Sunday, May 27, 2012

Too too much

I have a new appreciation for BigLaw moms that stay at this job for years. I have begun to realize how much harder it is when you are actually as busy as you're supposed to be (unlike last year where I was only at about 85-90% of pace). I billed about 75 hours between Monday and Friday, which basically plays out as waking up at 5:30, being at my desk by 7, working through lunch, if I am lucky, coming home for dinner and bath, but otherwise working through dinner, then working until about 2am before letting myself admit I'm too tired to do a good job anymore. I have a deal closing Thursday, a deal closing Friday, at least two deals closing in June and a pro bono matter I have been neglecting. Summer associates arrived last week, and we're expected to attend summer events. This is particularly bad timing since PJO is taking the CFA level III exam in one week and has been studying every spare second at night and on weekends. We have mail and bills piling up, chores at home not getting done and car maintenance to have done and neither of us has time for any of it. While I can't really say I love my job, I feel like I am learning a lot and I don't DISLIKE my job, but this is just not sustainable. I miss sleep, I want more time with my family, and I want to not constantly feel like I am behind on everything.
The thing is, I don't really know what I want to do after law firm life and I need more experience if I want to have options. Some days PJO and I talk about moving to a lower cost of living state... We could easily live off of just his salary and our 5-10% down-payment fund would suddenly become a 40-50% down-payment on a house. But we would be on our own with no family or friends and I am sure I'd want to work once I got over that feeling of being burned out.
I don't think going "part time" at my firm would really help given the kind of work I do and the nature of this client-service business, but I may have to look into it at some point if this pace keeps up.

So there you have it, this job is demanding and hard. It becomes harder with kids and a working spouse. For me, it's not the kind of hard where you are consciously miserable; rather the constant demand for sacrifice forces me to regularly assess my priorities and figure out where that line is so I know when it's time to stop trying to earn gold stars, to step back and find a way to reserve more time for my family and myself. Easier said than done for someone who is used to always trying to prove I am just as capable and good as anyone else.

1 comment:

Melissa said...

Wow - I don't know how big law firm moms do it either...I admire yo for doing it , bt doesn't it get hard/too mch after a while? What's the burn out factor?