Need some Assistants over here...!

After five weeks of working as a conveyancer, my fellow office-mate Cathy decided that conveyancing was too stressful for her. Without even batting an eyelid, Cathy marched up to the firm's managing partner and the office manager, and she told them that she didn't want to be a conveyancer anymore.

Lucky for Cathy, the managing partner and the office manager were quite understanding, so they didn't fire her on the spot. Unlucky for me because, until the firm found a suitable replacement conveyancer, I got dumped with half of Cathy's workload. Another 2 solicitors shared the rest of Cathy's work.

Cathy still works in the firm but in a general administrative capacity. She now has time to make her coffee at 9.00am and 3.30pm, and still get home to her fiance by 5.15pm every day. I, on the other hand, barely have time to scratch my arse, let alone make coffee or take a five-minute breather.

Whilst I am happy that Cathy can "relax" and relish the fact that she is no longer "stressed" at work, I am equally annoyed that her inconsiderate actions and her inability to try to cope with the conveyancing workload has turned the firm into a complete chaotic madhouse, doubling everybody's workload in the space of 24 hours.

We were actually told that a new conveyancer would be hired quickly, and that the distribution of conveyancing work was only "temporary". Three weeks later, and I am still running conveyancing files. Aggh.

During the first week that Cathy "quit" the conveyancing cell, one new contract was dumped on my desk every 5 hours (or so it seemed). In that first week alone, I opened at least 16 new files. I nearly went insane trying to keep up with the work.

The second week was even worse. I came home crying from all the stress, and even tennis, computer games and smoking didn't help. There just wasn't enough time to finish all the work that needed to be done. During the second week, I worked 14-hour days without taking any coffee or arse-scratching breaks - a harsh contrast to the less-stressful life that Cathy leads now.

And my assistant was no help at all. Being a young lass of 19 years, Delia would rather gossip with other support staff, rather than help me out. I understand that she is young and gets paid pittance, however I don't think this is an excuse for her attitude problem that she occassionally displays towards others, including me.

I don't care if Delia gossips about the guy who works down the road and who eats his hair with honey, so long as she finishes all the work I give her. Unfortunately, my work never seems to get done and in more instances than I care to remember, I end up having to do the delegated work myself.

This week (the third week after Cathy "quit"), Delia decided that I was giving her too much work (even after I'd explained to her that EVERYBODY (excluding Cathy) was also feeling the same way). Delia cried twice this week because she said the workload was "a bit overwhelming". After her second sob, I was on the verge of screaming at her - "What the HELL do you know about stress, you lazy fool?! Just because you can't gossip as much anymore, doesn't mean you have an 'overwhelming' workload! You don't work 14-hour days and come home starving because you don't get to eat during work hours, do you? So shut up and DO THE WORK I'VE GIVEN YOU!" - Of course, I didn't say this, but, like I said, I was on the verge. Very close to.

I wouldn't be surprised if Delia quit work next week, following Cathy's footsteps.

Cowards.

I guess some people just don't know how to take it for the team.