Monday, January 27, 2014

Whine about work

I've been practicing law for almost 9 years now.  It's a tough job, it's a lot of stress and you take a lot of abuse from other lawyers, judges, clients and, of course, your boss.    I've been at this particular law firm for 2 years and 9 months and at first I loved the firm.  The people were nice, the pay was great and the work was interesting.  However, as with all jobs, true colors have started to show through.  My boss is extremely lazy and barely shows up in the office. This does not particularly bother me, however, he retains all decision making power so it slows up (and sometimes makes it impossible) to get any work done.  However, this leaves me with no help in preparing all documents (motions, pleadings, discovery responses and correspondence).  I also, take on a significant portion of all hearings and depositions scheduled by the office.  He fosters a bad environment by barely coming into the office and failing to enforce any rules or consequences.  For example, his assistant now barely comes into the office anymore.  She comes in late just about everyday and she now loves scheduling last minute half days to stay home with her step kids.  Again, this would not be problematic, but we are a small law firm.  The staff consists of one partner (my boss), his assistant, me (associate attorney), my assistant(who's part time), a paralegal, and a runner (part time).  Much of my time is spent answering the telephone as his assistant is not there to answer it and much of my time is spent finalizing and filing documents because there is no support staff present to do it.  She also has stated that she knows how to manipulate him and does so as necessary when she wants to go home early.  She has gotten about four raises in the three years she's been there.  In the same time period the paralegal who has been there for over 20 years has gotten 1 raise.  I have gotten 1 raise.  My assistant has gotten 1 raise in the 6 years she has been there.  I fear this manipulation is taking on an extremely duplicitous flavor.  I actually do like my boss' assistant, but I think now it's time to have a talk with him about this situation, not I need away to address it without throwing anyone under the bus, but getting my point across that I have work to do.  I have no intention of mentioning the manipulation, just the lack of support staff presence.  I'm blogging about this because my income comes from my job.  It's important to me to have a place to work (a place to draw my income from) that does not bleed me dry emotionally or mentally.  I always arrive at work an hour early, I typically work through my lunch breaks and occasionally stay late.  I simply cannot add an additional job to my already bulging basket.  Any way, I'm not quite sure how or when to address this with the partner.  I will post on this blog when I finally figure out a way to address the situation and what the result is.  My guess is that nothing will come of it, but I've been there for almost 3 years.  I guess if things continue to get worse I will take this as a symbol from the universal that it is a time to move on. 

No comments:

Post a Comment