Life at the Big Firm

All in all, I guess I am definitely enjoying the perks of working at a large firm. Free coffee and sodas, the office is super sweet with a fitness center, library with 2 staff librarians, lots of conference rooms, and roomy cubes for staff and plus offices for the attorneys. The office itself is in one of the best areas of Providence near Brown University and just two short blocks to the courthouse. Everyone seems really nice and I have felt welcome by most of the staff with the exception of most of the attorneys. I've come to realize that there is definitely a boundary between attorneys and everyone else at the firm. The attorneys and their egos require that they be treated as a deity by their secretaries and paralegals. It's very clear that the these people work FOR them rather than WITH them. There isn't a special camaraderie or the exercise of witty banter, just "Hey Pat, where's the Jackson file?" I haven't really witnessed the exercise of manners either such as here let me help you with that large box of files or thank you so much for your help with setting up the meeting room for our executive catered lunch. What I have witnessed is blank stares from the partners or rather an avoidance of acknowledgment that I actually exist and that such an acknowledgment would be beneath them. No polite Good Mornings, definitely no eye contact when passing one another in hall, and absolutely no mixing with the secretaries or paralegals during staff lunches, meetings, etc. Attorneys must stick and sit together and can only politely and enthusiastically with one another or so it seems.