Billable Hours Redux

Here's a benchmark for y'all who are wondering about billable hours. It's 7:30 AM on Thursday, and I've billed 33.5 hours this week so far -- a lot more than usual, for me. That includes a couple of hours of weekend work, and Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday's hours. Plus a smidgen of time earlier this morning. I'm working on a big crunch of a project and will rack up a bunch of hours today, but am tending to family matters tomorrow so will not be coming in. Assuming this project gets done, as it must, today. Anyway, here's what that has meant in terms of my daily pattern. This week I've come into the office by about 7:30 each morning, and have left after 11 PM.

Obviously, if you do the math, you can see that I haven't been nonstop billable productivity the whole time. On Monday I took a walk around lunchtime and bought my dress. On Tuesday I left in the evening to see my grandpa at the hospital, and stopped by a friend's house for an hour or so, then came back to the office. Yesterday I took two breaks -- one, a trip to the bank and then to a sandwich shop around the corner to bring back lunch to my desk, and the other, an evening dash to the shoe store to get some glass slippers to go with the pretty dress. Also some strappy sandals. Then back here. I talked to my cousin on the phone, and my dad. I sent and answered some personal emails, and tended to a bit of administrivia.

But I haven't been exercising, or returning personal phone calls, or reading my mail. I've pushed aside all the projects at work that aren't the Big One, or otherwise immediately necessary. I've come home each night after my Housemate was in bed, and have been out of the house before she was up each morning except today. I've hardly seen my dog. There's no toilet paper in my house and I keep forgetting to pick some up, which is a grating irritation. And my place is a mess. I've eaten takeout for each meal -- those that I haven't skipped. I keep raiding the snack section in the firm kitchenette (all carbs, all the time). I'm racking up a small sleep deficit -- about five or six hours a night, a little less than I'd like.

Nothing earth shattering about this. It's entirely do-able, but it's not very much fun compared to the life I'm used to. I'm glad it's not how I live all the time. I am slightly run-down, I feel less healthy than usual. I'm out of touch with people I like. My yard is overgrown and this morning I noticed tiny rosebuds on the bushes -- how long have they been there? I don't even know. I feel duller, less observant of the many little things that give me pleasure. I'm forgetting things. Maybe this is what it means to be "focused". I don't much like it. I've got work to do. I don't have a lot of time to spare. I'll be glad when things ease up a bit after I put this project to bed.

But this kind of pace is what some people do all the time, at BIGLAW. It's already making me feel like a boring person. Without the details, without the many small connections that ordinarily comprise my days, I feel like I have less to say, or think about. I'm not as happy as I like to be.

Comments

[cmc]

I know EXACTLY what you are talking about. Worse though is living that way but somehow not being able to capture all of that billable time-- that is, not being able to justify or identify what one was doing for the client during that period of suffering.

[Neal]

That's why I am planning on taking a government job either civilian or military when I graduate! Quality of life is more important to me than a few extra bucks.

[WAB]

Neal - a very large number of professionals who work for our government entities work very long hours with a high degree of diligence. Most people who want a career characterized by financial and professional rewards do that regardless of their employer. Of course, one's profession is not one's entire life. The personal question for each of us is how comsuming is our work compared with "having a life."

[MS]

Pulling these stints on occasion always reminds me how glad I am I don't work for BIGLAW. You've perfectly captured how life narrows intolerably, and you feel gross in body, mind, and even heart. Glad to hear the end of that project is in sight for you!

One tip: Take some toilet paper from work. You've surely spent some money at home--phone, fax, whatever--on work-related matters, so that will balance out the $0.40/roll cost. I had one friend who was so desperate once that she took t.p. home from work, even though it was one of those big industrial-sized rolls with the 6" diameter cardboard core. Desperate times call for desperate measures!

[Richard Ames]

Your billable hour problem just means you're not doing it properly. I worked at BIGLAW at one time, and billable hour timekeeping abuse was so rampant that forevermore I shall believe that billable hours should be made an illegal form of charging a client. At BIGLAW you know, they say, "It's 7:00 a.m. Monday morning, and I've aleady billed 33.5 hours this week."

[Jeffrey A. Cross]

I've been working at that pace off and on for almost a decade. It's an awful way to live. During the early years of my practice, I always thought the guys/gals who left by 6:00 p.m. weren't dedicated or weren't hard workers. Now I see that they had it right all along, and I've had it wrong since the very beginning.