Dirty LAWndry reader,”Marissa”, wrote me recently about her backstabbing co-worker, “Chris”.
“I’ve only been working for a couple of months at a plaintiff’s personal injury firm. I’m a newly admitted attorney so I don’t have tons of experience yet. I jumped at this job opportunity that only pays a whopping salary of $28,000 because I needed to work. From day one, I’ve had problems with one of my co-workers named “Chris”. She’s been working there for about 20 years now. I learned that she’s married to my boss’ best friend. I’m still not sure what her job title is, but she handles interrogatories. Actually, she just types in the answers given by the associates in response to the questions. This is one of the reasons why I was hired. My boss wanted an attorney to handle all the production requests and interrogatories with limited supervision. My boss asked “Chris” to show me the ropes. She interpreted this to mean that she was in charge of my every move. She has tried to sabotage my work on numerous occasions, but today was the worst so far.
For some odd reason, whenever my boss or an associate wants to expand my job responsibilities, “Chris” has a problem with it. Chris has a high school diploma and knows very little about the practice of law. She only knows what she sees on tv or what she’s been trained to do. On Monday, my boss told me that he wanted me to start going to Discovery Court and arguing motions. Today was my first opportunity to go, and I was really excited. I have friends in large firms that still haven’t seen the inside of a courtroom and they’ve been working a lot longer than I have. So, this was a big deal to me. This morning, one of the associates stopped by my desk to accompany me to court and to make sure I knew what to do once I got there. “Chris” got upset and told me that I couldn’t go because we were going to get sanctioned if we didn’t reply to a set of interrogatories. I wasn’t aware of any impending interrogatories since I check TimeMatters frequently. But, “Chris” is usually the one who updates TimeMatters in regards to the motion dates so I trusted her. Anyway, the associate replied that we had to go and told “Chris” to talk to our boss about it.
When I got back from Court a little while ago, I was called into my boss’ office. I thought he wanted to know how I did. “Chris” was already in there when I stepped in. My boss started talking about how he didn’t want to have to look over our shoulders or worry that requests aren’t being answered. He also went on to say that if we couldn’t handle the work, he could find others to do it. I was confused but I didn’t want to interrupt because he seemed really upset. After we left his office, I asked “Chris” what that was about. All she said was “I warned you not to go this morning.”
Well, I just found out that “Chris” changed the date for a motion for sanctions that’s not due until May to today’s date. While I was gone, my boss stopped by her desk just to see how things were progressing. She told my boss that she reminded me “numerous times” that it was due today, but I ignored her and didn’t get it done and now he’s going to get sanctioned. She even claimed that she attempted to do it herself previously and when she asked for my help I wouldn’t assist her. Of course, everyone in the office heard her and was talking about the situation while I was gone. None of this is true and I have since proven to my boss that the response isn’t due until May. “Chris” now claims that it was an error on TimeMatters. This is also a lie because that case was originally entered into the system in February, but it was mysteriously updated today right after I left for court. Needless to day, I’m pissed off, but I’m biting my tongue because I really need this job.”
If you have a story you’d like to share with Dirty LAWndry, please email it to blog@dirtyLAWndry.com.
![[Post to Twitter]](http://dirtylawndry.com/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-twitter-micro4.png){kind=icon}