Tuesday, February 06, 2007
I had lunch with some of the guys today. All of them were once in the military and/or a JAG and/or a prosecutor. It’s been a while since I’ve been in varying social situations, I realized. Like in college, you can get the sense of what it’s like to be around certain types of people pretty easily due to the endless array of social events. In law school, people naturally group themselves by age (single, married, with kids, second career) or interests (bars, ultimate frisbee, coffee shops). People are still willing to make friends, but are generally less open.
In non-academic environments, social options are quite limited. When I was working at my old firm, no one would really go out to lunch together. The only time we’d all sit and eat together was at the weekly meetings, and those were stilted with all the senior partners there. Not counting work-related meetings, I probably interacted more with my office plant than with most of the attorneys there. That left Dave on weeknights and church on weekends, both offering very rare opportunities to meet and interact with new people or acquaintances.
Now that I’m working at a big office, with a more diverse population, there are a lot of people I could get to know. Yet I noticed people, again, are grouping themselves by certain categories. It’s about comfort level. Today I had lunch with the former JAG guys – aggressive, eager to litigate and win cases. I did not participate in the conversation and did not feel particularly encouraged to. Tomorrow I’ll probably go back to the Girls’ Room – late twenties/early thirties chatty women whose conversation bounces at lightning speed from the latest asylum fraud trends to traumatic childhood memories to the pleasures of Godiva hot chocolate. I don’t talk much there either, but the discussions are more interesting to me. While leaving the restaurant today, I noticed a small group of the more middle-aged women eating together. The list goes on.
I don’t like the word “clique” because it makes me think of high school and always being on the outside looking in. But when one of the new attorneys joked that we should get the new attorneys together and form our own clique, it made me think. In this work environment, who do I gel with best? The Christians, the Asians, the young marrieds, the inexperienced, the Orange County commuters, the introverts? In all these categories, I can already think of one person who I don’t click with, despite the superficial similarities. I just hope I’ll be able to find one or two good friends here.
(On the bright side, my mentor fits 3 of the above categories and is really helpful. And we saw Wolfgang Puck at lunch today. Makes sense, since we were eating at one of his restaurants, Wolfgang Puck Gourmet Express.)
| Tags: attempts at profundity, young bureaucrat, young lawyerdom
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:
- 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.
- 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).
- 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).
- 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.
- 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.
- 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…
| Tags: young bureaucrat, young lawyerdom
Friday, January 05, 2007
It’s been busy with the in-laws and wrapping up my last week at work. Today was my last day! I took some pictures of the office and with some of the partners. I’ve been so sleep deprived…time for some rest. My in-laws are leaving tomorrow and thus begins the countdown of 17 days till my new job. 17 days to live it up.
My office, partially packed –
The hallway I walked down every day –
Our front door from the inside –
The nice waiting area I have never sat in –
Goodbye private practice, hello government work!
| Tags: young lawyerdom, law firm life