商业律师的职业倦怠很常见，压力巨大，工作时间长，而且责任重大。这行压力山大，让人身心俱疲。要照顾好自己，平衡工作和生活，才能避免被“燃尽”。

Dear evertoneverton

Well done on purchasing a property, and congratulations on one-year post admission.

In my view, I would:

- Request my employer provide me with more resources. (i.e: A dictaphone + typist, a law clerk, a secretary, or allow me to outsource more work (i.e more counsel or another firm).

- Request my employer give me say Friday off to allow me to recover for 3 days instead of 2 (less pay but try it for 3-6 months, although someone else will need to do the work piling up)

- Take it easy and do less work and have a proper break, and finish on time. The worst case is you'll be pulled up, or asked to leave - which you are pondering anyway.

Also I don't believe having restrictions removed from your practising certificate opens up a plethora of further opportunities.

I had a nervous breakdown in my first year. Small law firm. No support. No supervision but all the stress and expectation that comes with the job. Nobody to hold your hand when things go wrong. Everything was urgent. Mistakes were unacceptable. My first job and I had no idea what to expect. Ended up huddled under my desk hysterical because a client screamed at me. I felt abandoned and alone and wondered what the fuck I had gotten myself into.

OP - you are not alone. It does get easier. The first few years are the hardest because you know nothing and everything is hard. That passes. And new challenges arise.

I now work in government and honestly - I’ve had the shittiest month. Government is definitely better than private practice and I would recommend it but it’s not all early finishes and work life balance. You will work long hours, you often work in a small team, you often have no idea what you’re doing. But I can say I am happier now than I ever was in private practice.

I’m not sure what state you’re in but please DM me if you want to chat and I can answer any questions you may have.

People are dancing around the edges but lets be blunt. This is what working as a private sector lawyer is. And it doesnt get any better; you get paid more and perhaps have less stress about your abilities or can flow down the crappier work, but its still long hours for everyone. And then you hit partnership and in most places that is even longer hours plus much more cut throat performance requirements.

If that isnt for you then its not for you.

Your options are bite the bullet, recognise this isnt for you and move. Or try and get some help/counselling/mentoring so you can change yourself to adapt to the system. Neither is a better answer or a right answer; you might feel that moving to government (for example) is letting yourself down after all those years of high academic performance, but its not. You might worry about the financial impact, which will exist, but you wont starve.

The 'public service' is an enormous range. State, local, Commonwealth. Even within that there are huge differences. Some are really interesting and you do very high quality work on major issues; some are rote processing or compliance roles.

I also find the comments here pretty weird, especially those along the lines of I HAV WAY MORE FILEZ AND IM OK. I mean, seriously kids.

A few things. First, commercial law is a high stress profession and burnout is everywhere. I don't know anyone who's been in the profession for more than a few years who hasn't experienced it in some measure. Learning to manage stress and recognise burnout is an essential skill if you want to last long.

Second, without being an expert on burnout (other than through experience) it's not typically the work load per se that is the problem. The first few years are hard but you get used to it - routine is everything. It's more about being in an environment where the gap between your responsibilities and capabilities is too great That gap narrows somewhat as you become more senior. It takes about 2 years in most jobs to get a sense of what is really going on so I'd encourage you to stick that period out if you can.

Third, commercial law is a large field and you're just at the start of it. What aspect of your current role is most stressful? If you don't like being a glorified process administrator, don't work in a volume practice. If you don't like unsociable hours and silly stress, avoid deals. If you don't want to spend many hours thinking about academic points of law, avoid competition. If you aren't a masochist, avoid tax. And so on. Different teams, firms and practice areas are so different that you should try not to form a judgement about whether commercial law is for you until you've had more experience.