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2. There are lots of others with either same level or varying levels of pain. This is a pandemic in itself. Not just in India, but most countries - seen the level of retention bonus announced by U S law firms? Pay is adding up to like half a million for 3rd year associate, which is like EP pay (with 15 pqe).
3. While; I am all for not returning to office, I would still recommend that you return to office and give that a try (assuming that you are mandated to be in office). Because you will give yourself a chance to see if getting back to office is really as dreaded as it seems (if it is, go soon as you believe it wont get better) or maybe the old normal is back and you can cut the client / senior call post 9 pm and not over worry of such actions - you can mentally draw the boundary lines better.
4. As an older person I believe the legal industry will not change. We also enable the toxic behavior and expectations by clients. This one time many many billions of billable hours ago, we did a call on a Friday with a client, client wanted the draft on Monday, senior offers to send it over on the weekend. I wanted to send my resignation letter instead. Answering calls of clients at 10 pm for new work is also us agreeing to not have decently defined boundaries.
5. MP wont even know who you are, will have zero impact on him/her. People who it will impact are the juniors who are left behind in your team, they have now pick your load to their existing overload. So dont see this as a point in your consideration to stick around or not. If it makes you feel any better, they have their own hell to deal with (revenue, competition, anonymous hate message, publicly called out, etc).
I am planning to return to office and give that a try and see if it becomes any less shitty. If it continues to be the same level of shit, then I’m out.
Add to it, the thought of travelling for 1-2 hours everyday, seeing everyone's irritated face at office, eating lunch out of a box, watching people pretend all day, returning home tired and drained every single night and all at the cost of risking your health (especially when I'm experiencing long post-COVID problems) and leaving my parents alone as they grow old - I just cannot take it anymore!
I couldn't give any less f**ks about what any law firm managing partner thinks.
At the same time, I hope this is not an impulsive decision on my part due to the pandemic fatigue. What do you think? Are you under similar circumstances too? What are you planning to do?