This week, Slate is featuring ruminations on the nature of revenge. And as our country is increasingly run by the petty grievances of a powerful man, it feels particularly relevant. Perusing the content, I was struck by one particular tale of Biglaw revenge.
Alison Green of Ask a Manager has been giving out workplace advice for nearly 20 years. For her contribution for the revenge compendium, she collected the best stories of employee revenge, which started strong with this Biglaw story.
“A legal secretary at the Big Law firm I worked at knew she was going to be fired, so the day before, she went into a bunch of partners’ emails and sent their wives evidence of infidelity, printed out confidential employee evaluations and communications about bonuses/pay and left them in everyone’s desk, and then cleaned out the swag closet (company-branded shirts/hats/bags etc.) and dropped several thousand dollars’ worth of merchandise with the law firm’s name and logo off at a homeless encampment.”
We certainly can’t condone the questionably legal vengeance in this anecdote. But there’s a lesson in the narrative. It’s a great reminder for all those puffed out with the self-importance of their elite degrees roaming the halls of Biglaw: you’re not all that. It’s often the staff that know where all the (figurative) bodies are buried and treating *all* of your co-workers with respect and dignity can go a long way.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.
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