Talk about a blast from the past. This one is so crazy to me, because at this point in my career I still thought it was totally normal to have second and third jobs on top of my day job as a solicitor.

Why? Well partly because my pay hadn’t increased from being a paralegal. Looking back it makes no sense - I was told that my job role hadn’t changed and once I was doing the job of a solicitor they would re-evaluate. But I WAS doing the job of a solicitor and then some. That conversation alone framed so many of my later difficulties.

But by this point in my career, June 2013, I had been working for nearly 7 years. And throughout that time I had worked 10-30 hours extra each week to make up the paltry salary you get as an unqualified lawyer.

I had worked in the local cinema, at a clothing store, at a bar. I had taken on second jobs with my own employers, working 5-8pm 2-3 evenings a week and 10-4 on Saturdays, switching to 24 hours on call every weekend.

Even at a conservative estimate I had worked at extra 2.5 solid years of work, in less than 7 years of working.

Sounds crazy?

Use my time record (Click here to access it) to record how much you worked last week.

10.5 hours a day or more on average ? Well done, you’ve worked even longer hours than I did.

It all adds up quickly; the extra hours, the exhaustion, the feeling that you’re walking through treacle to get everything done and the sneaking suspicion that something has, must have, gone wrong. The double and triple checking.

You deserve more than that in your career.

You deserve to know you’ve done a good job, to advocate for your salary and career advancements without them determining how you feel about yourself. You deserve to rest and play knowing that the work will be there when you get back.

You deserve to feel great about your work, because we both know you do an amazing job with it.

PS have you pre-ordered your copy of Burnout The User’s Guide? My aim is to help destigmatise burnout and make information about what it is, how to spot it, manage it and reverse it, easily available to all. Honestly it should be required reading!

Click here to reserve your copy, save 50% this weekend when you pre-order using code EARLYBIRD and get exclusive access to behind the scenes trainings taking you deeper into the book!