It's been a long time since I'd written my last post.
A lot has changed since then. So I'll start from where I left off.
I started work with Delia within two days of me moving from the country. On my first day at work, Delia asked me to stay back and finish some work on one of her files. Wanting to make a good impression, I (half-heartedly) said "yes". Had I known I would stay back until 8.30pm that night, I might have thrown the file at Delia and screamed, "hell no!".
My first day at work was a good indication of how the rest of my working life with Delia eventually panned out. I should have known that working with Delia would be extremely painful. Not only was I overworked on my first day at the job, but, as I found out shortly thereafter, Delia was:
1. a control freak;
2. a control freak; and
3. bossy.
After working with Delia for two months, I began to feel like I was morphing into a useless lump. She constantly degraded my work - not only in private, but also in front of other staff. In one particular instance, she started shouting at me in front of the other junior solicitors about the state of my files.
Annoyed and embarrassed by her display, I replied, "whatever". I then told Delia that the main office was not the place to discuss this issue, and said that I wanted to talk to her in her office.
So we both marched off to her office and started a shouting match.
So loud was our verbal exchange, that one of the senior associates closed Delia's office room door with us barely noticing.
Despite our shouting match, I left Delia's office feeling misunderstood and doubting myself.
Was it OK for Delia to shout at me in front of other staff?
Is this how other junior lawyers were treated at this firm?
After that incident, my working relationship with Delia deteriorated. I loathed her with a passion, as she relished in her "superiority" over me. If I gave Delia anything to sign off for, it would always come back with some sort of "correction". Nothing that I did was ever good enough for her.
I desperately wanted to resign, but I felt that I was morally obliged to Rai (for referring me to this job) to carry on. I felt like if I resigned, I would be disloyal to Rai and give Rai a bad name. That was the last thing I wanted to do, since Rai was such a good friend to me.
So I swallowed my distaste for the job and kept working with Delia.
It was a terrible time in my life, and the worst part was I didn't (no, couldn't) let Rai know how I was feeling.
It was not uncommon for me to work 14-hour days.
When one of our biggest clients purchased a commercial high-rise in another city, I was put to work to complete the transaction. One night during this period, I was forced to order pizza into the office at 10.00pm, just so I could eat my dinner.
As you can imagine, I quickly became depressed and moody, and my confidence plummeted to an all-time low.
It didn't help that, at the same time this was all happening, my ex-boyfriend (who I started to become friends with after moving back to the city) was acting like an insensitive brat.
It felt like my whole world was swiftly falling apart and I was too slow to pick up the pieces.
After a particularly busy and stressful Friday afternoon, my friend Leilani (who also happens to be my ex-boyfriend's sister - how's that for weird?) called me and asked me to come out with her. I didn't hesitate. After all, I figured I could use a drink (or ten!) after such a hard day.
I met up with Leilani for dinner, and then we headed out to a south-side suburban bar for drinks. We drank, danced and met new people. It was a great distraction for me. I even met a cute guy, Kris.
Around about my first year anniversary after starting work with Delia, Rai called me for a quick chat. He prattled on for a while, telling me about his next big business venture, and I dutifully listened to his grand plans whilst I imagined myself crawling into a big cave and weeping until there were no more tears left to cry.
As if sensing my despair, Rai asked me how I was going at work.
I don't know what made me do it, but I soon found myself confessing to him that I disliked working with Delia (amongst other expletives).
After a short pause, Rai replied, "Then why are you still working there?"
Relief flooded over me. Rai's not mad at me!
I told Rai everything. From being overworked on my first day at the job, to being constantly humiliated in front of other staff. Rai was sympathetic to it all and even confessed that he didn't like Delia much either.
In retrospect, I don't know why I didn't talk to Rai sooner about my hatred for the job (or, more specifically, Delia).
Within a few weeks of my chat with Rai, I resigned. Interestingly enough, Delia asked me to withdraw my resignation twice. Confused by her reaction (I thought she would be happy to get rid of me!), I said I would think about it. But after speaking with my parents, Rai and Kris (my newfound boyfriend - more about this later), I decided to proceed with my resignation.
