The Only Thing That Counts Is Me

Maybe All the Work Around Here is Ultimately done by One Person

I refer to the following in my post yesterday - "normally [the] Associate gives me a draft reply, I make some superficial amendments like changing the grammar or underlining a word so it looks like I worked and then I send it on to clients."

I just spoke with that Associate. He knows what I've been doing with the drafts he sends me because I copy him on emails to clients and he looks through the correspondence files. He just confessed that actually, he takes drafts from the Pupils, makes some superficial amendments like changing the grammar or removing underlining from a word so it looks like he worked and then he sends it on to me.

I suppose if I can do that, why not him? But stuff like that leads me to suspect that maybe all the work around here is ultimately being done by just one person. He or she is at the bottom of the totem pole and gets instructions from whoever is one rung above in the heirarchy. He/she does the research, drafts the opinion and hands it back to the instructor. Everybody else in the food chain just makes grammatical changes and takes turns underlining and de-underlining words and we all bill the client as if we did some real work :)

I suspect its the Tea Lady who really does all the work around here. Maybe that's why she comes in before anyone else in the office, leaves really late at night and always has a flustered, busy look on her face all day.