Job Searches, Labor / Employment

Back In The Race: Are You Being Exploited At Your Job?

If you feel you're being taken advantage of, what should you do about it?

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Getting a new job is an exciting event, especially in law. You researched prospective firms’ practice areas, partner bios and salaries. During interviews, you were told about all of the opportunities to gain experience, learn new practice areas and advance your career. When you accepted the job offer, you were told that salary increases and bonuses were virtually guaranteed.

But for some of you, things will not turn out the way you expected. You’re not given the raises and bonuses you were promised. You go to meaningless court hearings. Your boss angered a judge so he sent you to court to endure the judge’s wrath. Your assignments seem like glorified document review looking for obscure keywords in 15-sentence paragraphs. In sum, you feel overworked and underappreciated.

You tolerate it for a little while. But eventually, you come to the conclusion that you will need to be assertive about what you want.

You meet your supervisor and proceed to sell yourself. You tell him about all of the good things you have done for the firm, your billable hours, your work ethic, and your loyalty to the firm. Your supervisor responds with a pat on the back and a lot of lip service but will give you excuses for not giving you what you want. Business is down. There has been an across-the-board salary freeze. Or he is still evaluating your work and needs more time to come to a decision.

But when you push harder and start asking the tough questions, he gets upset. He says that you should be thankful that you have a job unlike most of your classmates. He then points to a stack of résumés on his desk and tells you that hundreds of unemployed and desperate applicants are ready and eager to take your place.

Now I see where all of my résumés went.

Every night, you leave work feeling tired, frustrated, and angry. During the long subway ride home, you ask yourself, “Am I being exploited?”

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Exploitation is subjective. What one person thinks of as slave labor is another person’s chance at gaining valuable experience or putting food on the table.

A common misconception is that a job is exploitative if the pay is unconscionably low. But most lawyers know at least one person who is paid well but still feels like like a small cog in a large machine. In general, people feel exploited at work when they are underappreciated, lied to by their bosses (particularly about raises and promotions), and are pessimistic about career advancement.

When someone feels exploited, it negatively affects everyone. The employee is depressed or angry because he feels like his career is stagnating. His unhappiness may affect others in the office. His work productivity decreases because he feels that there is no point in doing more than the minimum required. He secretly goes to job interviews while giving creative excuses for disappearing — like wanting to have late lunches during happy hour.

The employer also suffers. He is wasting money by paying someone who is not motivated to give his best efforts. And he wonders why one of his employees constantly insists on eating lunch during happy hour. If the employee ends up quitting and has to be replaced, the employer has to spend time and money training the replacement and getting him up to speed.

If you are an employee and feel exploited at your current job, the obvious answer is to quit. But life is not that easy. You have to consider the economy and the job market before making a power play. You can try being proactive. Ask your boss for additional duties. Or you can ask to be reassigned elsewhere. But keep in mind there is only so much you can do to convince your firm’s decision makers.

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If you are forced to stay in an exploitative environment, some have suggested changing your perception or attitude. This has personally never worked for me, but if you think rearranging your office furniture, taking antidepressants, or seeing a therapist will change the way you see your job, then by all means, give it a shot.

Employers should also do their best to ensure that their employees do not feel like they are being exploited. One of the best ways to do this is to be brutally honest about salary, advancement and expectations before the person is hired. This may scare off purple squirrels who generally have other options. But those who stay won’t feel cheated in the long run because they know what they are getting themselves into.

An exploitative work environment does not help the owners, its employees and the clients they serve. Employers should try to minimize an exploitative environment, but ultimately it is up to the employee to make the best of it or look elsewhere.

Shannon Achimalbe was a former solo practitioner for five years before deciding to sell out and get back on the corporate ladder. Shannon can be reached by email at sachimalbe@excite.com and via Twitter: @ShanonAchimalbe.

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