New Job.

Surprise! I'm back. I didn't disappear, and no I certainly have not died. 

As usual, my dating life has been a parade of nutjobs. However, my professional life has gotten an incredible boost. 

I ended up leaving my old job at the firm. Let's face it, I was becoming increasingly unhappy. As much as I loved my boss, there were things that were not within his power to fix that weren't getting fixed by the people who could fix it: not getting a raise in 2 years even after being promoted and asked to bill more hours, not getting clear answers on how raises are given, learning that my male counterpart was regularly receiving pay increases, pitiful bonuses even after exceeding my billing quota, and lack of support from home office when our office was suffering from staffing issues. I had spoken up many times, and each time was met with "I need to review this and I'll get back to you." Enough was enough, and I put my feelers out there to see what else there was. 

And there was something else - an opening at another law firm in their construction litigation wing. It was a reputable firm and it gave me the opportunity to specialize and get board-certified. When I interviewed with the partners in the local office, I felt like I bonded with them, although inside my heart was breaking to leave my old boss, who had become like a dad at work to me. I also had just been offered to be made partner at my old firm, but when the promised deadline for the promotion came and went, and there was no response as to why this second pay increase had not yet taken effect, or why the promotion hadn't happened, the final nail in the coffin had been hammered in. I was done. I entered into salary negotiations with the new firm, got a 28% pay increase, and resigned. 

The resignation from my old firm wasn't too bad. I cried when I gave my resignation letter to my boss, explaining that this new job was an opportunity that I needed to explore. The managing partners were supportive; they knew I was going to another good firm (and not a competitor for them). They asked if there was anything they could do to get me to stay. Since I didn't want to stay, I simply thanked them for allowing me to grow. The best part of this resignation was this: if things didn't work out at the new place, and if I wanted to come back, they said I was always welcome back. 

Things at the new firm had been scary. Not only had I launched myself, again, into a new area of law, I was with a whole set of different personalities and professional expectations to meet. Although the billable hour quota (they call it a "goal" but let's be real here, if you don't meet the "goal" you're out of a job) was lower, it was harder to meet, mostly because I had to spend a lot of time self-researching and determining what was what before I could actually do work on a file. The first two months have been a little daunting. The other harsh reality that I find here is there are cases that we take on a contingency, meaning we get a percentage of the final recovery. Although I record my hours on those files, they don't count towards my final quota, but they will count towards my profitability determination at my annual review. It's a different world, but it's doable. 

Around the time that I had left my old firm, my male counterpart had also left. A competitor firm had offered him a pay boost and partnership, but three months later, he went back to the old firm for reasons unknown to me. The old firm brought him back as a partner. Sometimes I think about going back to what was comfortable, but then I remind myself that staying comfortable isn't what has gotten me ahead. 

Which leads me to my next update - I dumped both of the guys from my last post. I had to get rid of David; it was just too much too soon for me. He was sour grapes, as seen below: 

As for Sam, well, Sam turned out to be from Crazytown, USA. While at my old firm, I went in to work on a Sunday afternoon to get ahead for the week. It was a multi-million dollar case, and my head would roll if I screwed it up. I told him I'd be out of touch for a while that day, but he insisted on texting me anyway. When I didn't respond to his texts because I was working, he flipped out, told me "Fuck that" which, in turn received a prompt "Go fuck yourself, I'm working and sometimes my work comes first" from me. That was the end of that. 

I had another disaster date earlier this week with another guy, but I'll save that for another post. 

I'll try to be better about posting, for the few people that enjoy this blog. All I want to do is bring a smile from my corner of the Internet.