It didn't matter that I didn't have another job to go to, or a plan on what I would do with my time until I found another job. All I knew was that I didn't want to work with Delia anymore.
My last day working with Delia was absolute bliss. I knew that once I walked out the office doors, I would never have to put up with Delia's crap anymore.
Whilst I was packing away my things, Delia came into my office to give me a small parcel. Surprised, I opened the parcel and found an Oroton purse. I looked up at Delia, who looked sheepish as she said, "I know that you can never go wrong with Oroton". At that, she walked away.
I didn't actually leave the office until about 7.00pm on my last day. I wasn't expecting any different anyway.
However, walking out the office doors for the last time, I knew that my life would change.
Since then, I've never looked back.
Over the next couple of weeks, I half-heartedly applied for jobs. It didn't particularly bother me that I had no work because I had a comfortable amount of savings in my bank account - partly because I had no time to spend my money whilst I was working with Delia.
I refused to apply to private law firms, but I knew if my job-drought kept on long enough, I might be forced to do otherwise. But for the meantime, I was happy to apply for government jobs and in-house counsel jobs.
One of the jobs I applied for was at a community legal centre ("CLC") in the outer fringe of the city. The job advertisement specified that the CLC aimed to assist the disadvantaged members in the community.
How good would it be to work for an organisation like that? I thought, as I carefully answered the selection criteria and "tidied up" my CV. I submitted my application shortly thereafter.
It didn't take long for me to get a call-back and before I knew it, I was sitting on a big red couch in the CLC building, waiting to be interviewed.
Looking around the reception area, I took a mental note of the different atmosphere in the office, compared to the office where I previously worked. For starters, the CLC reception area had a big comfortable red couch to sit on, brightly coloured walls, and plenty of colourful pamphlets and fact sheets that screamed, "Read me!". It was completely different to my previous work, where everything was clinical white and almost museum-like.
The interview went well, I thought. I was interviewed by a panel of three - the co-ordinator of the CLC, a board member of the CLC and a well-respected CLC solicitor (who, as it turned out, didn't work for the particular CLC that I had applied for, but had been in the CLC industry for a while).
Walking out of the CLC building after the interview, I felt great. The organisation sounded like they treated their staff well, and everyone I saw in the CLC building seemed really friendly and happy.
Even though I was comfortable not working for another few weeks, I thought it would be great to bag this job, or work in a similar place.
Not long after the interview, the CLC co-ordinator called me on my cell and offered me the role as Principal Solicitor of the CLC. I was absolutely rapt and completely surprised.
Clearing my throat, I used my most "professional-acceptance-of-job-(OMG-did-I-just-get-the-job?!)" voice, and did a little victory dance on the spot.
I started work a week later.
It was completely mind-blowing how different the CLC environment was, compared to the two private law firms I'd previously worked for. I found that everyone was so laid-back but hard-working at the same time.
For one thing, there were only 15 people who worked at the CLC. There was only one other solicitor who worked there, and her name was Jane. She was in her mid-40's and had been practising law since 1998. However, she gave birth to her daughter not long after she started to practise, and had been working on and off ever since. As a result of her sporadic work history, Jane had yet to obtain an "unrestricted" practising certificate until she remains in continuous practice for two years.
I had only recently obtained my "unrestricted" practising certificate, but, as it turned out, I was more "senior" than Jane because I had been practising full-time for the last three years.
On my first day at work, Poppy, the CLC co-ordinator, explained that I had to "supervise" Jane's work until she obtained her "unrestricted" practising certificate. The first thing that came to my head was, "Me? Supervise?? REALLY??".
As if sensing my thoughts, Poppy said, "Don't worry, Tia. You'll be fine".
The rest of the day went by smoothly and, to my amazement, I left work at 5.00pm.
A stark contrast to my first day at work with Delia.
Leaving the CLC building that day, I knew I was going to love working there.
