P****d off 😠
In the latest submission to our Career Conundrums series, a trainee questions whether it’s normal for their supervisor to regularly head home early while leaving them with last-minute work and late-night requests.
“Hi Legal Cheek. The subject line pretty much sums it up, but I’m a third-seat trainee and I’m starting to get a bit pissed off with my current supervisor (senior associate, not partner). They’re often out the door by 6:30pm but regularly dump a load of work on me just before leaving. On one occasion, they left the office at around 5pm and then emailed me with some ‘urgent’ work at about 7:15pm, just as I was getting ready to head home. Is this sort of thing normal for trainees, or am I being screwed over?”
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Haha! Welcome to the real world my friend
Is this a seat in a department into which you’d like to qualify? Whether yes or no, will this senior associate get any say in you getting retained, or is it going to be wholly up to the partners in the firm? Have you built decent relationships with them? Do you actually want to stay at this firm anyway, even leaving this seat aside?
The answers to the above will determine what you do about this, if anything. The seat will be over soon enough. Take a long view.
Also, I note this associate emailed you long after leaving the office; maybe they have to go home to collect children etc and then they work in the evenings?
Some really good points here. Rare for this site.
I’d just suck it up for a few months and then move on to your next seat.
I think unfortunately you have to just suck it up. This is kind of the reality of being a trainee solicitor, particularly if you’re working at a decent city firm. Sometimes it’s easier asking fewer questions and just getting along with it.
Focus on what your goals are in terms of good appraisals, potential to be retained and building your network. Maybe when you get more senior the situation will be similar for you where you’re trusted to manage your time according to your own schedule and circumstances. As a general rule trainees don’t have that privilege yet.