I work in a finance team at HL and yes the salary is good (slightly below MC) but it’s important to realize that the average hours in the table get heavily impacted by all the advisory teams at the firm who bill a lot less yet have roughly the base compensation.

I bill around 2,000 hours a year and I very rarely finish at 7:30pm. If you see it from that perspective, the compensation isn’t that great. This could be offset by faster career progression but HL is very rigid on that end too and won’t promote you before you reach a certain PQE level (but they do not shy away from saddling you with extra responsibilities earlier on).

Ultimately I stay at HL because I love my team and the last thing I want to do is work more hours so I’m safer with the devil I know, but it’s certainly not all roses.

Most of them are divorced.

Can you explain what you mean by quite a loy of weekends? I am not familiar with this word “loy”. Thank you

Fair question. The hours do come at a cost, both physically and emotionally. You do feel like you’re missing out on a lot, especially where you can rarely commit to any mid-week plans with confidence. Gym / cooking routines are harder to maintain etc. Although, I have found you tend to make the most of weekends.

The key is to be flexible with your plans and to treat the job a bit like an Olympic athlete. You do the hard hours and all-nighters when you need to, but be equally intentional with your limited recovery or “quiet” times. Chronically working or training those hours is generally not good.

What I will say though is when the work is interesting and you have a nice team, you can be working until late and barely notice the time fly by. You also feel like your significantly developing your knowledge/career. In other seats/roles, the shorter hours have been far more stressful and challenging to handle.

What does that have to do with this article?

Well yes but the takeaway could be a nice fresh salad from a nearby deli or similar – tons of options, not just pizza or whatever you might be thinking about health!

Yeah but having a takeaway every evening?

There comes a point where I’d rather have good physical and mental health over an extra 30k

I disagree; yes, I leave the office at 10 in a taxi having had a takeaway expensed on the firm, however this means I don’t have to get the tube/bus home, go to the shops, cook, tidy up etc, by which time its well past 10 anyway.

In fact, I often leave the office at 7.30, cook for myself and log on for a further stretch at home. When you’re working for a firm with high billable expectations they tend not to care where and how you get it done, more that it gets done on time.

Difference between 8:30 and 10 is you could still cook dinner and have an hour of downtime at 8:30.

At 10 pm realistically it’s a takeaway or microwave meal and bed before getting up 8 hours later to make your commute into the City

Lol

Let me explain. When a mummy and daddy love each other very much….

I left just before my wife gave birth, but I know lots who do it and on the logistical side the answer is the other parent being non-working, a nanny or extremely supportive grandparents.

You are a total write off for any childcare in the week and to be honest quite a loy of weekends too. Even if your partner works relatively “normal” hours in their job, they will still have times when for one reason or another they can’t make nursery pick up times so you have to go the nanny route or grandparents stepping in.

In terms of being a supportive partner and parent? The primary contribution you make is financial security, that’s all you realistically can do in the time you have. That’s very important, but not many kids say “Mummy/daddy I love you so much became we have a nice big house/lovely holidays/I can go to private school”.

You have to accept you will have a less emotionally close relationship with your partner and kids because you simply don’t see them much, it’s a sacrifice you have to make if you choose that route. It wasn’t right for me, it is for others.

The same fake news as their positive chambers student and legal cheek reviews

What do you do now? Odd that you still read LC if that’s the case

Up at the very top of the hours table with no one else apart US firms and the Magic Circle for company. All those hours without the paycheque of the US firms, or boost to the career of Magic Circle (and let’s face it they won’t be getting Magic Circle wedge either).

If this is accurate, you guys need to rethink.