The Office

In less than a month, I will have worked at my current job for an entire year. The year that I’ve been with the firm has been a very interesting one, full of ups, downs, and lows, lots of unexpected events like victories in court, losses in court, outbursts by bosses, being moved out of one desk to another, living in no less than 4 different places for work, passing the bar, being swore into the California Bar, spending most of my time with the people at work, more than with my friends, family, or any others. I’m  mostly  just glad I’ve had this year to work, considering how much I fretted and worried about finding employment in the first place; there was a solid month there when I was really, truly, unemployed: No excuse of being a student, studying for the bar, or anything: Just plain unemployed. Dreadful times.

Coming into work at Meyer Law Organization, I had never worked for an entire calendar year at any one job. Sure I’d done internships, summer camp jobs, but never anything consecutive such as the “you’re gonna be spending the rest of the year at this job” situation. I’ve realized that life is so different as a student/ being unemployed than being at work. Here’s what I’ve learned:

1.)    Have to wake up early. Man this is the toughest part, when that 7:30AM alarm clock (or whatever it is) goes off and you HAVE to get up. No procrastinating, negotiating, etc. Suck it up, put your pants, on, and go to work. Can’t dillydally on the way out, neither, grab your breakfast and go, there may be traffic waiting for you on the way.

2.)    Same officemates every day. Ever since like eighth grade I’ve had different classes each day where you at least switch it up every day; you switch from history to English to math in any given day, or in college you have a Tuesday-Thursday schedule and a M-W-F schedule. Not so. It’s the same people EVERY day. At the same time. Wearing a lot of the same things. So you better get used to it, and get along with those people. You’ll be seeing them a lot.

3.)    You take on the identity of work. You start feeling like a lawyer, a doctor, a camp counselor, a store clerk, an accountant, an engineer, whatever its. It’s a strange concept and sort of “obvious,” but on a day to day basis I HAVE to think like a lawyer, argue with other lawyers, persuade the court of my client’s position, be assertive to the client about collecting legal fees. And while performing these tasks you take on those qualities: assertiveness, persuasiveness, argumentativeness (not a word, Bobby- try “combativeness.”) There’s no way to escape that. Even if you weren’t a type-A lawyer personality (or whatever personality your profession requires), you are that now.

4.)    There’s gonna be office politics. It follows everyone everywhere: from school to college to your social circles to the office. People v. people and trying to get to the top/trying to be the coolest person around. It’s gonna happen. Unless u work by yourself (and even then I could argue you “compete” against your dual personalities) you’re gonna have to brave the world of office politics. It’s rough waters, and some people just don’t know how to manage it. Oftentimes, unfortunately, the quality of your work gets outweighed by office politics. Seriously; true story. To quote the wire: “There’s games beyond the game.” – Stringer Bell.

5.)    Welcome to the rest of your life. I’ve used this phrase throughout the year to describe getting into the “working world” and having responsibilities and a career, but it’s really the truth. High school, college, law school….those were kind of just fairy tale stopping grounds before the long grind in the real world: you have to realize you’re a little fish in a VERY LARGE pond: if you stop to take a breath the world will not hesitate to leave you behind. The good news is: You get paid. Start working on your student loans. And you can buy stuff! Yay! The bad news is: this is the rest of your life. You have no idea when it’s gonna end. Marriage only makes it more complicated. Children worse. It’s a daily routine, 24/7, there’s a reason why they call it “nose to the grindstone.” No mythical things such as a “summer break” to take off, no “No classes on Friday!” breaks, no “O I’ll just skip class today.” This is real life. Time to nut up or shut up.

Fantasize on,

Robert Yan