to prioritize, acknowledging that the other projects would have to wait. Also ask partners whether you can delegate to other associates who "may have more bandwidth and therefore could get it to the client quicker." It's ok to fall behind on some projects so long as you maintain ongoing communication with the partners about it, so the partners know that you are getting behind because you can't work more than 12 hours per day (that's the limit for maintaining sanity, in my experience). It's also ok to talk openly about the need for recharging, maintaining sanity, and avoiding burn out. No one wants you to leave or burn out. If the work is there, they need to hire more associates. No one will fire you if you're annualizing 2,500 hours, because you are too profitable.