Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are on the clock, what possible difference does it make to you?

You're getting paid to run those errands. Why do you care?

–says the man.

Not a man. I'm a woman. I worked as a legal assistant before going to college and law school. I'm a lawyer now.

If it's on the firm's time and you're getting paid and it's not infringing on your lunch hour or breaks, what earthly difference does it make to you if you're going to pick-up lunch or if you're preparing documents? You're getting paid the same.

I never minded running errands. It got me out of the office.

The difference is that while the partner I worked for was asking me to go get him coffee or lunch, the associate I worked for needed someone to prepare documents. There was also time to enter, for both of them, on a daily basis, plus monthly/weekly tasks. My partner boss seemed to think that no matter what I was doing, I had to just drop everything and get coffee for him. It didn't matter if it was a filing or a routine admin task. In his mind, his coffee needs trumped everything else because he was the partner. Trip to Starbucks: 15 minutes, roundtrip walking, plus 10-20 minutes waiting in line/for drinks. It was a busy desk, so spending 30 minutes on something that was not billable or even related to legal admin work, plus unnecessary (there is coffee in the kitchens on every floor - it's not great, but it's there) had workflow impacts.

Anonymous wrote:BS

You people watch too much tv. This doesn't happen in real life anymore.

Are you joking? This happens all the time. My EA got the lunch for our national practice leader every single day.

Anonymous wrote:of course it doesn't happen in the federal gov. You don't do any work all day regardless, and the admins do NOTHING except talk on the phone or play on their computers.

+10000

Imagine the attitude you'd get by asking for a coffee! I'm sure some might even get physically aggressive. LOL!