alli_esq
Brilliant_Rock
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2008
- Messages
- 909
So any of you who have read about my work problems know that my boss is pretty nasty--though some feel it should come with the territory of being a lawyer and having a lawyer as a boss.
Well, some information has come to light over the course of the past month or so and I have found out that he is interviewing for my job (it''s a small community in my area of law and I have friends in it). He has also stepped up his game in terms of treating me like garbage--now he doesn''t even wait for me to do anything that could possibly be interpreted as "wrong." Now he just screams and swears and yells and throws things at me (well, he threw a stapler and a redweld at our paralegal--all he did with me was crumple up a letter I drafted that he hadn''t yet read, and threw it at me).
It''s a small firm--just the three of us (boss, paralegal and me), and we work in a suite with several other small firms. His tirades have alerted everyone on the floor to the unacceptable and entirely unprofessional way he treats us. However, although he is definitely very nasty to both of us a lot of the time, the paralegal gets away with what I consider to be a lot. She rarely does work, she recently unilaterally changed her schedule so that she supposedly comes in early and leaves early (but she NEVER comes in early, and in fact, comes in at least an hour later than the office opens every morning, so she actually works about 6 hours/day instead of 8-9 as she is paid to do--but our boss doesn''t know that because he comes in very late every day as well), and every time I ask her for her help with something work-related, she either gives me attitude or doesn''t do it right. I end up doing most all administrative tasks myself because I don''t want to risk the chance of her getting it wrong.
That said, she and I have gotten to be friendly, and she has a good heart. She just doesn''t feel any commitment to the work at this office, which I can understand from her perspective. I take a great deal of pride in my work because this is my career--but to her, this is just a job.
So, yesterday, he decides that we have to get a motion out the door (for which I had written a portion over 2 weeks ago that he never read, but that I had given to him several times for his review). I got all of the supporting documents prepared as soon as I walked into the office, and all we were doing was waiting on his signed draft. Well, the paralegal begins to velobind the supporting papers (punching very small holes into the top of the pages, which takes a long time), and it wasn''t until 4:25, when he finally was done with his draft (the court closes at 5pm, and it takes between 30-45 minutes to get to the court house, and around 10 minutes to finish velobinding those supporting papers), that I discovered that all my hours of collecting the supporting papers and making sure they were in the correct order with all the copies lined up the way they should be were wasted, because the paralegal had put in the holes completely wrong. I hadn''t checked because I''ve never used the velobinding machine and she had, so I stupidly believed that there was no way to screw it up--but she managed.
Anyway, our boss was HYSTERICAL, swearing, SCREAMING at the top of his lungs, and basically blamed me for it not getting out to opposing counsel until 5:20 (I''m leaving to file it in court first thing in a few minutes). The paralegal was standing right there and didn''t take any responsibility for it. I know he is thisclose to firing me, and I don''t know how safe her job is (all I know is that he''s been interviewing for my job). I really do not think it''s fair for me to take the blame for something that was not my fault--and I expressed that to her. I asked her very calmly to please, when he calmed down, to explain to him why the motion didn''t go out in time, because I didn''t think that it was fair for me to take the blame on this one. She said she wouldn''t do that.
I know it doesn''t seem I have much to lose here by taking the heat off of her, but as much as I hate my job (and of course I am trying like hell to find another one), I absolutely need it, and it doesn''t seem like anyone is hiring right now (duh). I get blamed all the time for my lack of experience, and I have no defense to that other than he knew he was hiring a first-year associate when he brought me in...but this was far from my fault. We might have been able to get the papers to court on time if she hadn''t been so careless.
I''m sorry for the length of this post. I am just losing sleep over the insanity of my work right now, and I just can''t seem to be rational about it. I was hoping I might get some insight from some of you--would you tell the boss why it was that it didn''t get out in time? Or do I just continue to be blamed for everything that goes wrong in the office, even when there''s no possible way it could have been my fault? I am not a tattletale by nature, and I hate the idea of throwing someone under the bus, but I''m really sick of covering for her (which I do every day, as she comes in at least an hour later than I do every day).
