Managing Employees

[bam bam]

I have a good amount of success managing receptionists, secretaries and low level employees. The expectations I have for them in the job are always exceeded. When I give them an assignment, it is usually done to my specifications even when they meet an occasional brick wall.

I have had very little success managing law students and lawyers. To the point where I am regularly berating them for crappy work product, not doing what I say and giving me attitude about the fact that I give them work assignments. My expectations regarding the work product and commitment of law students may be a little high. But those who meet this commitment are rewarded disproportionately whereas the one's who fail are kicked to the curb.

One of my friends is struggling financially right now. He has some good experience working rape cases and I need some help with the science behind DNA evidence and its legal ramifications. He is terrible in front of a jury and there's no way I will let him cross examine the state's DNA expert. But I thought this is a win-win for both of us. Except for the fact that the guy's ego is so large that he wants to tell me how to run the case, how he needs to do the cross (yeah because juries love egg head professorial types) and after agreeing to the assignment at a low rate, now wants to renegotiate a month in. In all seriousness, he isn't worth the aggravation but I cannot find time to work on the case. So I put up with it, even though I am less effective on other matters because I have to deal with his bull****.

We also have hired a young lady as a full time associate who recently passed the bar. Her expectations in terms of workload are way out of whack with regard to her position at our firm and what tasks she is assigned. I am handling a federal case pro bono. The client is literally retarded and needs to be babysat. Well, I asked her on Friday to locate the client and make sure she attended a Monday meeting at the US Attorney's office. Guess what wasn't done?

I follow up with her today and she gives me sh-t about how she called and the phone number we have is no good and she has too much to do and that she didn't regard this as important work and asked the secretary to handle it. So I explained to her how I would handle the situation had my boss who gave me a job in a ****ty economy asked me to it. Anyway, she started making excuses and telling me she wasn't doing it. And she did all she could. When she clearly didn't.

I think with law students who become lawyers, there is this perception that law practice is like law school where you sit around and debate high minded concepts and don't have to get your hands dirty. And maybe that's true if you go work for David Boies or Ted Olsen but 99% of law practice isn't like that and these folks insist on learning this lesson the hard way.

My best skill is getting someone in my conference room to sign a client agreement and write me a 5 figure check for their representation. This allows me to make the rules and set the terms of employment for others in order to carry out the terms and conditions of the representation. This also sets me apart from 95% of the lawyers out there. What I can't understand is why people think they are my equal when if I couldn't get someone to write the check in the first place, they wouldn't have a job and I could find any one of
1000 people to do their job?

Sorry for the rant, if I didn't have employees, I had been the happiest guy in the world these days.

[Rex Spook]

Hire justagirl.

[Titchou]

Just a question - what age groups do these people fall in? The young attorney is definitely the product of a helicopter parent and it's difficult to deal with them as you have to lay it out in a, b, c, increments for them. The logic to continue to locate the person in question does not exist in them. Besides telling them to contact the person, you have to also tell them what to do if a) they make contact and b) they don't make contact. Very trying people to deal with. I have worked with college age women as a volunteer in my college sorority for over 30 years. This generation drives me the battyest! Great kids, good hearted but you have to lay it all out for them. Initiative isn't their strong suit.

[bdavid]

I don't know, Titchou - I don't think it's entirely age-related. (Although it is certainly evident in many people under the age of, say, 35.) I am dealing now with someone who is probably late 40s -old enough to know better - who needs to be led by the nose and has no common sense, intuition or motivation to take one step more. My son, who is in his early 30s, is just the opposite. He works hard, takes initiative, gets up when he falls. (Unfortunately he has a lot of practice getting up after falls.)
Bam, I feel for you. (Even though I disagree with 99% of your posts .) When one cannot trust that one's instructions will be carried out properly it is the most frustrating thing, and potentially something with far-reaching consequences. I'd dump that guy (your friend) and keep searching. There must be qualified young people out there. Too bad my son is not a lawyer.

[justagirl]

Hire justagirl.

Justagirl is very happy with her career.

[Titchou]

Bdavid: I'm sure there are exceptions in this age group but any college administrator will tell you about the heliocopter moms - just google it! Examples that I personally know of:

1) Mother who took kid's resume around at college career day because the kid had class!

2) Mother who called the HR department at a company who had offered her son a job to get more information on the benefits package.

Now tell me, would any of your parents had done this? Mine would have laughed in my face. And these are just 2 examples...God love them, though...they are very service oriented, tend to volunteer a lot and are very caring. They've just had someone else handling basic life skills for them.

[bam bam]

Titchou,

It is clearly age related. When I was 25, 26, I didn't want a real job, so I went and became a professional gambler. I didn't ask anyone to subsidize my lifestyle. These kids graduating today seem to want the lifestyle I had when I was 26 but they want me to pay for it.

Most of these kids are graduating jobless and continuing the student lifestyle. When one of them gets a job, it's a tough transition because their friends are all at Cooter's at 3 drinking beer.

My friend working on the rape charge for me is my age. It is totally an ego thing because he knows more law than I do but he can't make a living because clients hate him and he can't ask for money. The lack of these skills make him awful in front of a jury as well.

[Titchou]

Bam: I can relate to the pro gambler as my father was one. Finally went to work when I started school as my mother didn't want me taking a deck of cards or dice to "show and tell."

As for the attorney friend, I have a similar one. Great guy, decent looking, well spoken, very intelligent lawyer but cannot handle talking to a jury or really dealing with clients. He teaches a class at a local law school and does a lot of brief writing for several attorneys in the area. He's finally realized that is where his talents lie and has quit trying to do otherwise. A man has to know his limitations.

[LauraMc]

I disagree that it's age-related. I work with lots of people like this ages 20 - 60. And the management people in their 30's & 40's are the worst. Our company has these long drawn out committee meetings and belive me, there is a committee for everything. I was banned from a few because I just can't tolerate inaction and ignorance. They come in and pick up where the last meeting started; as if they don't remember discussing it before. In the end, usually someone outside the group makes the decision and it never gets implemented or any follow-up. It's as if they think if they say to do it, it's done.
For example, I was scheduled for a meeting yesterday at 4p.m. I had submitted 3 questions when the decision was made to discuss this issue on June 2. I never heard back from anyone. Someone started e-mailing me yesterday morning to find out what kind of response I got. When I told her none, she wanted to e-mail something to the group again. I reminded her we had a meeting at 4 with these very people. She acted like she had no idea. I show up for the meeting at 4. Only 3 of the 8 people show up. And the one who was supposed to get an answer to my question had not even called our Fiscal Intermediary to ask them. But she still wanted to make these changes. They screwed me once before like this and we changed processes and programming only to find out our FI could not accept what we had done even though Medicare is the one requiring it. So now we're going to meet in another two months and find out what they said. I'm sure we'll be having the same conversation we had yesterday yet again.
Whew, it's nice getting all that b*tching out before the work day starts.

[justagirl]

Y'all should feel lucky you just had to read this once. I read it then had to hear it all over again on the way to dinner last night.