Dealing with uncooperative fellow articling student

[Banboozledbear88]

 To explain the title: 

I am articling at a firm with 9 other students. We are in 5 fixed rotations but are partnered up for each rotation with the same articling student for the whole term. My fellow articling student whom Im paired up with is, to put it in the most elegant of terms, completely uncooperative and unsympathetic . They will not answer a work request because they assume that if they wait long enough, then I will take the request (which I do because I don’t want to get reprimanded for not responding promptly and I also hate making lawyers wait for hours. I find it unprofessional). They’ve also made it clear to me that there’s certain lawyers they do not want to work for and that all work that comes from those lawyers is on me (???). 
 

Im struggling with my mental health given that articling is already a tough gig in and of itself. This is adding to it, big time. The issue is all the other students are friends with this student because they present themselves great in a non work space - nobody else knows what’s going on since they’ve never rotated with this student. And I also don’t want to speak to anyone about this at work because I feel like it’ll be taken in the wrong way (as though I’m gossiping). 
 

Edit: I should also add that another reason I don’t want to voice this is because this student is well liked by basically everyone at the firm. I think anyone I speak to will have an hard time believing that I’m telling the truth and being genuine.
 

any help or advice is really appreciated. Thanks 

Edited December 17, 2024 by Banboozledbear88

[Notfromhere]

To be honest, there is no easy answer here. But from where I stand, this is a work-related issue and if you do not speak up, you will continue being taken advantage of. 

I'd suggest finding a senior associate or partner you have done work for (especially if it is one of the people this person refuses to take on work from) and just flag this in a way that is kind and compassionate. Ask if you can get advice on how to "help" the other articling students since they seem to not be able to take on the majority of the work.

Conflicts in professional environments happen but if you don't advocate for yourself no one will. You do not have to be harsh or call this person names, just communicate that you are unclear about the balance and you seem to feel like your understanding is not aligning and you are seeking guidance.

[Apple]

Put your head down, work hard and let the integrity of your labour and their''s speak for itself.

If you're legitimately at your capacity for work, tell the other articling student and then if they don't take it on, just tell the lawyer assigning work that you can't take it on. It's not the other articling student's job to make sure your mental health is good or that your work is enjoyable, it's your employer's job. I just mentioned this because it really should be approached as a work based problem and not a group project at school problem.

 

[CleanHands]

Perhaps this is a silly question, but have you directly addressed this with the problematic student? That's the starting point here but there is no indication in your post that you actually have. And I may be wrong, but at least the sense I got from your post was that you haven't even directly told them that you have a problem with this.

[Banboozledbear88]

Quote

41 minutes ago, CleanHands said:

Perhaps this is a silly question, but have you directly addressed this with the problematic student? That's the starting point here but there is no indication in your post that you actually have. And I may be wrong, but at least the sense I got from your post was that you haven't even directly told them that you have a problem with this.

Thanks for asking - I should have mentioned that I did mention to this student that their position doesn’t fly with me. I told them that I am not keen to pick up all the work they “don’t feel like doing” . But even after this, nothing has changed. 

 

1 hour ago, Notfromhere said:

To be honest, there is no easy answer here. But from where I stand, this is a work-related issue and if you do not speak up, you will continue being taken advantage of. 

I'd suggest finding a senior associate or partner you have done work for (especially if it is one of the people this person refuses to take on work from) and just flag this in a way that is kind and compassionate. Ask if you can get advice on how to "help" the other articling students since they seem to not be able to take on the majority of the work.

Conflicts in professional environments happen but if you don't advocate for yourself no one will. You do not have to be harsh or call this person names, just communicate that you are unclear about the balance and you seem to feel like your understanding is not aligning and you are seeking guidance.

Thank you. There is a partner in relatively close with and will think about mentioning the situation in a professional manner. 

1 hour ago, Apple said:

Put your head down, work hard and let the integrity of your labour and their''s speak for itself.

If you're legitimately at your capacity for work, tell the other articling student and then if they don't take it on, just tell the lawyer assigning work that you can't take it on. It's not the other articling student's job to make sure your mental health is good or that your work is enjoyable, it's your employer's job. I just mentioned this because it really should be approached as a work based problem and not a group project at school problem.

 

Thank you. I have your words in my head and will do just that. I appreciate it. 

[LMP]

I've had to have one or two conversations like this, though for slightly different things. 

Fundamentally, confronting another student is awkward. There's not getting around it, but before escalating it really is best to address it directly. 

