u/DropShotMachine

I’ve known only one law firm. Haven’t worked for any other one.

In my practice, it’s not uncommon for me to skip lunch. The norm is drinking a protein shake in the morning because it’s fast. And then about 2 days a week I won’t eat again until like 5 pm. Maybe I’ll have a couple cookies or something in between calls. Today for example, I had a protein shake around 8:30 am, a few cookies in between calls, and now a bit after 7 pm I’ll have an actual meal.

My group can get hectic where clients need something on a fast turn around, and we work often with partners from other groups where you don’t want to disappoint even one time because that might be the only time they experience your work. So when rushed requests come in, it can feel like running around playing whackamole until there’s a break enough to eat.

I always assumed this was normal. But I realized I’ve only worked for one firm and it may or may not be normal.

How many days of the week do you feel compelled to skip meals?

I’m a guy in my 30s. I tried my best to date and find a partner but it didn’t work out. I’m glad to say it’s not cause of things I did during the relationship. I legit approached them with good intent and with the purpose of having a healthy long term marriage. For example, my biggest relationship ended because they were unfaithful.

I am now single, never been married, still putting in some effort to try to date, but given my seniority at the firm, the amount of work, and just general needs of life, it’s pretty tough to date.

At the same time, many partners are married and have kids, and associates younger than me are also married and having kids. Almost all married by the time they were in law school.

I sometimes feel awkward when people at the office being up their family, how their kids are doing, and I am there, a grown ass man, single with no family. I feel immature and like a failure. Like people aren’t taking me as seriously as they would had I had a family by now. I of course participate happily in the conversations, ask folks how their family is doing, applaud them when they’ve hit a milestones, all of that.

But I wonder if they’re thinking something is off with me by being this old with no family of my own. They don’t ask about my dating life or anything and it comes off as if they know there’s nothing there and don’t want to call attention to it lol

Anyway, do you judge in any way older co-workers who are single/no family?

Edit: Also, do people date someone from the same firm? Someone at my firm mentioned how people meet at work and stuff and I’m confident she was hinting to me that I should explore workplace romance but that seems like a huge risk. I’ve had at least someone signal interest but I ignored it completely cause it seemed inappropriate to date someone at the same firm. Not sure if it’s against firm policy but feels like it would be.