General Musings Part 6

I swear, I seem to rack up links by the truck load. So, now time for more general musings.

So, lawyers you think the medical profession is so great??? Yeah, right.

This makes me nervous for my sister since she's studying to be a nurse. She'd definitely be able to do it since she is much better at socializing than I am. Except I & plenty of family members would be furious if someone attacked her or if some hospital administrator expected her to put up with this kind of thing. If her fiance is anything like my spouse when it comes to messing w/his woman, watch out!

Life lesson: No matter what job or career you have there's always a downside. Even if you love doing something, there will always be something unpleasant to do or just a task you hate doing but intellectually, you know you have to complete it if you want to progress.

There are even downsides in the entertainment field: overzealous gatecrashers/wannabes, temperamental actors, indecisive investors, eccentric directors, etc. Not that I'm calling out anyone in particular, talking about my personal experiences or even complaining, I'm just saying those things are the nature of the business. Should you choose to work in entertainment, you're going to encounter at least some of this sooner or later. Similar unpleasant tasks, personality types, etc. exist everywhere so the only way to avoid it is to become a shut-in.

On to unrealistic expectations. Where do you find those? More often than not, Craig's List!!

Attorney (Temporary) (Nassau)
Date: 2010-08-13, 11:18AM EDT
Reply to: job-x2yzb-1896512307@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]

Small firm needs temporary assistance. Mostly litigation. This is a full-time, temporary position for a week to two weeks. There is a possibility of the part-time position becoming full-time, so attorneys available to accept a full-time associate position are preferred. This is a position that is probably most suited to an attorney with 2 to 5 years of quality comercial/business litigation experience, but others will be considered. The compensation range is $15 to $25 per hour, depending on experience.


* Location: Nassau
* Compensation: $15 to $25 per hour.
* Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
* Please, no phone calls about this job!
* Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.

PostingID: 1896512307

This is why attorneys are pissed off about the job market. Document review positions, where you did nothing but sit on your butt looking at a computer screen for hours on end looking for privileged documentation, was paying $35 an hour back when I had that one horrid assignment in 2008. If the assignments weren't located in filthy sweatshops managed by Hitler wannabes, it wouldn't have been a bad gig. Apparently plenty of lawyers racked up hours on these assignments to take months off & could still pay their basic bills (including student loans). The average yearly take home was something in the neighborhood of $50-60K a year, sometimes more depending on how many hours you worked or how many assignments you got.

But consider that part-time in lawyer world is usually full-time everywhere else (40 hours per week). Consider that if you calculate $25 an hour, 40 hours a week for a year, after taking out 25% for taxes you get about $36K a year. $15 an hour on the same formula is less than $22K a year.

AND these people want 2-5 years of experience?!?!?!?! Should they also be Harvard grads who can make their assholes sing & juggle watermelon while cooking a 6 course meal from scratch and putting highlights in a dog's hair? I've been reading John Waters' books lately & I haven't seen Pink Flamingos, but that's where the singing asshole reference comes from.

When I read this, I immediately thought of Susan Smith. This just disgusts me on so many levels, it's not funny. I really hope the comments saying the women in prison would handle this scum are true. I may not want to have kids of my own but that doesn't mean I think they should be suffocated, placed in a car to sink in a river & then have their mother lie to the authorities about what happened. See why it reminded me of the Susan Smith case? It was a particularly huge story in my hometown in NC; after all, SC is hitting pretty close to home. I have nieces & nephews as well as close friends who are parents; even if their kids got on their nerves from time to time, I don't see any of them doing what this woman did.

And you still want to stick w/the notion that God gives you babies?

Just one more reason for me to avoid grocery stores in the city. This doesn't shock me in the least since it's always the poor being taken advantage of. Who's shocked that most of the violations happened in the poorest neighborhoods of the Bronx? How do you propose to correct it? That's the better question.

Well, people I won't be openly nasty to if I meet them. It also proves that I'd probably not be good at being a long-term assistant since I'd eventually want to move myself upward & I must put out some type of energy that says I'll never be happy being someone's permanent assistant since people always want to put me in higher level roles than I might initially ask about.

At least these people know that it's not smart to be nasty to assistants since they can screw your life up. They could write tell-alls, mess in your finances, steal, who knows what else. I think I would definitely take notes on how I saw an assistant being treated since it's the same as watching how your date treats the wait staff in a restaurant. That kind of thing reflects on people's impressions of you & it would not go unnoticed by me considering we all start somewhere.

Life lesson: Smart business people & prospective clients are watching everything you do. If you treat lower level workers like crap, I'm going to see it & likely refuse to deal with you since you've proven to be an asshole. I'll think you're trying to get one over on me, which is so not cool. I'd also make sure anyone I was advising or working with saw the same things & heard my thoughts on that. No one I know likes being duped or dealing w/someone who acts like that.