Well, some information has come to light over the course of the past month or so and I have found out that he is interviewing for my job (it''s a small community in my area of law and I have friends in it). He has also stepped up his game in terms of treating me like garbage--now he doesn''t even wait for me to do anything that could possibly be interpreted as "wrong." Now he just screams and swears and yells and throws things at me (well, he threw a stapler and a redweld at our paralegal--all he did with me was crumple up a letter I drafted that he hadn''t yet read, and threw it at me).
It''s a small firm--just the three of us (boss, paralegal and me), and we work in a suite with several other small firms. His tirades have alerted everyone on the floor to the unacceptable and entirely unprofessional way he treats us. However, although he is definitely very nasty to both of us a lot of the time, the paralegal gets away with what I consider to be a lot. She rarely does work, she recently unilaterally changed her schedule so that she supposedly comes in early and leaves early (but she NEVER comes in early, and in fact, comes in at least an hour later than the office opens every morning, so she actually works about 6 hours/day instead of 8-9 as she is paid to do--but our boss doesn''t know that because he comes in very late every day as well), and every time I ask her for her help with something work-related, she either gives me attitude or doesn''t do it right. I end up doing most all administrative tasks myself because I don''t want to risk the chance of her getting it wrong.
That said, she and I have gotten to be friendly, and she has a good heart. She just doesn''t feel any commitment to the work at this office, which I can understand from her perspective. I take a great deal of pride in my work because this is my career--but to her, this is just a job.
So, yesterday, he decides that we have to get a motion out the door (for which I had written a portion over 2 weeks ago that he never read, but that I had given to him several times for his review). I got all of the supporting documents prepared as soon as I walked into the office, and all we were doing was waiting on his signed draft. Well, the paralegal begins to velobind the supporting papers (punching very small holes into the top of the pages, which takes a long time), and it wasn''t until 4:25, when he finally was done with his draft (the court closes at 5pm, and it takes between 30-45 minutes to get to the court house, and around 10 minutes to finish velobinding those supporting papers), that I discovered that all my hours of collecting the supporting papers and making sure they were in the correct order with all the copies lined up the way they should be were wasted, because the paralegal had put in the holes completely wrong. I hadn''t checked because I''ve never used the velobinding machine and she had, so I stupidly believed that there was no way to screw it up--but she managed.
Anyway, our boss was HYSTERICAL, swearing, SCREAMING at the top of his lungs, and basically blamed me for it not getting out to opposing counsel until 5:20 (I''m leaving to file it in court first thing in a few minutes). The paralegal was standing right there and didn''t take any responsibility for it. I know he is thisclose to firing me, and I don''t know how safe her job is (all I know is that he''s been interviewing for my job). I really do not think it''s fair for me to take the blame for something that was not my fault--and I expressed that to her. I asked her very calmly to please, when he calmed down, to explain to him why the motion didn''t go out in time, because I didn''t think that it was fair for me to take the blame on this one. She said she wouldn''t do that.
I know it doesn''t seem I have much to lose here by taking the heat off of her, but as much as I hate my job (and of course I am trying like hell to find another one), I absolutely need it, and it doesn''t seem like anyone is hiring right now (duh). I get blamed all the time for my lack of experience, and I have no defense to that other than he knew he was hiring a first-year associate when he brought me in...but this was far from my fault. We might have been able to get the papers to court on time if she hadn''t been so careless.
I''m sorry for the length of this post. I am just losing sleep over the insanity of my work right now, and I just can''t seem to be rational about it. I was hoping I might get some insight from some of you--would you tell the boss why it was that it didn''t get out in time? Or do I just continue to be blamed for everything that goes wrong in the office, even when there''s no possible way it could have been my fault? I am not a tattletale by nature, and I hate the idea of throwing someone under the bus, but I''m really sick of covering for her (which I do every day, as she comes in at least an hour later than I do every day).
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