Am I being overworked?

I’m really struggling to deal with my workload, like really struggling.

For context, I am a litigation paralegal working full-time at a high street firm currently studying the SQE part-time. I have passed SQE1 following being encouraged by a partner to study (and self-fund). I have been a paralegal for nearly three years now, so I am transitioning from a support role to a fee earning role.

Some of my tasks include general support (filing documents, preparing bundles, chasing clients, taking initial enquiries) but also fee earning tasks involving my own caseload such as drafting applications, running cases from start to finish, attending court hearings, taking witness statements and general research.

I work in a small team and am the only paralegal for four other solicitors and a partner. I have only been in a fee earning role for the last 4 months and I am hitting 1.5x my target billing.

Lately, though it feels like I am being overwhelmed with work. My scheduled work hours are 9-5 but I often don’t take my lunch or work past my hours as I work from home three days a week. My own caseload takes a back seat to the other fee earners’ demands and there is no one underneath me I can lean on when my work seems too heavy. Hence, why I have to make up the lost time during my lunch or after hours.

Recently, it all feels too much. I am physically being sick and I am physically shaking when I think about work (which is all the time). I have not been able to exercise, opting instead to “rest” which involves lying in bed thinking about work.

I know that the other solicitors are also extremely overwhelmed as I often get redirected their clients’ calls to apologise for delays and will get instructed to work on that file. I feel bad about denying work, so I usually just deal with whatever they ask of me. These are typically smaller tasks like filing documents, preparing bundles and responding to clients but this adds up and before I am able to realise it, most of the working day has passed.

I understand that it’s because they should be doing work at their “level” so they should be delegating the menial tasks to me but my work for my clients gets delayed. I absolutely love my team and I feel I have learned a lot from them.

It feels like the problem is me, though. That I can’t keep up with the work and that I’m just not efficient enough.

I have tried raising the issues above with the partner of the team and I am told that there will be periods where I feel overwhelmed or that I cannot keep up but those periods pass. It has been two months or so and it is still ongoing. I feel inadequate, so I don’t take my lunch and I work way past my working hours.

The partner has tried to help by discussing my schedule for the day and helping me to organise my time but I am never able to hit that schedule due to being inundated with these small tasks.

I find the work invigorating, despite this, and I can truly say I love what I do. I want to persevere and take this challenge head-on but I’m now starting to think if this is how it feels all the time, whether I should think about moving to a different firm. I know that, as a high street firm, there is likely a lack of organisation and issues like this simply slip through the cracks.

I am struggling to understand what I can do next. Everyday is a battle and, right now, I am willing to fight but I am scared that I will wake up one day and crack. I know there are changes in the firm that will likely make my work even more severe.

I want to approach the partner again but I do not know how.

I want to consider my other options such as moving to another firm but do not know what the market is like for someone in my position (self-funded SQE with only SQE1, 2.5 years paralegal experience in litigation).

I do not know if this is something everyone experiences and if I should just get on with it.

Does it get better?

I love working in law, I love the intellectual rigour, I love the strategy involved. But I fear it is taking a physical and mental toll on me that it is unsustainable.

Has anyone been in this position before? I’d love to hear how you managed it.

I’d love to hear about how I might approach the partner again or if anyone has sought to move firms. I appreciate my experience may not be as prestigious as working at a corporate firm.

I would love some advice or just everyone’s experiences in general.