On the last day of my Legal Profession class, the professor stuck around afterwards and bought us pizza. I had been meaning to get to office hours all semester, but somehow it never happened, so I was glad to have a chance to ask him my burning question: was I completely naive to believe the things that my firm has been telling me? That I'll be able to balance work with my outside life, that I'll do lots of pro bono and have plenty of mentoring and training opportunities? We spent several weeks discussing how large law firms work, and I often left class feeling grim.
He told me that I should keep in mind all the things I believe about the firm, and hold them to it. If they said I could do pro bono, do pro bono. If they said I could leave to have dinner with my family, leave to have dinner with my family.
He said pressure tends to be internal -- if everyone feels like they have to come in the earliest and leave the latest and compete for the largest projects, then that becomes the norm.
It reminded me of what a friend told me. She usually leaves at six and goes home to her family. "And that's okay with the firm?" I asked. She replied, "Nobody's said anything to me yet."
Which is exactly his advice, I think. Don't worry about whether what they're telling you is true. Just act as if is.
5 comments:
That is exactly what I've been doing, but I will admit that it can be stressful. I had a tough week a few weeks ago where my daughters' play (which I co-produced) was going on at the same time as doctor's appointments and - oops - last minute conference calls that I was asked to participate in and emergency research projects.
I somehow did make it all work, but I was VERY stressed, to the point of physical effects. It also tainted my vacation less than 2 weeks later, because I just felt so consistently unavailable at work.
No one said a thing, though, and I'm still getting new assignments and am still treated the same as before, and I'm still billing more than enough hours. And I had a great vacation.
It was, I believe, all in my head.
I think it's possible depending on the area of practice.
That's the same advice my corporations/securities professor gave me. He said you have to be the one to make your schedule work, there are hundreds of days you could leave, but no one is going to tell you to. If you get to the end of your rope and you go into your managing partner's office with your resignation, they should not be surprised to see you because you should have already been talking with them along the way.
I think it has to do with managing expectations. So many people think that at first, when they are new, they have to come in early, stay late, drop everything personal for work, etc. That then becomes the norm, so when you stray from it, people noticed more.
If you start out with a decent life/work balance, and make your limits/boundaries clear, then I think people are a lot less likely to have any problem with it at all.
It's good that your firm preaches flexibility. I am a prime example of the "internal pressure" thing- it's so hard to overcome!
Post a Comment