working on positivity!

[0dense]

So, guess what my favorite thing to happen in my job is. 

 

Cancellations. Specifically, when a client calls back to cancel their appointment because it's actually cleaned up before needing to get to the point of arbitration, I couldn't be happier for them. Like yes, there's pride in a job well done that the information I gave them did make a difference, but the real takeaway is that someone isn't in strife anymore, and that they didn't have to put themselves through any more.

 

I've always thought that my job is strongly analogous to a hospital triage position. Like, if the Bar is the emergency room and the surgery wards, we're a first-aid center. The attorney is a doctor and in my position I can't give Dx or Rxs, so to speak. And we both only ever see people at their worst, because no one goes to the hospital if they can possibly be anywhere else, so there's the emotional weight. The parallel isn't perfect, but it's still true that the doctors I've been friends with have all, at some point or another, expressed the wish to be obsolete; that people wouldn't be getting sick or hurt any more. It's a funny thought, dreaming of being useless, but if it meant that there were no more people being forced to deal with housing insecurity or start class actions against unsafe employers, I could not be happier. The guy who runs the basic needs program in our building talks about hoping to put himself out of business. Our jobs only exist because there are people struggling. So, to the person whose file jumped the queue to the cabinet before crossing an attorney’s desk: Godspeed, and in the best way possible, I hope you never see this office again.