At the immigration prosecutor’s office, girls rule

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

I started my new job yesterday. There’s a lot of downtime these first few days as I get trained. They block out entire mornings and afternoons for me to meet with certain people or observe court, but nothing takes the entire 3 or 4 hours, so afterward I just surf the web. Apparently many other attorneys surf the web too after court.

It has been… interesting. It’s shockingly different from my old job in a few respects. First of all, I have to get up at 5:00am. It’s not even the crack of dawn – it’s over an hour before sunrise. Dave, braveheart and sweetie that he is, has committed to waking up at the same time so we can have breakfast together before I leave for the 6:15am Metrolink. After I have my morning coffee, I feel more human. But I gotta say, the commute is a killer. It’s 1 hour 40 minutes door to door. I get home at 7:00pm, eat dinner, and get ready to sleep by 9:00pm.

Second, my office is definitely not as nice as the last. Lets list some of the downgrades:

1. No window – a big minus. If I don’t leave the building during the workday, I will never see the light of day, because when I leave to go home after 5:00pm the sun is setting or at least no longer visible. It’s the luck of the draw. Other new people got windows.
   
2. Metal desk, shelves, and file cabinets – at least it’s not squeaky and cutting into my flesh. There are lots of drawers and places to put things, so I can be organized (a big virtue at this job).
   
3. A bucket chair with tweed covering that will wreak havoc on my back – um, yeah. Time to shop for a butt and lumbar cushion(s).
   
4. A phone that rings when it’s not supposed to – very annoying and hopefully fixable, soon. The calls that come in through the main line for reception are ringing in my office. When I pick up, so does the receptionist and I can hear the whole conversation. The phone rings about every 2 minutes.
   
5. No wall paintings – my last firm had nice paintings in every office. At least my office has wallpaper which makes it unique, because it used to be half of a conference room.
   
6. Extreme heat – I sweated all of yesterday. It’s a little better today. There are major temperature issues in this building. But I’m not complaining, b/c I’m on my probation period.
   

Third, if I take work home, it doesn’t count. I’m on a schedule where I have to work 80 hours every pay period (2 weeks). The only hours that count are the ones when I’m physically in the office. You can see how that can be bad, especially for nerdy people who want to take reading material home. But it’s also good, b/c there are no billable hours in the private sector sense. So I can be sitting here blogging (as I am doing now) and it still counts.

Fourth, girls rule. Eighty percent of the attorneys are women, and most of us are in our late-twenties/early-thirties, either engaged, married, pregnant, with infants/young children, or some combination thereof. The guys eat lunch usually in their offices alone or in someone’s office. Several of the girls eat in the large conference room to the exclusion of extra testosterone. Having been to two of these lunches so far, I can see how the conversation can get sorta out there.

Fifth, the information technology system is even worse than at my old firm. I didn’t think that was possible. They use old versions of Windows and Internet Explorer, which is like “gag!!!” for a loyal Firefox user as myself. I haven’t talked to anyone yet who even knows what Firefox is. When I explained how it is far superior b/c it has tabbed browsing, they looked at me like I was crazy.

More later…

1 Comments  | Tags: young bureaucrat, young lawyerdom