I started working at my first job after graduating law school 3 months ago. I’m in a weird limbo phase where I can’t apply for associate positions yet because I’m not taking the bar exam until February. So I applied to paralegal positions and found a job in less than a week at an immigration firm. I took a lot of refugee/asylum/human rights/international law related courses while I was in school so I was excited to start using what I had learned somewhere. Like a week or so in, I asked the other paralegals how long they had been there. I found out that only the senior paralegals had been there for more than a year, but everyone else had started there this year. That immediately raised a huge red flag for me. I knew there had to be some reason they had such a high turnover rate. Well I definitely know why now.
We have a meeting every single day at 2 PM where we all hop on zoom in the conference room and connect with the other offices. The managers or the chief attorney will go around and ask every single paralegal how much work they’ve done for the day so far. They want you to answer in percentages. So, for example: “I am 40% done with the case.” If for some reason they feel like you should have done more by 2 PM, they basically reprimand you and humiliate you in front of everyone else. This meeting always rubs me the wrong way, but I was trying to look past it because this job is temporary as I’m going to go take the bar in another state.
However, yesterday during the meeting, the manager went on some long ass rant about how we owe all our clients loyalty, that clients put their trust in us, and that we need to get all of the work put on our schedules done, no excuses. I agree that the clients should be important to us but I get a ridiculous amount of work put on my plate. And because I do actually care about my clients, I also put my best effort into my work which means sometimes I take longer than they expect me to. I like to read every single document and know every detail about each client so I know what I’m doing. Their lives are in my hands.
THEN, she told us that she watches us on the cameras in the office and sees how many times we leave our respective offices. She said that there should be no reason to not finish our work for the day. Idk if anyone else is an immigration paralegal but they want me to knock out BIA briefs, motions to reopen, asylum cases, u-visas, etc in one day. All while answering emails, calls and seeing clients throughout the day.
Idk man. The camera watching thing is the last straw for me. I’m going to put in my two weeks notice first thing Monday morning. Who ever thought micromanaging was an effective management style? These people are insane. Who else would quit over the camera thing?