She Slices His Bananas and Salami
That's not a euphemism for anything. The partner where I'm temping has a personal assistant. Apparently the secretary he fired claimed he had so much work to do that was not firm-related that she couldn't keep up with her legal secretary duties. Now, I have worked for him before, both as his legal secretary and as his personal assistant. Last year when I worked as the PA, he was being audited. The office manager told me his (then) former secretary reported him to the IRS because she hated him. When I worked as the personal assistant it was mostly preparing documents to be sent to the partner's accountant. Which was a waste. There's no reason he couldn't have just sent those documents to the accountant's office and let his staff pluck out the information needed.
Anyway. My point is, the partner likes having a personal assistant. He spends a lot of time flitting around talking about how busy he is, too busy to make phone calls or do client-related work, and instead hires a personal assistant to do things for him. The reality is he wants to retire to Napa like many of his friends have, and just come into the city one or two days a week.
The partner is horridly disorganized. He doesn't even make any attempt to be better, probably because everyone around him is organized in an effort to counter his Pig-Pen-esque messes. On Friday the partner asked me to help him carry things to his car. The truth is, he could have carried it all by himself. Hell, I could have carried it all by myself. He just really likes having people constantly doing things for him. It strokes his ego.
For the last two-plus weeks, I have been working at this place. It is my third time working for this guy. He has been all compliments. I follow through on things. I fix problems the last secretary caused. I get along with all the employees, and the sub-tenants. The office manager has been out for the last two weeks due to illness, and I have handled a slew of things she normally does. Any time the partner asks me if I know how to do something that I don't know how to do, I tell him I'll figure it out, and then I do.
The partner was not allowing the now-fired secretary to calendar anything because she kept screwing up. I calendar things, and it works out just fine. The partner told me he didn't allow the now-fired secretary to work on CC&R's because there is a lot of formatting that could easily get screwed up. I have worked on three. There are many examples like that. Since I started there earlier this month, the partner has consistently complimented me. Two or three times he has said that when the office manager is back he'd like to talk about making this a permanent position. He never gave me any negative feedback.
Then on Friday afternoon the partner told me that next week I should schedule about 45 minutes for us to talk, perhaps during lunch, for him to tell me things I should improve upon, for future jobs. Meaning ... he is not going to hire me? Really? Where is this coming from? He has never had one complaint and now he feels he has 45 minutes worth? This from the man who has gone through six secretaries in less than two years?
On Friday, when he told me this, I was livid as I agreed. This weekend a lot of thinking and re-framing has happened. I was already fighting against counting chickens before they were hatched in terms of waiting for this temporary job to turn into a permanent one. Now I am changing my approach. When I show up tomorrow, it will be with the goal of extending this temp position for as long as possible.
Everyone is hoping the office manager will make it back to work tomorrow, part-time. I want to talk with her about this, since she is very influential with the partner. He doesn't make any big decisions without her. Also, I will ask if she can join in the constructive-criticism lunch hour, because I think it'll go better with her there. I wish he'd do this at the end of the day. 45 minutes is a long time to sit there allowing a wealthy egomaniac to tell you what you should be doing differently or how you can do things better. I'd prefer to be able to go home afterward, in case the constructive criticism makes me want to cry. It'd be better to do that on the train home, rather than in the sunken living room of an office in Union Square.
Anyway. My point is, the partner likes having a personal assistant. He spends a lot of time flitting around talking about how busy he is, too busy to make phone calls or do client-related work, and instead hires a personal assistant to do things for him. The reality is he wants to retire to Napa like many of his friends have, and just come into the city one or two days a week.
The partner is horridly disorganized. He doesn't even make any attempt to be better, probably because everyone around him is organized in an effort to counter his Pig-Pen-esque messes. On Friday the partner asked me to help him carry things to his car. The truth is, he could have carried it all by himself. Hell, I could have carried it all by myself. He just really likes having people constantly doing things for him. It strokes his ego.
