Please lord someone help me. I feel like I’m going insane. I started at my firm last September and have billed between 220-290 every single month since then. I’m currently at 1600 hours at the time of this post. Our year starts January 1st. Is it too soon to lateral?
I have told the people I work with that I’m at capacity so many times, I’ve said I’m burnt out, I’ve said everything under the sun. They don’t care. I’ve been told to just “relax” and “schedule a vacation”… well, I did — I’ve already taken TWO full weeks off this year (one week for a family funeral and several random Fridays that weren’t really OOO for weddings) and I’m still at 1600 hours. I have worked every single holiday. I have had essentially zero weekends off.
I have turned down work and I have been told “it’ll be fine.” My review was great. Idk what to do. I’ve thought about applying to clerk but that seems so far away. Should I lateral?
Edit: guys I would literally post my hours if I could without doxxing myself. Idk how to do that so plz advise
Edit 2: my team has \~15 associates and ALL OF US are at 2500+ annualized hours. We’re all in the same boat. They just won’t add people to the team. Idk guys I’m a first year idk why it’s like this :( people are big mad
Edit 3: Haha I am actually dead at how many people think I’m on their team. If I decide to lateral, I’ll post what firm it was. I can tell you guys that I am not the only junior on my team in this predicament sadly
Edit 4: I have now had SIX people messaging me saying they know of first years at their firm in the same position as me and none of those six were my firm. So the bigger question here is: WHY IS THIS HAPPENING EVERYWHERE??? And also clearly it’s not just me so that’s nice to know!
Edit 5: I’m in NY, if that helps :) I also submitted two applications to lateral today. Yay! Go me!