I need to vent and get some perspective on a situation that’s been bothering me.
I graduated two years ago with a double major in political science and philosophy. My first job out of college was at my university’s health sciences library making $13/hour. I loved the work and most of the people, but the pay was discouraging. I stayed for about a year and a half while applying to other jobs and getting rejected over and over.
Eventually, I reached out to a former professor I had interned with, asking if he knew of any paralegal openings. He ended up offering me a job at his law firm, and I was honestly really excited, it felt like a real step forward.
About three weeks in, he told me we hadn’t “discussed my role yet” and said what he actually needed was someone to “manage his work life.” This is a very small firm (four attorneys, no HR, very little structure). He had me start monitoring his inbox, reminding him of meetings (twice, at 20 and 10 minutes), and summarizing his emails at the end of the day.
Over time, other attorneys have started relying on me for scheduling and reminders too.
After a few weeks of doing this, I brought it up to him directly. I told him I was concerned that taking on all these administrative tasks would make him see me more as an admin than a paralegal, which isn’t what I was hired for and not the direction I want my career to go.
His response was: “well, you volunteered.”
That really threw me off. It didn’t feel like volunteering. I felt like I was responding to what he was asking/expecting of me in order to do my job well.
On top of that, he can be pretty curt and sometimes reprimands me for things like missed meetings even when I did remind him. He’ll apologize if I push back, but the behavior doesn’t really change.
Then softened and told me to give him two months to replace the admin person and I wouldn’t have to do it anymore.
That was over five months ago.
Since then, things have escalated:
We moved offices and are temporarily remote, which has made everything more chaotic. Our admin person quit, (no one was told but me) and I was put on phones without being asked, I was just told via email with a script.
I handle all incoming calls. And I caught some of the other attorney's refering to me as “[Boss’s Name]’s assistant” in emails, and I’m the point of contact for scheduling and deadlines.
The final straw happened recently. There’s a business funding guy who calls frequently. On one call, he said (in a really creepy tone), “I like how excited you get when you answer my calls,” which wasn’t even true. Then he made sexually suggestive comments and directly asked if I was taken.
I told my boss about it over text and said that if the guy calls again, I won’t answer and will pass it along to him instead.
He never responded.
Later that same day, I texted him a normal work question and he replied immediately. It’s now been two weeks and he has still not acknowledged what happened at all.
At this point, I feel:
- Misled about my role
- Pushed into admin work I didn’t agree to
- Ignored when I raise legitimate concerns
I don’t know if I’m overreacting, but this feels really off to me. I feel like a broken record. In any case, I need to leave my job.