Confusion Never Stops, Closing Walls and Ticking Clocks

I loathe my day job. I recognize that I am fortunate to have a job at all in this time of economic despair, and I am grateful not to be living off unemployment or worse. However, there comes a point when I stop being filled with gratitude just to be there and start expecting to be treated like a human being. My temporary status does not give my supervisor the right to treat me disrespectfully.

My supervisor used to be a temp and was hired as a permanent employee based on a groundswell of support. Like many people who climbed out of a lesser status into a greater one, he clearly holds those of us who still hold his former status in contempt. I'm not even sure he knows he's doing it. On top of that, I get the impression that he doesn't like me personally for some reason. In general, I can put up with both his general and specific scorn, but sometimes, he pushes it too far.

Today, he sent me two emails reminding me to keep track of my time and what time I'm spending on what matter. In one of the emails, he suggested I could use the time on the email as a guide for when I switched from one matter to another. I have been a practicing attorney for five years, and I was a summer associate before that. Learning how to keep track of time is Lesson #1 at most legal employers since time is the product they're selling. Time is, as one HR manager explained to me, their inventory. I've been keeping track of my time at this particular employer for going on six months now. If there was a problem with the way I do it, I would have heard about it tout de suite from the accounting department.

I was seriously contemplating giving my notice today. I'm going on vacation in two weeks, and I thought I would just tell them that I'm not coming back afterward. However, I decided that would be a foolish thing to do. I saw this supervisor in person later in the day, and he wisely refrained from bringing up the time issue yet a third time, which is why I didn't sharpen my claws on his face.

You know, it is degrading enough to lose my job and be relegated to temp work. But it is just insupportable to be treated like a child or a moron by someone who isn't as smart as I am and who went to a much, much lower-ranked law school.