corporate law firm or military school?

Hi, People of Grapevine! About 6 months ago I made a post looking for suggestions on whether I should quit a work project that paid me 1.5L per month. I’m happy to report not only did I quit that company shortly after, but I got an offer from a sort of a mentor to work at a Dubai based law firm (remote, of course). To months ago, I also got two new clients on retainer for 1.5L each. The firm is quite good, unlike traditional Indian law firms, and the work pressure is not super intense. However, I feel like I’ve come to realise… I just hate working “for” someone else. With my personal clients, I have a sense of “freedom”. Like I can work from any part of the world, but with the firm, I feel this sense of being “bound”. I’m bound to my desk from morning until evening. I haven’t been able to visit events and even though I usually would be working anyway, I would sometimes work from a relative’s place, sometimes go out with my family or if need be, or even travel! There are a couple of business events and conferences I missed out on as well. The thing is… I’ve never really worked in a traditional law firm or office. Even though, this isn’t a traditional law firm either, it’s the closest I’ve come to and I’m wondering if the fact that I want to quit within barely 6 months speaks something larger about my ability to work? I know I am ambitious and I want to become the go-to expert in my field of work, do you guys think by being unable to work in a firm or office setup like this, I would be hampering that? Also, I’m good at what I do, great, infact. But of course, to a lot of people the “firm” tag matters. I also acknowledge that this might be the only time in my life I can really work “under” someone as I feel later in life it might be too late. I guess, I’m wondering… Would quitting and focussing on my practice and choosing only client based work hamper my career growth in any way? -Continued in comments-

Recently McKinsey employee committed suicide. Now, CAM partner berating three bright associates for doing a job right because the partners looked like idiots. Fuck your seniority. GenZ believes in meritocracy.

I just cant handle the pressure and the stress in this role. I am working so hard that I have ZERO work life balance. The entire day just goes in meetings and meetings. I think that I don't know anything and am extremely worried about my future. The work pressure is a lot here, deadlines are too tight and I have been vomiting from stress at night. The worst part is, Deloitte never pays for over time. Anyone else feeling this in other Big4s? I want to switch ASAP or I will die here.

For context: Weekends are off. So just fri WFH. This is a Series B startup. I am not even asking for a leave but WFH for just 1 day. I joined recently. The only thing I did wrong was possibly informing a little too late. Want to get opinion if I am overthinking or this classifies as toxic culture in startups where you are expected to push limits above and beyond regularly and sometimes weekends. ---

We’re pretty chill. But I’m planning to go for a vacation to Kerala for 10 days almost, and since i told them they have been weird. Immediate response was to say that it’ll be tough to manage the project and that long a leave isn’t possible I debated back and they were like fine. But since then it’s just been very cold. What can I do? 🤕

I had this doubt, let’s say team wants to go above and beyond work hours weekends to get shit done when it’s honestly not even required. I do whatever is given within work hours and deliver! Things might take longer since I don’t slog my ass off. My concern is they might say I’m underperforming and who knows, might even fire me! Typical Indian company mentality. How do you handle this situation without getting targeted ? So far I document everything that I’ve done and make sure there isn’t any place they can point fingers at! Looking for some pointers.

Just moved from a WFH startup to a Full WFO legacy corporate company. These corpo people talk so much, too much restrictions to get access or to create a MVP, a lot of unnecessary paperwork/ email loops. I feel sleepy all day and these people find and make you speak hell lot making me confused and feeling that I have done no work and what will I say about deliverables 🥲. Side note: renovation going on so not getting any corner + the setting are like this getting it is difficult 😭 Any suggestions or I am over reacting 😄

So I left my job at one of the big 4s few months ago. Will discuss the reason some other time. But one of the issues I'm facing right now is that I never felt good in the corporate environment. Bosses shouting at you for your mistakes, you feel threatened to stand up against your own boss since they unfortunately have too much power. You need to take permission for leaves. People can be rude to you and you need to maintain your calm. The corporate politics. Then I left big 4 for some reasons. Took a short break. And now I'm working in one of the Indian firms. They have such policies that your TAT cannot be more than 5 minutes. You cannot log off before 8 pm. If you login after 5 minutes of the actual login time, then you would be marked as absent. Sometimes you're given deadlines which are very difficult to manage and hence you remain stressed out with your work. You don't have the freedom in your work and need to do everything as it has been told. So I don't really feel good in corporates. I feel there is too much pressure and it is just making me feel more and more sad. I don't feel myself anymore and I feel like a puppet. Does anyone else feel the same? How do I deal with this feeling? It scares me to think about how I have just started my career 3-4 years ago and need to work for the significant years of my life and I don't want to wake up and sleep with this feeling EVERYDAY. I think this is the first time I'm talking about it. If anyone would like to share their thoughts, or guide me regarding how do I feel better, or anything you feel I'm doing wrong and could be improved, then I'm all ears. Let's talk it out.