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Junior lawyer gets pulled off major deal after sharing her boundary with boss

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  • A junior associate informed me she has a "hard stop" at 5 PM on Fridays. She said she needs the weekend to protect her peace and maintain her energy.
  • I told her I completely respect her commitment to boundary setting. I then removed her from the M&A deal she'd spent two months diligence-ing.
  • She came to my office on Monday confused as to why her access was revoked. I explained that a closed deal requires momentum, not a pause button.
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  • She asked how she was supposed to hit her billable requirement now. I suggested she use all that extra weekend energy to find a new practice area.
  • Peace is a wonderful concept for people who don't practice corporate law. The rest of us find our tranquility in a signed signature page.
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  • While taking the story with a grain of salt, a lot of people found the tale interesting and relatable

    Sean T at RCP @SeanTrende I don't know if this is real, or exactly what sized law firm this is. But the starting salary at a big law firm right now is around $225k base pay. You don't get that kind of scratch at 25 years old and then get to demand a 5pm hard stop on Fridays.
  • Gen Z wants to have a life while the world is still relatively intact

    Corey Walker @CoreyWriti... The tradeoff of these elite, high-paying jobs is that you work a lot. Gen Z has a warped view of the employer-employee dynamic. The employee doesn't get to made demands or dictate terms.
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  • Dilan Esper @dilanesper this is harsh, but there are plenty of high status, high compensation jobs that really don't stop at 8 hours in a day. And they aren't for everyone. In house counsel is often a lot more of a fixed hour position for a lawyer who needs this.
  • The law folks of the internet had sympathy, but also, they warned that this was a reality check

    SMB... @SMB_A... This is going to sting, but this is largely true for practice groups like M&A. I worked for a top M&A partner in Texas. Regularly top in PE M&A deal count for the state. You could probably figure out who with Google.
  • We were having lunch one day and he said something I'll never forget: "I used to get anxious for my weekend plans. I'd spend all week stressing over whether I was going to make it to XYZ social event." "Over time, I just stopped making plans, and it got easier."
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  • Titan of the law. Very impressive dude. But not for me.
  • Other people thought that there were appropriate ways to not be working all the time

    Amy ... @amyca... That is toxic that culture. I don't believe in black and white in life and that there's grey as well as work-life integration and melding the two together. I certainly don't want to set precedent for working weekends. It should be the exception not the norm. And you have to respect that boundary or it creeps and
  • you let down your family and burn yourself out. During feast periods or when I've been traveling a ton I'll spend until 2 with the kids and need to hole up in my office from 2 to 6:30 or so but I'll be down for dinner.
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  • Besides a couple hours of that time period is their rest time anyway. And 4 hours on the weekend is like 20 hours during the week IMHO without constant emails and calls. Being busy and not intentional with your time (your only reserve) shouldn't be a badge of honor...
  • Young lawyers discuss a case together.

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