The Weird World I Am In

As an English major I realize the above sentence ends in a proposition. I'm ok with it.

I've decided that contract attorneys, career contract attorneys that is, are all a little loopy. I think you'd have to be to decide that staring at a computer and clicking your mouse for 10-14 hours a day equals career fulfillment. I feel lucky that I am now the team leader, despite the fact that everyone keeps giving me sympathetic looks and saying how glad they are it's not them. It gives me multiple reasons per day to get up off my bum and run around a bit, which I find very welcome after a few weeks of 10 hour days, 6 days a week when I WAS just sitting on my bum.

I work with lots of people who are doing a variety of things. Some are in between jobs or fresh out of law school. Some have been out of the field for awhile and are just popping back in to make some cash. Some have clients on the side and are doing this for additional money. A couple are saving money to start their own firms. But then there are those who have decided that since it pays so well, they'd just rather do this.

And thus you get the weirdness.

For example, we've already had one screaming match between 2 of the attorneys. They are now in separate rooms, but it was tense there for a bit. Attorney 1 is very nice, but pretty aggressive and could totally have beat up Attorney 2. While Attorney 1 was yelling and pointing, Attorney 2 was acting like a 10 year-old and egging her on with "Are you done yet? Are you done yet? Are you still talking?" Basically the rest of us just kept our eyes glued to our computers and waited for it to end. (And I suppose if it happened now as team leader I'd have to do something about it, but I'm really glad at the time that I didn't have to get in the middle of it).

Then there's the new girl who came in Tuesday with the latest batch of attorneys. Not only does she extol the joys of doing document review basically forever, but she came with a reputation already in place. According to a couple of people who worked with her on a previous project she delights in keeping track of people's breaks and reporting excessive breaks and time away from the computer to the powers that be. On her last job she got yelled at for it by the powers that be because basically it was proof that she wasn't paying attention to her own work. However, a couple of people have seen her taking notes already in her little notebook when they go on their breaks. So a small contingency in my room has started taking notes on the breaks SHE takes. Like yesterday she took an hour phone call that she neglected to write down on the sign-in sheet. According to them, they're only keeping tabs for the future just in case she uses her list.

The funniest thing to me though is how she sort of seems to be sucking up to the powers that be. Like she always makes a point of chatting with the firm attorneys or the staffing agency reps when they come in. She also always talks with me. I find it kind of funny because I just want to tell her, "You realize I have no real power, right?"

Then there are the hyper nit-picky people who have 5 million questions. Sometimes I just want to say, "You know, it's really not that hard. I think you're overthinking things a bit here." But of course I just answer their questions and psyche myself up for several more that day.

Hmm. After writing all of this I've decided that contract attorney work drives you crazy AND turns you into a 12 year-old.