If that truly isn't an option for some reason you just need to be better at communicating capacity. If something is lingering you can simply say "hey, noticed this is lingering. I don't have capacity for it right now, but if you're ok getting it on XX day, I can make it work."  

 

[JackoMcSnacko]

Rather than going to a partner directly, is there someone responsible for the entire articling student group as a whole that you can raise this with?  I say this not to discourage you from raising issues with partners if relevant, but because a random partner would need to go to this person as well (not to mention the partner would need to get deeply involved in what's essentially a student staffing issue they have no part in).  

I know you mentioned you don't want to speak to anyone about this, but as mentioned elsewhere in this thread, if you do not advocate for yourself in this job, you will sink. 

[Ohshmagoda]

5 hours ago, Apple said:

Put your head down, work hard and let the integrity of your labour and their''s speak for itself.

If you're legitimately at your capacity for work, tell the other articling student and then if they don't take it on, just tell the lawyer assigning work that you can't take it on. It's not the other articling student's job to make sure your mental health is good or that your work is enjoyable, it's your employer's job. I just mentioned this because it really should be approached as a work based problem and not a group project at school problem.

 

I have to echo this.

If you are both emailed with a work task and you know that they won’t respond promptly, consider either (i) responding to the assigning lawyer (with other student copied) that you are at capacity and cannot assist, or (ii) responding to the assigning lawyer that you and the other student will resolve who will get back to them shortly with who will take the task (and then immediately tell the other student in a sidebar email that you’re at capacity and that they need to take it on). Most of your problem seems to arise from a breakdown in communication. I think approaching any third parties at the firm to help resolve this conflict (especially if it includes perceived attacks on the other student’s character, abilities, motivation, etc.) is going to play out poorly. 

For what it’s worth, a constant theme of practicing law is that other people will be annoying and not do what you expect they should do. Pretending not to be bothered by it and finding solutions is the name of the game.

[BlockedQuebecois]

11 hours ago, Notfromhere said:

I'd suggest finding a senior associate or partner you have done work for (especially if it is one of the people this person refuses to take on work from) and just flag this in a way that is kind and compassionate. Ask if you can get advice on how to "help" the other articling students since they seem to not be able to take on the majority of the work.

I don’t think raising this with others is the right answer. The right answer, as others have said, is communicating your capacity and letting the firm figure out on its own that the other student sucks, if they do.

But if I was going to recommend raising it, I wouldn’t recommend doing so in this manner. It is (and will come across as) incredibly disingenuous. You’re not interested in helping the student; you're interested in helping yourself (whether by making yourself look better or lightening your workload).

I would have (marginally) more respect if a student just straight up narced on their colleague by saying “I don’t think [name] is pulling their weight”. 

[Rashabon]

Yeah I agree. I get the ick and creepy vibes from "I just really want to help this person they seem unable to to take on a bunch of the work". Any lawyer worth their salt would see through that immediately.

Your options are (i) complain to someone and be frank, (ii) talk to this person, or (iii) force the issue as people have suggested by just not taking on the extra work so that the other student is forced to.

[WiseGhost]

Not a lawyer, but as a human being, I think that narcing should be the final option. Because if you bring this up to a lawyer, one of their first questions will likely be "did you talk to them?" 

[SNAILS]

This answer/opinion is coming from experience working in a variety of non-law fields of work before law school. 

1. First and foremost, take credit for your work and do not leave the impression that it was a group effort. "Yes, I completed this memo on the Estate of the on reserve property of that Indigenous client." "I'll gladly do project D, but do you want me to do it before or after I finish projects A, B, or C?"
2. If you are overwhelmed, say so. "I can take on this new project, but it I'll need an extension on my other 3 projects."

You don't need to directly call out your co-worker for laziness. You can if you want, but I think it would raise unneeded animosity.

Bosses are not stupid, and they see who is doing the work and who is not. You say this other student is "well liked by basically everyone at the firm," which may very well be true. That's not going to get him hired back. You'll get hired back over him. Being liked does not equal being treated as though you were working hard when it comes to hiring/promotion.

In other words, you are in a similar position right now to being the only articling student in a rotation that normally has 2 articling students. Work as hard as you are willing and able, and then say you can't take on any more. This will naturally cause your bosses to question why your buddy is not doing very much.

FYI: I've worked with plenty of lazy people who in some cases want to get laid off or not hired back (i.e. he does not care if he makes a good impression or is simply lazy by nature). I highly doubt that your lazy co-worker is fooling anybody.

Edited December 21, 2024 by SNAILS