Anonymous wrote:I think OP is lucky to have a job. I don't.

Anonymous wrote:My boss and her DH earn well over a million, own a luxury apartment, and she complains about paying her nanny overtime for after hours babysitting! She squeezes every penny she can out of expenses and fudges a lot.

I just roll my eyes.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I really go above and beyond for my bosses. If they need something (like travel arrangements, etc) during non-work hours/weekends, they call my cell phone, and I take care of it. I do not get paid overtime to do this. Also, if they need me and I'm out at lunch, they will call my cell. I do not know of any other assistant here who does this.

Also, whenever HR sends out an email asking if anyone has time to help someone out (whose assistant is out, etc.), I'm almost always the first to volunteer. At my firm's last holiday function, they actually called me up and gave a speech about how they appreciate that, and they gave me a trophy (would have rather had a raise....).

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I really go above and beyond for my bosses. If they need something (like travel arrangements, etc) during non-work hours/weekends, they call my cell phone, and I take care of it. I do not get paid overtime to do this. Also, if they need me and I'm out at lunch, they will call my cell. I do not know of any other assistant here who does this.

Also, whenever HR sends out an email asking if anyone has time to help someone out (whose assistant is out, etc.), I'm almost always the first to volunteer. At my firm's last holiday function, they actually called me up and gave a speech about how they appreciate that, and they gave me a trophy (would have rather had a raise....).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, if you want more money, you will never get it the way you are going about it. You don't ask for more money because you NEED it. You ask for more money because you EARNED it.

You have to put together a compelling reason for the firm to pay you more than you make now. What makes you valuable? What have you done that adds to their bottom line in terms of efficiency, effectiveness, customer service, building work relationships for/with your boss, etc? If you don't have an objective reason that you should be paid more, it's not the right time to ask. Have a plan for making yourself more valuable to the firm and then act on it and ask later.

I hate to say it, but run-of-the-mill legal assistants are a dime a dozen in DC. You don't have any leverage unless you become more than run-of-the-mill in your boss's eyes. Once you're indispensible, you have all sorts of bargaining power to ask for more money.

And stop with the comparison of your boss's salary to yours. He probably works his ass off for that salary - and he chose a career that has high income potential, and became indispensible enough to be selected as a partner. It's obnoxious that he complains about money to you, but his salary has no bearing on yours.

I agree with this, especially the bolded parts. I think the OP sounds totally entitled. Yes. it's obnoxious that he complains, but bottom line is, he is much more valuable to the firm than you are. I don't expect my salary to be a percentage of/related to my boss's - it's an independent calculation based on my own merits and comps of others who do what I do.

OP here. I don't expect my salary to be a percentage of/related to my boss. Where did I ever say that? And, I was NOT trying to say my boss doensn't deserve his salary. He works very hard for it and totally deserves it. I was only meaning to say, how can someone who finds it hard to live off that much money, and constantly complains about it, say that what I make is "a lot".

Thank you for restating the point that these idiots missed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, if you want more money, you will never get it the way you are going about it. You don't ask for more money because you NEED it. You ask for more money because you EARNED it.

You have to put together a compelling reason for the firm to pay you more than you make now. What makes you valuable? What have you done that adds to their bottom line in terms of efficiency, effectiveness, customer service, building work relationships for/with your boss, etc? If you don't have an objective reason that you should be paid more, it's not the right time to ask. Have a plan for making yourself more valuable to the firm and then act on it and ask later.

I hate to say it, but run-of-the-mill legal assistants are a dime a dozen in DC. You don't have any leverage unless you become more than run-of-the-mill in your boss's eyes. Once you're indispensible, you have all sorts of bargaining power to ask for more money.

And stop with the comparison of your boss's salary to yours. He probably works his ass off for that salary - and he chose a career that has high income potential, and became indispensible enough to be selected as a partner. It's obnoxious that he complains about money to you, but his salary has no bearing on yours.

I agree with this, especially the bolded parts. I think the OP sounds totally entitled. Yes. it's obnoxious that he complains, but bottom line is, he is much more valuable to the firm than you are. I don't expect my salary to be a percentage of/related to my boss's - it's an independent calculation based on my own merits and comps of others who do what I do.

OP here. I don't expect my salary to be a percentage of/related to my boss. Where did I ever say that? And, I was NOT trying to say my boss doensn't deserve his salary. He works very hard for it and totally deserves it. I was only meaning to say, how can someone who finds it hard to live off that much money, and constantly complains about it, say that what I make is "a lot".

Anonymous wrote:
My point about my former boss was not that he doesn't deserve his salary or that everyone does that. It was simply that it should not just be ASSUMED that every person making a high salary continues to maintain a high standard of work. The behavior in question happened in 2011. It certainly wasn't ideal, but I actually have never heard of a partner at this particular firm being dismissed, even under some pretty egregious circumstances.

My larger point was that there are many structural problems in the BigLaw industry. My current firm is nothing like my previous firm. They seem to have made better choices and prioritized quality of worklife for people at all levels of employment in a way that my previous firm really did not. There is a difference between lipservice appreciation of people's contributions and meaningful appreciation of people's contributions. In my opinion, meaningful appreciation would be to have an updated and comprehensive understanding of people's individual jobs and slightly more nuanced compensation based on those jobs and the performance in that review cycle. I personally received exactly the same 3% raise the year I worked 12 hour days most of the year while my other boss ran a couple different DOJ investigations and made partner as I did the year that I spent 3 months phoning it in prior to maternity leave and 6 months on maternity leave and another 3 months being sleep deprived and getting back up to speed on everything I've missed. While I'm obviously glad for the 3% I got the year that I did the bare minimum, I also wish it was more possible to extend bonuses for truly excellent work. Not just mine, but the work of the colleague that covered for me while I was out for 6 months or the colleague who works for 6 people instead of 3 or the colleague who always goes out of her way to see if anyone needs any help. I think such efforts and quality should be recognized by MORE than the minimum increase, but that firm did not have any allowance for bonuses like that, which is one reason that I left.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't they give 4 figure cash bonuses tho at yearend to their assistants?

OP here, are you joking?? My firm doesn't give holiday bonuses to staff at all. The attorneys I work for generally give me a $50 - $100 gift card as a Christmas gift....last year, one gave me some "designer" soap.