The Enemy is Me

For instance, a senior associate called me into her office one afternoon to go over some documents. I brought the documents with me all paperclipped because the partner we were working for hated staples. After making me sit in her office while she finished her personal call for 20 minutes, she grabbed the documents from me, threw back her head and started cackling, “Ha, ha, ha, you’ve never worked for me before. I hate paperclips!” all the while ripping off the paperclips and throwing them around like confetti. “Hate them! Hate them! Hate them!”

I kind of just stared at her blankly because this kind of nonsense was par for the course (and actually quite mild in comparison to other antics) in BIGLAW during my tenure there. But the point is this: I just had a similar experience but the crazy person was ME!! An inspector brought me beautiful full color rehab reports on a few properties to review, but as I started to sift through them I realized that in his haste to give me these beautifully packaged reports he put the pictures for House A with the report for House B. I just started laughing, took the reports apart and starting flinging the report covers and bindings around my office. Now I slip on plastic report covers as I move around my 10x10 office.

I think the stress is getting to me.