Reply #15: My supervisor from the first law firm I worked at as a legal assistant

[LibertyLover]

This woman had no life except the firm and expected the legal assistants she supervised to do the same. Her crappy behavior was legion. Once, I had pulled an all-nighter and gotten home around 7 am in the morning, roughly the time I should have been getting up to go to work. But the documents had gotten finished and been sent out and the attorney was going home for the rest of the day and told me to do the same - standard practice in the office after an all-nighter. I was living at home with my mom at the time and I told her what the attorney had said. I had also left a note for "Anna" (name changed to protect the guilty), the supervisor, to explain what had happened and that I wouldn't be in that day. At 11 am I heard the phone ring, but was too tired to get it and went back to sleep. Later when I got up, mom told me that "Anna" had called and had demanded to speak to me. Mom told her I had gotten in at 7 and was asleep but she would give me the message when I awakened. I called the supervisor and was screamed at for a good 5 minutes and told never again to let my mother speak to her the way she had and that I was to come into the office immediately. I told her no. The next day I expect to be fired, so I went to the attorney I had worked with and told him the story. He went to the supervisor's boss and nothing happened to me.

Another time I walked out into the hallway one afternoon about 3 pm and smelled smoke. Not just smelled it, but could see it in the air. I should mention that we were on the 25th and top floor of a Wall Street building. I went back in the paralegal office and told "Anna" what I had seen. A few minutes later the smoke was visible and smellable in our office and one of the partners, who was the fire warden for our floor, was coming around and telling everyone to evacuate the building. "Anna" refused to let us leave saying that the partner was known for his practical jokes. She closed the door to our office and we continued to work. About half an hour later the door was unceremoniously thrown open by a NYC fireman in full turnout gear and respirator. He was as shocked to see us as we were to see him. He ordered us out immediately. Nancy began arguing with him and he threatened to have her arrested. We 5 legal assistants and "Anna" were escorted to the elevator and out of the building. Outside some of the building's occupants were sort of milling around, but most had left. "Anna" insisted that we wait to see if they would let us back in the building to finish the work day. A fireman overheard her and told her pointblank that nobody was getting back in the building the rest of the day and maybe not the next day either. Her face just fell. The rest of us scampered off.

She tried to keep me from going on one vacation and ruined another one for me. I had arranged to take my 2 nephews and niece to DisneyWorld. She was pissed because I was going on vacation - she never took them - and kept calling the hotel where we were staying to ask really stupid questions about a job I was supervising another paralegal on. Or she had that legal assistant call me. At the time (1987), very few people had mobile phones and they were nothing like what we have available today. So I spent a good chunk of my vacation finding public telephones and calling the office. Or if we went back to the hotel room, I'd spend several hours on the phone answering questions. It was very frustrating. In fact I was so ticked when I got back that I went out and found another job. In my exit interview I specifically named the supervisor as my reason for leaving.

I heard a few years later that the partner "Anna" had worked with almost exclusively had retired and that the new head of the partners' committee had no use for "Anna" because when he was an associate she had been nasty and dismissive to him. She was stripped of her position as supervisor and told that she was just another legal assistant. The last I heard a new supervisor had been named and "Anna" was not taking it well.

The person I am now looks back on what I let that woman get away with and wonders why. All I can say is that I was young and not comfortable dealing with older superiors.