Leading a Sustainable Life
Julie Fleming Brown has a nice post on sustainability. How do we lead lives that are "sustainable"? Julie discusses the problem of "burning on both ends of the candle" and suggests a number of practical steps to reduce stress and decrease the chances of burnout ("focus your attention and practice on what is meaningful to you," "delegate those tasks which negatively impact your energy level", "connect with other people," etc.)
Although I am in the search business and only earn fees when lawyers decide that it is time for a change, I think it is important to first apply some of Julie's suggestions before throwing in the towel. Maybe you can get more of the technology work you like and spend less time working with the banking clients who are less interesting to you. Maybe you can delegate some of the drafting you don't like to a skilled paralegal. Perhaps you can make more effort to leave work early on Fridays.
If you find ways to make your work more "sustainable", you may just find that it is not necessary to change firms in order to increase your career satisfaction.
Although I am in the search business and only earn fees when lawyers decide that it is time for a change, I think it is important to first apply some of Julie's suggestions before throwing in the towel. Maybe you can get more of the technology work you like and spend less time working with the banking clients who are less interesting to you. Maybe you can delegate some of the drafting you don't like to a skilled paralegal. Perhaps you can make more effort to leave work early on Fridays.
If you find ways to make your work more "sustainable", you may just find that it is not necessary to change firms in order to increase your career satisfaction.
posted by Stephen Seckler, Esq. at 4:56 PM
1 Comments:
Thanks for the link, Steve.
In addition to perhaps not needing to change employment, I think sustainability issues are important in terms of creating appropriate expectations for new positions. Sometimes it's more effective or preferable for some reason to make a job change to facilitate implementation of sustainable habits, and it's important to think through how to begin the new position with those habits in place. That should be one aspect of a lawyer's strategy for success following a job change. Otherwise, it's easy to end up with the same frustrations in a new position.
So, to ping off your second paragraph, sustainability strategies may help a lawyer stay in a new position... Which makes for a happier lawyer, a happier firm/employer, and a happier legal recruiter who gets paid!
Post a Comment
<< Home