I work in a firm of solicitors and I work directly for one of the partners, who is currently off work ill. He will be off until at least the middle of August.
To cut a very long story short the firm that I work for has cut back on staff to the point where there is simply no one to cover for anyone who might be off sick or on holiday. We have not had any pay rise (not even cost of living) for ten years. If I have a holiday then no one does "my" work and it is just left piling up until I get back.
My work load is ridiculous and then on top of that I am interrupted constantly throughout the day with clients calling in without an appointment, phone calls (with legal questions that I should not be asked to deal with), colleagues coming into my office (I sit on my own) for a "chat" or to ask questions about things that I don't know anything about (for example asking me what was said during meetings that I was not present at), and so it goes on. I am never just allowed to get on with my own work.
Last week there were several client complaints about my boss and the other partner made me sort them out, rather than deal with them himself.
They employed another solicitor to help the partner that I work for but he was sacked after two months because he was not competent. I was told last week that I just needed to manage things and that no help was on offer because they need another secretary in conveyancing (I work in private client) and that I would just have to cope with it all.
I am sitting here and my mind is blank. I can't concentrate on anything and the smallest request from anyone is likely to make me explode. I just cannot do this any more.
We do not have a HR department. There are two partners but as I said one is off ill and the other has a "if you don't like it then you can have your P45" mentality.
If I did not have a child I would walk out without another job to go to as this is making me ill. It has been like this for years and I have come to the end of my tether.
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Feel like I am going to explode - work related
theworkofsatan · 20/07/2015 12:28
Op I work in a very similar role to yourself. You are not alone. It's thoroughly shit sometimes and I totally get your initial post, I think a lot of people who work in solicitors offices will.
I have no advice about how to deal with the situation you are in, it's a case of put up or shut up, that's how it is unfortunately and in the office set up you describe (which sounds pretty much the same as where I work) you have nowhere to go and nobody will help. You are completely stuck in the situation you are in.
You need to get out. That is your only option or just get on with it, as brutal as that sounds. Do you have an office manager?
Have you thought about joining a temping agency? I know where I live good legal secretaries are like rocking horse shit, they are very few and far between. The last couple of staff I've taken on I've had to train from scratch. When I last enquired with a temping agency for a legal secretary to cover maternity leave they did not have any and the really good ones were snapped up, they were crying out for experienced legal secretary temps. The money may not be what you want but I expect it won't be as bad as what you think.
Oh and I've only had one wage rise in nine years too 
.
Agree that you need to tailor your CV to the sort of jobs you are looking for - on paper I am vastly over qualified for the job I do (sorry if that sounds boastful 
) but the job suits me at my stage in life .......... so I wrote my CV accordingly ie: instead of 'Director of X' I put something like 'worked in X department'. No one is likely to check every single detail so long as you show that you have the necessary skills to do the job you are applying for.
No one can just use one CV these days.
And use personal contacts etc to help in your search for jobs, that's how I got mine.
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