Low hours pissing contest Forum

[Anonymous User]

Just finished first full year at around 1200-1300 with pro bono included.

[Anonymous User]

This is my kinda thread. Senior associate, corporate, NYC, annualizing a little over 1600 for this billable year. Will probably try to pull it up a little just to get the partners off my back. Aiming for 1800, which would be quite a feat in today’s overheated corp market. I’m just trying to stack cash and last as long as possible before they kick me out.

[Anonymous User]

This is my kinda thread. Senior associate, corporate, NYC, annualizing a little over 1600 for this billable year. Will probably try to pull it up a little just to get the partners off my back. Aiming for 1800, which would be quite a feat in today’s overheated corp market. I’m just trying to stack cash and last as long as possible before they kick me out.

Please walk through a day in the life of a low biller. What’s a more typical day like? Curious about the lifestyle. Thanks.

[Anonymous User]

Excellent thread idea, let's see more responses pronto

[Anonymous User]

7th year who is going to do his darndest to hit 1800 by the end of our review period. I still work late because I proably have latent ADHD or something, but I try to get 7+ hours of sleep, have a good number of friends, exercise 4x/week, take a good number of weekend trips etc, and apart from the vague wondering if I'll be fired eventually, life isn't so bad.

[Anonymous User]

on track for 1000 hours as a second year, pretty amazing assuming I don't get fired.

[Anonymous User]

on track for 1000 hours as a second year, pretty amazing assuming I don't get fired.

How much nonbillable do you pair with your 20/hr per week ??

[Anonymous User]

This is my kinda thread. Senior associate, corporate, NYC, annualizing a little over 1600 for this billable year. Will probably try to pull it up a little just to get the partners off my back. Aiming for 1800, which would be quite a feat in today’s overheated corp market. I’m just trying to stack cash and last as long as possible before they kick me out.

Please walk through a day in the life of a low biller. What’s a more typical day like? Curious about the lifestyle. Thanks.

Pretty easy. Wake up around 9:30, start work around 10:30~11. I usually take an hour lunch and sometimes an afternoon nap. Work out four times a week. Rarely work weekends. Honestly though I still work way more than my spouse, who has a cushy tech job, so I don’t FEEL like I’m a low biller, even though the partners I work for tell me my hours are significantly below average

[Anonymous User]

This is my kinda thread. Senior associate, corporate, NYC, annualizing a little over 1600 for this billable year. Will probably try to pull it up a little just to get the partners off my back. Aiming for 1800, which would be quite a feat in today’s overheated corp market. I’m just trying to stack cash and last as long as possible before they kick me out.

Please walk through a day in the life of a low biller. What’s a more typical day like? Curious about the lifestyle. Thanks.

Pretty easy. Wake up around 9:30, start work around 10:30~11. I usually take an hour lunch and sometimes an afternoon nap. Work out four times a week. Rarely work weekends. Honestly though I still work way more than my spouse, who has a cushy tech job, so I don’t FEEL like I’m a low biller, even though the partners I work for tell me my hours are significantly below average

What time do you generally wrap up the work day? Mind telling us which practice in corporate you’re in? Did you start doing this recently or has this always been your style?

Sorry for the questions, I’m just genuinely hoping I can make this happen for me. I am doubtful it’s possible in ECVC work just based on the sheer volume of clients I’m staffed to.

[Anonymous User]

First year in a NYC v10 specialist group. Most weeks I bill 10-20 hours although most of my work comes in after business hours or on weekends so it still leads to some cancelled plans.

[Anonymous User]

This is my kinda thread. Senior associate, corporate, NYC, annualizing a little over 1600 for this billable year. Will probably try to pull it up a little just to get the partners off my back. Aiming for 1800, which would be quite a feat in today’s overheated corp market. I’m just trying to stack cash and last as long as possible before they kick me out.

Please walk through a day in the life of a low biller. What’s a more typical day like? Curious about the lifestyle. Thanks.

Pretty easy. Wake up around 9:30, start work around 10:30~11. I usually take an hour lunch and sometimes an afternoon nap. Work out four times a week. Rarely work weekends. Honestly though I still work way more than my spouse, who has a cushy tech job, so I don’t FEEL like I’m a low biller, even though the partners I work for tell me my hours are significantly below average

What time do you generally wrap up the work day? Mind telling us which practice in corporate you’re in? Did you start doing this recently or has this always been your style?

