Report comment

Please fill in the form to report an unsuitable comment. Please state which comment is of concern and why. It will be sent to our moderator for review.

Comment

If you "discuss this with [your] employer" you will basically put a black mark against your name. These people DO NOT care and WILL NOT change. I was really struggling a few years ago when my old boss asked me to run a case which was way beyond my experience - equity partners of big firms were on the other side ffs! I mentioned that I didn't feel ready (I was about 6PQE at the time and had just changed practice area) and he had a massive go at me, told me "so you're going to pick and choose which cases you do then?!" and basically said he was recalling my notes from my interview (implying I had overstated my experience, which I hadn't and which he very well knew). Had me in tears. I limped on dealing with this case and taking his sh1t working every hour god sent until I got really seriously ill and thought about driving my car into a wall so I didn't have to go to work.

Came back to work having been signed off. Informed him of what was going on and got screamed at because then he had had to ask the other side for an extension of time to file a document (because I wasn't there) and told me I had massively inconvenienced him and that unless I was dead he expected me to be working as I could work on my phone from my hospital bed. (yes, he did say that). All this was said with the door of the person in the office opposite him (his daughter!) open.

Next day he got HR into the room to "take a note", and shut the door and started going on about how my health was the most important thing, though alluded to the interview thing again.

I stayed there for 5 years under this bully and was almost driven to a nervous breakdown. At one point my doctor was seriously concerned as the psychotherapist I was seeing (to help me find ways to cope with his bullying) considered me a suicide risk as I had been in such a state in that session (I think she also said I had turned up dishevelled and unable to make much sense). I suffered from physical symptoms also.

Finally had the courage to leave but had to take a significant amount of time off to recover and now work part-time. Not worth it AT ALL. Oh, and they paid me awfully!

Stress (and I think bullying) is a massive problem in the legal world. Not sure what the answer is.

Your details

Cancel