Find work and a life beyond the billable hour.
The legal industry as a whole must fix its fetish with perfection. In the end, calling out colleagues on their weaponized perfectionism benefits everyone, especially lawyers who are different from the norm. It doesn’t require money to address. You don’t need anyone’s permission. It’s a step you can take within the next week.
I’ll bet a wad of cash that you’re experiencing perfection expectations from either yourself, or your bosses. Likely both. Lawyers do love to pretend they can power through anything, and we have the depression, substance abuse, and suicide rates to prove it.
Instead, do your best to accept that you are living through a major, historic crisis, and that however it resolves, some things will never be the same.
I have spent the last couple days trying to write a fabulous post that will help all of y’all feel
People often mistake their thoughts and beliefs as actual truths. Yet it’s often not so. Our beliefs are not necessarily the gospel from on high, let alone the entire truth. But so many lawyers fervently believe that work can’t be fun, that they can’t make money doing something they love, or that they have no marketable skills aside from law.
Whatever your career stage, it’s not too late to design your life. How do you want it to look? Discerning that answer is crucial to designing a satisfying life & career. Or, go ahead and shove the question aside, and let the forces around you shape your life instead.
World and national events. have heightened our anxiety, for sure. But the bigger problem may be that our work tools dictate a frenzied mental pace–one that far outstrips our actual ability to deal with that pace. All those little islands of downtime that we used to have–waiting rooms, lines, the commute–are now filled with chatter and productivity. Without downtime, our brains get stressed, and we get anxious.
The toxicity of law culture runs so deep that most firms score at least 10 out of 13 factors that lead to employee burnout. What about yours?
Job ads that make you clenched or depressed? Stop entertaining those ideas for your next gig. Regardless of pay or how much sense they make on paper, they don’t make sense for YOU.
Sick of people? Telecommuting might be a good plan. Beware, though! If you don’t understand the source of your misanthropy –unmet introvert needs? poor boundaries?–you’ll still be unhappy with work, no matter where it is. Even if you telecommute, you’re going to be dealing with people.
November 1 is breathing down our necks! Why does this matter? Well, there’s this thing I write about sometimes, called
