I was speaking to a friend recently who was completely stressed out at work because she feels she is being bullied by her boss. About 15 years ago I had a similar situation. I worked with three fabulous attorneys and one total jackass.
Lets face it... if you are going to work with lawyers you better have a tough skin. But that doesn't mean that you should also have heartburn, headaches, trouble sleeping or anxiety because you work with lawyers.
Bullying is a serious offense whether you are in grade school or the work place. It should not be tolerated in any environment. I am attaching a PDF with some guidelines and on the first page I highlighted a couple things that you as a paralegal should expect working in a law office, its just the nature of the beast. The PDF contains some tips and some guidelines for getting help if you feel you are being bullied. If you feel that you are being bullied -- do something about it. My grandmother always said "If you make a rug of yourself, don't cry when people walk on you."
And here is my super secret tip for handling unreasonable deadlines - if I am asked to do something in one hour I say it will take me two hours. I know and you know that the attorney will be looking for it in half the time anyway. So I either have the task completed or I still have the option of squeezing out a little more time to complete the task. A lawyer can throw out an unreasonable deadline but don't ever, ever agree to it unless you can come through on it.
