The other day, I was talking about the experience of being an associate with another young lawyer. I described how every day can bring new emotions: anger, joy, depression. “Oh, you’re just going through the five stages,” she explained. I had never heard this before, but it turns out that the “five stages of legal employment” (particularly in the private sector) makes a lot of sense. So what are they?
- Denial: “Oh, this isn’t the way the job is really going to be. Sure, my partners apparently don’t have any feelings resembling human compassion and I haven’t slept for the past week. But this is just an anomaly. I remember being a summer associate! That was so awesome! It’s going to be that way again soon! When is the firm taking me to Oceanaire again?”
- Anger: “My boss is such a !#$!@! All my fellow associates are soulless drones! I hate this job! I hate everyone!“
- Bargaining: “Ok, I’ll just work this job for a few months, just to get some money to pay back my loans. Then I’ll go work for the Peace Corps in Zambia. Or maybe if I ask them to cut my salary, they’ll work me few hours.”
- Depression: “*sigh* Yet another day.”
- Acceptance: “I guess I can do this. I’m sort of doing important work; I mean, Giant Corp. deserves a fair trial, too! And besides, now I can afford fancy shoes.”
*Now, I understand that any complaint about one’s job is pretty obnoxious in this economy. Fair enough. At the same time, it’s also important to recognize a more subtle consequence of the bad economy: firms may feel they can mistreat associates and get away with it. (After all, where are the associates going to go?) In some ways then, it’s more important than ever to note firm mistreatment.
-Michael
