He ain’t heavy, he’s not bothersome — interesting legal work and perceptions of workload

At a recent conference, a thoughtful law department manager linked the quality of work lawyers can handle and the quantity of that work. She said that workload, even if heavy, doesn’t seem as draining or morale busting if the work is of fairly consistently of high quality. If you like your work, you don’t mind being fully occupied.

It’s the mind-numbing, commodity work that does not draw fully on the lawyer’s talents and professional interests that demoralize them and make them complain about their crushing workload (See my post of March 18, 2007 on the importance of commodity legal work.).