Thursday, June 20, 2013

The First Steps

 

As I may have mentioned, the position I hold at my new job is to replace the current employee who’s going off to law school in the fall.  Except for the fact that I don’t have a computer of my own to work at yet (because there are no extra offices), it’s really just about the perfect scenario.  Rather than being thrown into a situation completely clueless (as apparently my predecessor was), she’ll still be there until about the end of July, teaching me how to take her place.  It’s nice to be able to learn in a slow, controlled way.

But, she was on vacation today, and will be gone tomorrow, also.  Wow. There are so many moving parts—documents to process, messages to send, clients to call, exhibits to organize, motions to file.  It’s a lot.  But I think I managed it okay. It’s kind of like baby steps.  I’m a little slower than I would like to be, and I had to ask a few questions as the day rolled along, but for the most part, yeah, I think it went okay.  And, my supervising attorney said she thought it went okay, too, which I think is probably the key decision for determining if things are progressing as they should, since she’s my boss and all.  Tomorrow we have the weekly staff meeting, and I’m afraid I might actually have to talk since Calley (my trainer) won’t be there!  I’m going in a little early to ensure our calendar is up to date (a topic of much stress in the office), and see if I can bone up on any upcoming case deadlines that I might be asked about. 

So, by this time tomorrow, I’ll have three weeks’ experience under my belt and will have survived my first solo outing.  (See how confident I am?!)  I’m growing up so fast.