Just three weeks into job
A junior lawyer has claimed she was fired just weeks into a new role after posting a viral TikTok criticising the “soul-sucking” realities of working in corporate law.
Natali, a recent law school graduate based in Melbourne, Australia, took to TikTok apparently just three weeks into her job to vent about what the profession’s poor work-life balance.
“There’s no freedom, you barely take a lunch break,” she said. “You’re overworked and underpaid for the amount of study you put in to all these years of becoming a lawyer.”
Natali also took aim at the commercial side of the profession, saying she had gone into law hoping to “make a difference” and “change the world”, only to find that the reality was, in her view, rather different.
@natali_c16 The truth about being a lawyer
Once inside the profession, she said, “it becomes less about helping people, and more about making businesses richer”. While Natali admitted she “knew it was coming”, she said she was struggling with “the constant deadlines, the pressure, the working after hours”, adding simply, “I’m just not loving it”.
The clip subsequently went viral, racking up nearly 700,000 views so far and prompting a decidedly mixed response. “Girl you’re right but don’t let your work see this,” read the most-liked comment, in advice that would prove rather prescient. Another viewer was less sympathetic, responding: “Welcome to life. You start at the bottom.”
Four days later, Natali returned to TikTok with an update, claiming she had been “fired” as a result of the original video. “I was fully aware that my TikTok would come back around to [the firm],” she said, describing the subsequent meeting as “a very awkward conversation” and “very confronting”.
@natali_c16 I got fired from my job as a lawyer for posting a tik tok #freespeech #toxicworkplacestorytime
Natali claims she “stood [her] ground” after being asked to remove the clip. Both videos remain live, with the follow-up announcing her apparent firing attracting around 670,000 views.
While the young lawyer was careful not to name her former firm in either video, Australian website news.com.au managed to track it down and, without identifying it themselves, got the firm’s side of the story.
A spokesperson said the firm was “very proud” of its workplace culture and disputed the picture painted in the viral post.
“All of our staff are employed on a 9-5 basis with a fully paid one hour lunch break,” they continued. “Some staff choose to work more hours than that, or take lesser lunch breaks. That is of their choosing and is not an obligation.”
They added that “we actively discourage staff from working beyond 5pm because we do not believe that it is healthy or necessary. We do not allow new lawyers to take their laptops home.”
Three weeks. THREE weeks. The first three weeks of a TC is fun. Lunches, drinks, team-building. She wouldn’t have experienced anything remotely close to what she was describing. This reeks of AI-assisted larping for attention, and now she’s out of the job. I always tell juniors if you’re gonna be a “lawfluencer”, you better make sure it works out and you make money because firms and corporates take a dim view to employees talking about work online, especially in this tone.
In a profession where discretion is key, of course it didn’t bode well posting supposed “drama” for internet clout. Also, how on earth could she be surprised that law, a notoriously hard profession, did indeed turn out to be hard work?
I’m sure almost all other industries are similar but law firms are definitely bad places to work and very cult like in the way you are expected to behave.
This girl made the classic mistake of complaining that the job is hard and stressful. Of course this is true. But if you say it aloud (just in the office not on tik tok) you will be accused of not being a good solicitor and of denigrating the firm. It’s a kind of psychological loop where if you speak the truth it means you are no good at the job. So most obedient workers lie to themselves. It’s a clever way of controlling people. You have to pretend that it is an enjoyable job and that you “thrive” under pressure. This also allows management to overwork you.
Some of you may say well tough that’s life. And there is some truth in that. But employers in general pretend that they are nice people who create nice workplaces. The quote from the firm is a classic example of this. It gives the impression to a casual reader that they are very relaxed. Although if you read it carefully and you have worked in a law firm, you can tell that they are probably not.
They also expect applicants to praise their pro bono rubbish and are then surprised when naieve youngsters think the job is about “helping people”
This is not just in the law. I have never seen a worker who openly complains not be sacked. This is true on building sites and supermarkets and professional services. Everywhere. It’s the same with people who go the other way and are too friendly to management. Managers absolutely hate that.
Working 8 or more hours a day five days a week is rather unnatural so firms have to keep people in the appropriate mindset through psychological pressure. And to make them work hard and compete with each other they need fairly constant pressure.
“Working 8 or more hours a day five days a week is rather unnatural” – I think its rather natural given the world has been doing this for thousands of years. By contrast, what I find unnatural is to bicker about everything for attention in this new space created by social media.
she wants “to make a difference” but joined a (well-paid) corporate law firm…. Not NGO, not a government organisation, but a law firm…
Ines 2.0
“Welcome to life. You start at the bottom.”
And dig your way to the top.
“It becomes less about helping people, and more about making businesses richer”
At a corporate law firm, you primarily help corporations with commercial matters?!
In all seriousness, I don’t understand how you study commercial law, pass a stringent series of interviews and assessments, only to be surprised that corporate law involves doing work on behalf of entities that are primarily concerned with profitability.