For the last two-plus weeks, I have been working at this place. It is my third time working for this guy. He has been all compliments. I follow through on things. I fix problems the last secretary caused. I get along with all the employees, and the sub-tenants. The office manager has been out for the last two weeks due to illness, and I have handled a slew of things she normally does. Any time the partner asks me if I know how to do something that I don't know how to do, I tell him I'll figure it out, and then I do.
The partner was not allowing the now-fired secretary to calendar anything because she kept screwing up. I calendar things, and it works out just fine. The partner told me he didn't allow the now-fired secretary to work on CC&R's because there is a lot of formatting that could easily get screwed up. I have worked on three. There are many examples like that. Since I started there earlier this month, the partner has consistently complimented me. Two or three times he has said that when the office manager is back he'd like to talk about making this a permanent position. He never gave me any negative feedback.
Then on Friday afternoon the partner told me that next week I should schedule about 45 minutes for us to talk, perhaps during lunch, for him to tell me things I should improve upon, for future jobs. Meaning ... he is not going to hire me? Really? Where is this coming from? He has never had one complaint and now he feels he has 45 minutes worth? This from the man who has gone through six secretaries in less than two years?
On Friday, when he told me this, I was livid as I agreed. This weekend a lot of thinking and re-framing has happened. I was already fighting against counting chickens before they were hatched in terms of waiting for this temporary job to turn into a permanent one. Now I am changing my approach. When I show up tomorrow, it will be with the goal of extending this temp position for as long as possible.
Everyone is hoping the office manager will make it back to work tomorrow, part-time. I want to talk with her about this, since she is very influential with the partner. He doesn't make any big decisions without her. Also, I will ask if she can join in the constructive-criticism lunch hour, because I think it'll go better with her there. I wish he'd do this at the end of the day. 45 minutes is a long time to sit there allowing a wealthy egomaniac to tell you what you should be doing differently or how you can do things better. I'd prefer to be able to go home afterward, in case the constructive criticism makes me want to cry. It'd be better to do that on the train home, rather than in the sunken living room of an office in Union Square.
posted by Green at 4/24/2011 09:21:00 PM
10 Comments:
In training to become a paralegal, one thing has become increasingly and undeniably clear to me: lawyers are incurably insane, and self-centered, and insensitive. I'm sure he has absolutely no idea how deranged most of his requests sound to normal people, including the 45-minutes-to-tell-you-why-you-suck one. It probably isn't a situation anything like what he's implying, but sorry he made you sweat all weekend. Boo.
WTF? As long as I've been surfing the internet, this kind of shit should not surprise me, yet I am still just blown away when I hear stories about how completely self-absorbed and inconsiderate of other people some jerks can be. I hope the office manager can set him straight a bit.
UUUGGGHH. That is absurd. I'm sorry you're going through this. I hope your "review" is not terrible and that you get the job (if you still want it). People are asshats. Lawyers doubly so. (Except me. But I'm almost de-lawyered.)
please ask him about being hired on full time. What could it hurt?
he probably has apsergers.
desertwarrior
i'm so sorry, this person sounds incredibly annoying. i hope it went as well as could be expected, and that no matter what that idiot said, you handled yourself in a way that you feel good about. UGH.
Wait.....is this at least a PAID lunch? Because there is no way in hell I would take an unpaid 45 minutes to have someone explain how I need to improve!
He sounds like an asshole. I work in the IT Dept. for a law firm. I can name 30 attorneys that fit into this category.
6 secretaries in 2 years? I have trained 12 sectetaries for a Shareholder in one of our offices. TWELVE! Yet, it couldn't POSSIBLY be an issue with the Atty.... Naaaah....
So I guess the personal assistant was in charge of Slicing Tubular Things, huh? That is truly sad if indeed that is how she spent her time. But, whatever is needed to satisfy the boss - even if sometimes odd jobs! One knows if one balks, it's "There's the door . . . -time". I hope you will one day find a good situation to be in work-wise. I'm pulling for you!
Dude. We could SO talk on this subject. Would love to hear how this turned out...any news??
Second that! What happened? Was he an ass, or was he just trying to hire you and had a comunication fart?
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