The one thing (well one of the many) I hate about being a first year associate is that I have no control over my workflow. I don't have the ability to produce work on my own. I spend most of my morning waiting until work is given to me by a partner or a senior associate. I then spend my afternoons trolling the hallways offering my "help" to anyone who will listen. Lately with the economy in the dumps there hasn't been a lot of work to go around in my department. I'm not necessarily worried that I'm going to get fired because there are only two first year associates in my department. Frankly they need the cheap labor. However, there is no way that I'm going to make my hours and get a bonus this year. I'm not that worked up about not getting a bonus, it's not like I don't already get paid way more than I am possibly worth. As my fiance says, my salary is one of the great injustices in this world.
I feel like I shouldn't be complaining about leaving the office at 5:00 and not being stressed out. If I talk about not having enough work to do for long enough I always jinx myself and end up so busy I barely have time to go to the bathroom. The work in a law firm ebbs and flows. One minute it's so slow you're literally counting down the seconds until it's an acceptable time to leave the office or you're so busy that your eyes are going to pop out of your head. There never seems to be a happy medium. Well that's not entierely true. I guess a more accurate statement is that it never seems to stay normal for long.
The hardest part about not having any work to do is finding something to put on my timesheets. I'm so embarassed when I send my assistant a timesheet with only half an hour of billable time and another six and a half hours of "professional reading". She of course knows that means surfing the internet, blogging and wandering the halls, but I have to put something down.
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I feel like I shouldn't be complaining about leaving the office at 5:00 and not being stressed out. If I talk about not having enough work to do for long enough I always jinx myself and end up so busy I barely have time to go to the bathroom. The work in a law firm ebbs and flows. One minute it's so slow you're literally counting down the seconds until it's an acceptable time to leave the office or you're so busy that your eyes are going to pop out of your head. There never seems to be a happy medium. Well that's not entierely true. I guess a more accurate statement is that it never seems to stay normal for long.
The hardest part about not having any work to do is finding something to put on my timesheets. I'm so embarassed when I send my assistant a timesheet with only half an hour of billable time and another six and a half hours of "professional reading". She of course knows that means surfing the internet, blogging and wandering the halls, but I have to put something down.
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2 comments:
LOL. I remember those days when I was a corporate associate, although it still happens now. One of my first year counterparts used to joke about the fact that we were like day laborers. Ha ha. All I can say is enjoy the down time. As you noted, there will be times that you're so busy you can't think straight. But none of this is of any comfort when you have to bill approx 2,000 hours/year (not sure what your requirement is). The good thing is that most junior associates are probably in your situation, so if you don't make your hours, you won't be the only one. If your firm is like mine, the partners recognize that junior associates cannot control their workflow, so they don't scrutinize their hours as much. Have fun surfing the net, I mean doing "professional reading"!
I completely feel your pain. Although I think that the stress of not meeting hours is probably harder on your end. It doesn't really matter if I make hours because my firm is so small and their hours requirement is absurd. But, I feel the same way. I'm either so busy and stressed that I can't see straight or I spend all day staring at the wall and reading People.com. The biggest problem is that I'm not sure I'll ever want to be the person who generates her own work.
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