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I'm reaching out to this community because I am trying to understand how to navigate through what I believe are significant challenges. I feel disillusioned with this field, not because of work conditions, long ass hours or pay but because of the kind of people who generally thrive in this profession. It seems to me that this profession attracts the worst human beings. People are extremely fake, would drag you into their drama, gossip about other individuals and pass value judgements on anyone or everyone. Most of these individuals also come from incredibly privileged families. More importantly most of them never seem to grow out of their law school time and bring in their toxic selves to the work place.
Here's the thing; I come from a middle class family who does not want to engage in office politics, want to live peacefully and gain skills that'll help me progress in this career. All these things become incredibly difficult because you have folks in your work space who would judge you for who you are, make underhanded comments about your competency because you belong to a certain socio-economic status and would not engage in mindless hedonism. Now I know people will say; ignore such people, but when you have to stay with such individuals for 12+ hours, it gets slightly difficult to not get bothered by such individuals. I also understand that dealing with difficult people is very much a part and parcel of becoming a sound professional, but honestly it gets exhausting when 75-80 percent individuals are snarky assholes trying to step on your toes or looking for ways to impede you.
I am really looking for some good advice from people who experienced something similar. What should I do? I'm honestly thinking about leaving this profession altogether because of people like this. I don't think it's that bad in other professions.
Ik it doesn't suffice to say just ignore these people, but that's def the most helpful solution here. To complement this, you will also need to be very good at your job and at networking outside your organisation to ensure that (i) you are atleast a little bit indispensable in your organisation so people will start staying out of your lane, and (ii) you keep building towards the possibility of switching to an independent or a smaller set up where you have a lot more autonomy and you can just focus on the work.
Lots of love and support and here's to a fulfilling career and life in this hellish profession (or ideally, a good escape from it).
Even I had no idea that people are like this in law firms. Did my 3 year LLB post under graduation and met the most insecure, dumb, toxic and worst people in the legal industry including Tier 1 law firms.
So take care of yourself. There is always a life outside work and people who care about you.
Thank you so much for sharing your experience.