Sorry for the questions, I’m just genuinely hoping I can make this happen for me. I am doubtful it’s possible in ECVC work just based on the sheer volume of clients I’m staffed to.

Seems like partners have gently brought the subject up. How do you respond? Any reviews yet?

[Anonymous User]

on track for 1000 hours as a second year, pretty amazing assuming I don't get fired.

How much nonbillable do you pair with your 20/hr per week ??

Close to zero. Lots of days with zero billable hours and no emails.

[Anonymous User]

Mid level here - came in around 1600 last year, about halfway through this year and on track for 1500. Annual review was good and they barely mentioned my hours. Hours were abysmal earlier this year so I was worried about getting a talk, but they’ve actually picked up and I had a full month that was on bonus pace and I continue to get staffed on long term stuff, unfortunately I’m so far behind my hours that bonus seems out of reach. I’ve also been totally miserable billing on pace so I think I’m just incapable of actually working the hours expected of this job.

[Anonymous User]

This is my kinda thread. Senior associate, corporate, NYC, annualizing a little over 1600 for this billable year. Will probably try to pull it up a little just to get the partners off my back. Aiming for 1800, which would be quite a feat in today’s overheated corp market. I’m just trying to stack cash and last as long as possible before they kick me out.

Please walk through a day in the life of a low biller. What’s a more typical day like? Curious about the lifestyle. Thanks.

Pretty easy. Wake up around 9:30, start work around 10:30~11. I usually take an hour lunch and sometimes an afternoon nap. Work out four times a week. Rarely work weekends. Honestly though I still work way more than my spouse, who has a cushy tech job, so I don’t FEEL like I’m a low biller, even though the partners I work for tell me my hours are significantly below average

What time do you generally wrap up the work day? Mind telling us which practice in corporate you’re in? Did you start doing this recently or has this always been your style?

Sorry for the questions, I’m just genuinely hoping I can make this happen for me. I am doubtful it’s possible in ECVC work just based on the sheer volume of clients I’m staffed to.

Seems like partners have gently brought the subject up. How do you respond? Any reviews yet?

This has always been my style, I have never hit the 2000 hour “minimum” at my firm (but have still received my full year end bonus every year). Yearly hours have ranged over the past couple of years from about 1400-1900 but generally average around 1800. I’m in a niche corporate practice for which there is a real need at my firm, but we don’t get a ton of work in this space. Don’t want to be more specific than that.

And yes partners bring up my low hours at every review I always just say I’m trying to bring them up. I feel like we’ve reached a standoff at this point, they know I’m not going to bill 2000 hours a year but they are not willing to fire me since I am one of the few associates at the firm who does this type of work. So I just keep on keepin’ on. It helps that all my loans are paid off and I’ve stacked up a nice nest egg, and my spouse has a high-paying job. So if I did get fired I’d probably chill for a couple of months and then maybe get a job in a different industry? Idk.

[Anonymous User]

Super low January-February (~160 hours total for those two months) but a more normal March (~125 hours), so probably will land somewhere around 1300-1500 for the year. Corporate first-year at a V30 in NY.

Typically bill 4.5 hours or so on a normal day, with the occasional 7-10 hour day. Sit down at my desk between 9:15-9:45, tick off emails, try to respond to anything that comes in as fast as possible so people know I'm not being lazy. Annoying when I'm on like a SPAC or M&A deal where I only bill like 5 hours in a day but still have to stay up until midnight because shit just takes a while to come in and needs to be flipped ASAP. Think I've been doing decent work on all but my one project where the mid-level sucks, and my firm seems to be notoriously slow to bring first-years up to speed, so I think I'm alright.

At this point I think I'm in too deep of a hole to get my bonus unless I start working 250 hour months regularly, which I absolutely do not want to do. I figure if I can average 30-40 billables a week from here on out I'm sitting pretty.

[Anonymous User]

Mentioned this in another post. Had my review, so more relieved about it. On pace for 1600 this year. Was low last year as well. No one seems to care that much. Partner mentioned I should “put in more work” if I want to make partner, but lol no thanks.

[Anonymous User]

I've been averaging about 140 hours/month for 2022, it's been awesome. Have avoided working nights/weekends for the most part. I assume it won't last and someone will give me more work at some point. But for now, I'm loving it.

[Anonymous User]

gotta bump bc this thread is legendary and must be preserved. first year averaging 150 with little to no weekend work.