Reply to How to say no to work w/o killing your government lawyer career?

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[quote=Anonymous]OP, the situation you describe is very common at least at one of the "premier" government agencies you describe (I can only speak for SEC).  It is very frustrating, I know, and also may not fit with your personality.  I know it did not fit with mine.  Ultimately I left the agency and returned to the private sector.

I agree with the strategy of not saying no, but providing some far-off date when you think you'll have time for it.  Give reminders of how heavy your workload is at every opportunity.  You need to advocate for yourself and even sing your own praises.

Sadly, however, you may conclude that it's just not possible to maintain your work standards and ethic in your section.  This is what I concluded.  I could refuse to do work, refuse to stay after hours with no consequences for me/my career.  (I was a manager).  Consequence was simply the work product which was mediocre without my extra effort.  I was well paid.  I had interesting work.  But in order to do my job to the level to which it needed to be done properly required me giving up the balance that I had sought by going to government from Big Law in the first place to make up for the slackers around me.  (BTW, I am not saying at everyone at the SEC is a slacker and there are some divisions/office that function better than others; but in this particular division, I would say about 30% of the people are doing 95% of the work). At a certain point, I asked myself, if I'm going to miss dinner with my kids 9 nights out of 10, then why not get paid for it?  In fact, my transition to private sector actually resulted in me having more flexible hours (on average actually fewer hours) with a lot more pay.  I eat dinner with my kids 9 nights out of 10 now.  I'm really happy having moved back to the private sector.[/quote]

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