Holiday Gift Giving at this Paralegal's Firm

Every once in awhile, one of my guilty pleasures is to visit Bitter Lawyer or some other website full of equally snide, vile, or snarky comments from the ranks of the unhappy lawyer world. I'm not sure why I look specifically for unhappy and sarcastic lawyers... perhaps it is because I have not found a site for unhappy and sarcastic paralegals yet. The comments seem to perk my mood in much the same way soap operas do. Reading them makes me realize how good my life really is. If some fellow making four times my salary working in a firm with marble floors and taking home a bonus the size of my yearly paycheck is unhappy with his life, then my little ol' apartment, broken TV and barely running car seem less tragic.

So when I found the Above the Law open thread, Making the Holidays Happy for Your Secretary / Administrative Staff (thanks to Lynne DeVenny at Practical Paralegalism), I jumped for joy. With all of the painful delight that tonguing a loose tooth brings, I read some of the super bitter comments with a smirk. Not all of them were horrible. There exist, after all, wonderful people in the legal field. However, very many of the comments seemed to come from people who were unhappy with their assistants (or maybe just their lives).

While I feel devilish for taking a little pleasure out of the pain of these commentators, I can't help but feel that many of them bring it on themselves. For instance, # 27 suggested, "give them more paper. That's all the bonus secretaries want anyway."

Number 35 suggested, "CHECK YOUR SECRETARY. If she's not working right now her bonus should be $0." Number 35 should look up the word "irony" in the dictionary and hope his/her supervisor doesn't read Above the Law open threads.

Number 42 was going to give his secretary a take-out box of his lunch leftovers while Number 55 thinks his secretary has a bad attitude because she's "taking orders from someone half her age." (Methinks the problem might not be the age difference...)

And it looks like Number 103's deep seeded respect for firm staff, as exhibited in his response to a secretary's remark, will get him far in life: "What exactly are you "knocking out of the park" for your boss? The work you do isn't exactly cerebral....do you consider formatting a document to be "knocking it out of the park?" You sound out of touch with reality."

Some of these guys needed to take the advice of Number 63, who said, "if you're willing to be cool with the secs who hook you up, you'll find life easier in big law. that [sic] being said, secs like that are rare."

Fortunately for me, my Boss is not the Bitter Lawyer or ATL type. Though I didn't expect a thing, he walked into the office this morning and handed me a beautifully wrapped box. Inside were four long-stemmed wine glasses with fun yet classy polka dots all over them (which I'm sure the wife picked out - thank the good Lord for Bosses' wives).

I'm not sure what I did in a previous life to somehow avoid working with jaded, depressed, or elitist attorneys in this one. Sometimes those attitudes seem rampant in the legal field. Thankfully, at least in my part of the world, such personalities are few and far between.

Oh, and lest you worry that I didn't do my part in the holiday exchanging of gifts, I gave the Boss a very manly candle (oxymoron?) for his office.

It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Well it's here again, the end of the year. I went through a spell in my late teens and early twenties when I found it difficult to get into the holiday spirit. It seemed mundane, sad even. The end of the year signifies the fleeting nature of time like nothing else. My soul feels addictingly sore, like the misery of pressing one's tongue against a loose tooth as a child. But the past two or three years have slowly relieved me of this strange wintery depression, and I've been re-introducing myself to this magical season again.

I am actually busy this year. While the only parties on my plate since coming home from college have been family get-togethers, this year my schedule is packed with a diverse set of parties. Tonight was the Town of Silverhill's Christmas pot-luck. Of course, I had forgotten all about tonight until around noon today. I had to scurry to the store after work to pick up canned green beans, mushroom soup, and french onions. The only "covered dish" I know how to prepare off the cuff is green bean casserole.

I arrived just in time to eat. For the first time since I started branching out this year, I attended an event and did not feel the least bit awkward. If you've been following my entries, you know that I have been to a few different Chamber of Commerce events and other professional style meetings (like BCALP), with varying degrees of success. It finally appears that putting myself out there is starting to pay off. I'm starting to have fun at these things.

But tonight's town pot-luck was not the only shindig of the season to date. Last Friday night was the Silverhill Christmas parade, which runs through the main street right in front of our office. The Boss always has an open house on that night, and this being my first year full time, I was there. We had snacks in the back and set a table out in front of the office with coffee, hot chocolate and cookies. The office was and still is all decked out in fun holiday attire.

This week I have two more gatherings. The first is a friend's Christmas party, and the second is BCALP's. I've never been to a BCALP Christmas party, but with Dirty Santa and a liquor raffle, it has to be a good time.

While I may seem to be rambling, there is a lesson in here somewhere. I think the lesson is that it's worth it to blaze new ground for yourself, to go out and make new friends and contacts. If I had never joined BCALP or gotten involved with the planning and zoning commission, I would be missing out on two fun crowds and good food this holiday season. And now that I'm finally moving past the awkwardness inherently involved in trying new things, I am finding potential for real relationships with my fellow members of these organizations.