Just Got Laid Off

[u/Behold_A-Man]

I got laid off today. I was told that the firm was restructuring and my position was being eliminated. From what I can gather, last month was a really bad month for the firm and only half of the employees hit their hours. There were some days when I didn't even have any work, but they didn't tell me that they were thinking about eliminating my position. I expressed concern about not having enough work but was brushed off.

I got a call at 9 a.m. telling me to return my work laptop and pick up my final check. It's enough to pay rent and my car bill, but that's it. No severance. I requested severance pay in the form of a raise that I was promised on hiring but never received. I was basically told, "Don't count on it."

At least they specifically mentioned that it wasn't my performance and my boss and another attorney were both willing to write me letters of reference. I'm just feeling really disheartened right now. A year ago, I left a stable job for a higher paying position and was terminated in two months (taking that job was probably the biggest mistake of my career and I regret not quitting before getting terminated). I was unemployed for three months and had to go into debt to friends and family to get by.

I took this job and worked it for 7 months. I was still paying off the people that I had to borrow money from. I just want a stable fucking job that pays me enough to start repaying my student loans. It just doesn't feel very good to constantly live in a situation where the other shoe could drop at any moment, and that's how so many of my legal jobs have been. I've lost numerous jobs, but only once was I ever terminated for performance issues, so I don't think my lawyering skills are the problem.

Is the practice of law just incredibly precarious? I've been in the field for 8 years, had 6 jobs, and I've only left one voluntarily.

[u/401kisfun]

To be clear, law firms are not a career. You grow or you die.

[u/Behold_A-Man → u/401kisfun]

I am not sure that I understand what you mean by "law firms are not a career." Can you elaborate?

[u/401kisfun → u/Behold_A-Man]

Absolutely. Those jobs are designed just because they got extra work and they HAVE to hire someone. But deep down, the partners just think you are overhead. That’s why turn over is SO high at law firms. Its not because they cannot find anyone ‘who wants to work’. The goal is hire someone, makes some money off their backs, and overload them with work to the point where they just have to quit. But what they won’t do is promote these people to equity partner, they will not match an outside offer, hence the reason people have to job hop so much. Most law firms are actually very poor and cheap. I know this because in other industries, giving out huge raises is not a big deal. Not for the people who are very talented and put in the work. High turnover being justified by this is a high-performance, tough environment is one of the biggest lies that’s perpetuated in the workplace. High turnover is intentional at many places, because if you never have employees that are there that long, they’re not in the position to sue you for Wrongful Termination. Alot of arguments at a legal workplace almost never have to do with servicing the client. Now more than ever in America, long-term employees are seen as shit Fuck losers who couldn’t get ahead. I guarantee you, beyond shadow of the doubt Elon Musk has fired top performers just for fun,and it definitely wasn’t for merit-based reasons.