From the office...

January is always crazy in our office. My desk ends up piled with file folders for real estate 1099s and employee payroll taxes that need to be done. That's usually when my boss shows up needing three dozen things RIGHT NOW. ...working in the legal field, it is SO important to keep each client's file in order at all times. There's sort of an unwritten rule, you only have one file open at a time, so that documents dont' end up in the wrong file. And if you get up and leave your desk, you close the file so that it is not seen by eyes that should not be seeing what is inside. That sounds easy, right? Well, in theory, sure. My boss has this really bad habit (well, he has a few of them. I'm just going to tell you about this particular one right now.) If I am right in the middle of something, he will walk up to my desk with a file and open it up and set it down right on top of whatever I am presently working on. Ok, no problem. Switch gears and work on the top file carefully making sure not to get any of the documents mixed between files. Ten minutes later he will show up with another file, walk up to my desk open it up and set it right on top of the other two open files and need it done, RIGHT NOW. His present record is bringing me five (5) files, sometimes with tapes, or books from the law library, and I get so freaked out when he does this. It's my biggest pet peeve about my job. With each delivery, I'm scribbling on my notepad instructions for each file. Call this attorney about that. Prepare this letter for this. Draft pleadings and a subpoena for the other. Then I have to stop, close all the files, make sure my notes are in the right order for the way I stack the files, and start all over. That's about the time he'll come back and want the one from the middle RIGHT now. One will be a divorce. One will be an estate that needs to be probated. One will be an accident. The other two will be something else. I'm pretty good at bouncing around like a yo-yo but why can't he just bring it to me, tell me what he would like done with the file closed? Would that be so difficult? And why does he have to put it right in the middle of my desk on top of an already open file that I am obviously working on? I dont' get it. I've even tried keeping a lit candle on my desk near what I'm working on in an attempt to make him put the file somewhere else. He will stand there talking with the open file right over the candle flame before he puts it down open in the middle of my desk. One of these days, he's gonna set something on fire. I can see it now... He didn't used to do that, but he's getting older. I still wish they offered a paralegal course on "Working With Geriatric Lawyers 101: What To Do When Your Boss Begins To Age"

Ok. enough griping for today.