Thursday, May 27, 2004
Secretary
So one day last week I had a project to do. I was supposed to print out a bunch of cases and organize them and put them into a 3-ring binder. It wasn't exactly the kind of work I went to law school to learn how to do (though I did have to know how to look up the cases on Westlaw so I could print them!), but in a way I kind of was looking forward to it precisely because of its mindlessness.
Problem was, it took me a large chunk of the day to do. As I was doing it, I thought to myself, "This is the kind of more menial task that you're supposed to have your secretary do." That's right--I have a secretary. It's the first time in my life I have HAD a secretary, instead of BEEN the secretary. During our orientation they told us that the secretaries know better than most of the lawyers what's going on, and they're really good at getting things done, and when it's something that they can do, we should have them do it because they don't bill at as high a rate as we do. But still I couldn't bring myself to ask my secretary to do this. She's a middle-aged woman, experienced, and there were holes to be punched and binders to be filled. I couldn't not do it myself, even if I was billing higher than her. It made me feel kinda weird.
Problem was, it took me a large chunk of the day to do. As I was doing it, I thought to myself, "This is the kind of more menial task that you're supposed to have your secretary do." That's right--I have a secretary. It's the first time in my life I have HAD a secretary, instead of BEEN the secretary. During our orientation they told us that the secretaries know better than most of the lawyers what's going on, and they're really good at getting things done, and when it's something that they can do, we should have them do it because they don't bill at as high a rate as we do. But still I couldn't bring myself to ask my secretary to do this. She's a middle-aged woman, experienced, and there were holes to be punched and binders to be filled. I couldn't not do it myself, even if I was billing higher than her. It made me feel kinda weird.
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