rayiner wrote:Veyron wrote:rayiner wrote:You think a lot of bullshit comes with biglaw? Try working a regular job. Biglaw is fucking heaven compared to the juvenile bullshit other people have to put up with. Health insurance, an office with a door, being able to run a 15 minute errand in the middle of the day without getting fired. Your average person would kill to be treated so well.
Ok, I'm pretty sure that a regulat job is still easier than biglaw, even if it doesn't have the same perks.
I'm not talking about "easier" versus "harder" I'm talking about "bullshit."
The average person in our age demographic does not work a cushy $50k/year desk job with an office and good health insurance. These people work as waiters, tech support reps, etc. Thanks to management consultants these folks are basically treated like children, working within a highly structured framework. areyouinsane's stories about terrible doc review conditions aren't too far from the "bullshit" a big chunk of the people our age have to deal with.
Just having health insurance along makes big law an awesome job. Less than 60% of Americans have employer-sponsored health insurance:
http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/d ... ccelerated. That number is much lower for the sorts of jobs people our age work in (the uninsured rate among people 18-34 is almost double the average). I'll put up with a lot of getting yelled at at 1 am to know that I could have a kid and have access to good, affordable health insurance.
I work a cushy $55k/year desk job with something between a cubicle and an office, and fantastic health insurance. I'm also treated like I'm six years old. I have to tell my supervisor when I'm taking my 15-minute breaks and my lunch. Lunch can't be pushed back any further than 12:30. I can't have my cell phone or e-reader on my desk to charge (not
use, just plugged into USB to
charge), because personal electronic use during office hours isn't allowed. When I'm on break, I have to sit in my visitor's chair, so that people can tell I'm on break and am not reading a personal book on work time. I have to have my desk turned so that my boss can see what's on my computer screen, even though that puts my desk over the HVAC intake vent and I freeze to death. I was allowed to leave 2 minutes early to catch a bus when my car was in the shop only by coming in 2 minutes early. 8:01 is late, even if I stay until 5:01 to make up for it. I have less autonomy than I did in kindergarten.
Frankly, big law (at all but the worst sweatshops) sounds awesome.