You know what sucks most about being my own boss

[Amelia G]

I really want to call in sick for the next month. Or at least this week. And then I want a vacation. I've never been to Hawaii.

[One Eyed Cat]

I'm not sure I understand this, Amelia. Don't you, as your own boss, ultimately determine when and where you work? I know the flipside is how much you have to do, but I think you can do these things.

OEC

[Amelia G]

I'm not sure I understand this, Amelia. Don't you, as your own boss, ultimately determine when and where you work? I know the flipside is how much you have to do, but I think you can do these things.

OEC

Apparently my boss is not very sympathetic to my needs and puts everyone and everything else first.

[One Eyed Cat]

Apparently my boss is not very sympathetic to my needs and puts everyone and everything else first.

Your boss need to be more sympathetic to *your* needs. After all, she *is* the boss. She needs to realize that some times when we may laudably desire to *help* others, we simply end up carrying them. Relationships have to be symbiotic. Ultimately, she will further their dependency on her in situations where the relationship has to be seen as usury (if not parasitism in the cases of several well known publishers) Ultimately, a greater good will be served by your boss putting your needs first. Would you not perform better 40- 50 weeks a year in which she does than 52 in which she serves others?

OEC

[Mr Karl]

I totally understand, I worked for myself and I hated my boss

90 hour work week? Absolute perfection? What, I'm the only employee you could find? So who's going to call 911 when I have my first aneurism?

I QUIT!!

Now I work for someone else

[MistressJennifer]

Amelia, just get a ticket and go!! Just do it!!! It's Christmas!! Be nice to yourself! You want to go, just go!!! I am sure they have Starbucks in Hawaii!!

And on the way back, come to New York and we can shoot you as a "Madame" in the Bordello shoot in my apartment!!

[Trotter]

I'll phone in a bomb threat for you. Your boss will let you go home and you can have at least one day off.

[suicidal_tendencies]

fire your boss. only option.

[Pull~My~Hair]

I say that your boss should give you the next week off....the world wont explode if you take a vacation!....Your boss should just make it your christmas bonus!

[inox]

One of the things that is recommended in the legal field for solo practitioners is that, after making a lot of changes around the office, they just give themselves a week or so vacation, letting the staff hold down the fort.

The idea is that, if one is too wound around the axle about the changes, the stress will in all ways do more harm than good. Plus, the time away not only helps enable a healthy level of detachment, it gives one the opportunity to focus solely on one's own interests, which is also necessary to prevent burnout.

If you work so hard for so long that you end up coming to resent what you do, you'll wish you'd taken more frequent breaks.

[One Eyed Cat]

Amelia G is her own boss. I think some folks may have been confused by our figurative speech.

OEC

[One Eyed Cat]

One of the things that is recommended in the legal field for solo practitioners is that, after making a lot of changes around the office, they just give themselves a week or so vacation, letting the staff hold down the fort.

The idea is that, if one is too wound around the axle about the changes, the stress will in all ways do more harm than good. Plus, the time away not only helps enable a healthy level of detachment, it gives one the opportunity to focus solely on one's own interests, which is also necessary to prevent burnout.

If you work so hard for so long that you end up coming to resent what you do, you'll wish you'd taken more frequent breaks.

OT: Do most smaller firms/practitioners use lexis/westlaw? We're being schooled in the necessity of using law libraries. I'm all about the instant case histories/citations/ and shepardizing. Is it really cost prohibitive?

OEC

[sheramil]

amelia, you need to blackmail your boss into giving you some time off. threaten to report yourself to homeland security or something.

[MistressJennifer]

OK Amelia, here is my lecture for today:

A few years ago I met this hot boy toy (does not sound like a lecture, I know), anyway, he worked for an airline and offered free tickets to New Orleans if I would pay for the hotel, etc.

Well I didn't really know him that well, but I went on the trip to New Orleans, and we had a GREAT time, and guess what? If I had NOT gone on that trip, I never would have seen New Orleans.....

SO Amelia, get that ticket to Hawaii right now and get on that plane...

[inox]

OT: Do most smaller firms/practitioners use lexis/westlaw? We're being schooled in the necessity of using law libraries. I'm all about the instant case histories/citations/ and shepardizing. Is it really cost prohibitive?

OEC

Almost everyone I know uses it at least in a supplemental capacity. Here's why: How often are books updated? Well, you might get a "pocket parts" update now and again, but the online databases contain not only more recent published decisions, but also have information that goes well beyond the scope of what law libraries can do for you. Lexis, for instance, has a CourtLink service.

Even if you were somehow getting a journal several times a day that contained all that information, how would you possibly correlate it?

I have received a first-hand account of an attorney winning at trial simply because he came to court and presented a precedent-setting case he pulled down from Lexis when it first came available that morning (and which the other party did not have). He didn't know of the case before that morning (as it was a new decision), but some last-minute searching won the day.

It used to be (late 90's) that Lexis and Westlaw were cost-prohibitive. A search of Mega/Mega (all cases, all jurisdictions) was $90 just to hit the Enter key. We were trained to be very precise with our boolean searching strings.

Now, however, you don't even need a subscription to search for cases. You can do a "pay by credit card as you go", search for free, and only pay ~$10 when you actually pull up the full text of the case.

So, no, it's not cost prohibitive at all anymore.

[One Eyed Cat]

Almost everyone I know uses it at least in a supplemental capacity. Here's why: How often are books updated? Well, you might get a "pocket parts" update now and again, but the online databases contain not only more recent published decisions, but also have information that goes well beyond the scope of what law libraries can do for you. Lexis, for instance, has a CourtLink service.

Even if you were somehow getting a journal several times a day that contained all that information, how would you possibly correlate it?

I have received a first-hand account of an attorney winning at trial simply because he came to court and presented a precedent-setting case he pulled down from Lexis when it first came available that morning (and which the other party did not have). He didn't know of the case before that morning (as it was a new decision), but some last-minute searching won the day.

It used to be (late 90's) that Lexis and Westlaw were cost-prohibitive. A search of Mega/Mega (all cases, all jurisdictions) was $90 just to hit the Enter key. We were trained to be very precise with our boolean searching strings.

Now, however, you don't even need a subscription to search for cases. You can do a "pay by credit card as you go", search for free, and only pay ~$10 when you actually pull up the full text of the case.

So, no, it's not cost prohibitive at all anymore.

Thanks. We get full access for the remainder of school. Lexis is infinitely better than the libraries in terms of speed and info. Like you said, you'd be up a creek if you started using bad precedents. PA "pocket parts are quarterly! I think they're just trying to scare us to be sure we even can use the law library. I love lexis. I even caught a vacated decision in a crim. law casebook on it.

OEC

[jenova_sin]

I really want to call in sick for the next month. Or at least this week. And then I want a vacation. I've never been to Hawaii.

I don't know... I don't think your boss would appreciate that. Not to mention I doubt she'll say yeah not after that incident..you know the one you got a write up for... Write ups are a no no...

[sunkarma]

I feel that way all the time. I shut down my store for a bit and took it offline because I just needed to get away from the retail customers. Online..they are WORSE. I didn't care that it was the holidays...(busiest time) I just needed a break. So I packed the few orders before Xmas and sent the off...then 'poof' offline I went.
I just put the store back up and I'm open again...but I know how you feel.
I get overzealous about some things and want to do everything so perfect...as a business owner sometimes you just have to let things go and let it be...it is worse because I'm a perfectionist <3...
Take some time, rest, go to Hawaii.
I called in sick today from work, but I really WAS sick...some funky bug going around masking itself as respiratory/sinus/icky poo stuff.
Did I rant enough there?
Ok.
ehm.