Is It OK For Solicitors To Ask Their Secretaries To Cancel The Milk For Them?

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By Alex Aldridge on

Hearing trainee solicitors talk about “their secretary” always makes me cringe. Invariably it’s done in a disbelieving, yet boastful, way (i.e. “Only 25 and I’ve got a servant!”). Of course, it’s possible that I’m just jealous.

One of the problems with gaining secretarial support at such an early age is that the trainee becomes conditioned to think that servitude is normal – and, increasingly secure in the master role as their career progresses, begins to cross boundaries. Soon, office assistance is no longer enough…

By the time these pampered trainees become partners, their sense of entitlement has often spiralled out of control – as this recent post on Digital Spy, from an acquaintance of a secretary at a London solicitors’ firm, illustrates:

“Utterly Pathetic Solicitor(s)

My girlfriend’s just been out with her mates, one of whom works in London for a firm of solicitors as a secretary. She (her friend) got a text from her boss, whose wife also works at the same place, they are both partners. They are going away on holiday on Monday and the bloke told my girlfriend’s mate by text this morning (Saturday) to make sure she cancelled the milk whilst he is on holiday.

No, not the work milk, but the milk delivery at the house he shares with his wife.

My gf was gobsmacked and told her friend that they were surely having a laugh, and said that the friend looked very embarrassed and insulted.

Bloody pathetic useless overpaid wastes of spaces if you ask me!”

Not that everyone agreed with the author of the post. As one responder put it: “If you’re someone’s secretary, you put up, or shut up”.