I am a former employee. As a result of the kind of memories this law firm left me with, and also due to their unprecedented rip-off of withholding 1 week of my pay when I was hired, without disclosure prior to hire, I wanted to report on a few things about this law firm. This firm being new to San Francisco, of the 5 law firms I worked for the past 8 years, Preston Gates is at the bottom of my list. I wanted to share a few of my experiences as a former one year employee. I was not terminated, I found a new job during an investigation phase of a complaint I made to their corporate office in Seattle.
1. I was not given the courtesy of being introduced to the person I would be stuck in a small room with in my job prior to hire. Had I met her, I wouldn't have taken the job.
2. I was not informed that this law firm withholds 1 week of your pay until you leave the firm. It makes interest on your earnings in other words. No other law firm ever did that to me before. It's like taking your money and keeping it without your permission.
3. The work conditions were horrendous - not in terms of the decor of the room, furniture or building facilities, but the fact they didn't care if there was no work to do for weeks at a time. The co-worker I worked with reported to me that that as much as one month once passed without any work coming into the department and that the law firm didn't care.
4. Work and the quality of work wasn't the focus at this firm, but rather how one integrated in the firm's weekly social activities on the property. These were idiots, clowns in management who continually arranged parties and gatherings at any excuse. Mardi gras, weekly birthday gatherings, Cinco de Mayo, etc. It would be fine had it not been for the fact that these gatherings consisted of narcissist men who thought they were way too hot and in continual need of flattery and ridiculous attention. Men were always the center of everything and they loved making fools of women.
5. With all my experience and my interview in which I expressed a high degree of tech knowledge out of 8 years experience, etc., I was requested to do "filing" for the 23 year old secretary who worked for the lead attorney, on my down times. I was 45 at the time mind you. I was also continually reminded that there was a "hierarchy" at the firm and the suggestion was always made that I was at the bottom of that hierarchy. The man who kept repeating this was the firm's manager, Bob Schweda.
6. Mr. Schweda, the firm's administration manager (the only one ahead of management at the firm in San Francisco) was an idiot. He walked around during work hours with heavy cologne and a huge gold cross around his neck like a pimp. He would come into our two person department and refer to us as "kids". His greeting was "hi kids".
7. Mr. Schweda's strategy to keep me mindful of the firm's hierarchy was to use his two attack dog lower management women to conduct ridiculous meetings with me. These two clowns were totally unprofessional. At one point Ms. White Hair with a pink nose put her hands on my shoulders during a CPR class I agreed to participate in. She came up from behind and had the audacity to place her hands on my shoulders. It pissed me off.
8. I was always told by the two attack dog managers that Preston Gate was different from the other law firms I had been to and they had a totally different culture. I began to feel as if I wasn't there to work, but to party and socialize and if I didn't want to do that then I should leave. I began looking for a new job.
9. My co-worker complained to management when I made a comment about how distracting it was that she and her friend were all over the room decorating it for Halloween while I was busy. They spent hours decorating the room and I was getting to be annoyed. I made a slight complaint out loud, nothing too bad, and my co-worker took it to her good friend in H.R. Who immediately called a meeting to interrogate and give me a hard time about. Next thing I know, I was contacting the Seattle office letting them know that their H.R. People were totally harassing me and letting my co-worker steam roll me.
10. Often times I took up the workload while my lazy fellow co-worker did nothing all day, didn't care about deadlines, etc. I had to take her work, etc. They didn't care. She played gospel music I was forced to listen too hours a day and would bring in her kin cousin children to crawl all over the place and even me. Employees would come to our little room to play with the kid. My work area once became a 2 year child's playpen and waiting area.
11. I was forced to attend Preston's Sexual Harassment seminar.in this seminar, conducted by a blonde woman who expressed being excited being in San Francisco, a sexually liberal city, it seemed to me she was totally promoting the idea of employees dating one another and opening the flood gates for them to do so. She emphasized that by law an employee can ask another employee out on a date 5 times without it being harassment. She made it clear it takes a lot for it to be a legal harassment case, and even claimed to provide each Preston employee with "5 free imaginary tickets" to ask someone out on a date. During this harassment training that was co-ed, Ms. Blonde described a sexual act between two employees taking place on our conference table and how we might react to seeing such action at work. I was appalled.
At the close, Ms. Blonde made it clear that anyone getting asked out by someone must treat that person with respect and not be rude. Clearly, this seminar was leaning towards giving men permission to ask employees they were interested in out. Shortly thereafater, a secretary gave me a newspaper article that showed how office romances were skyrocketing and how there were employer agreements being signed regarding such relationships on the job.
Clearly, Preston Gates was more of a social club for employees. It demanded very little in terms of work quality and didn't care if employees had nothing to do. Management often made it seem like they were caring, by issuing phony e-mails asking people not to surf the Internet as if they had a strict policy, and nasty e-mails by Mr. Schweda asking women not to do their make-up at their desks. There was nothing to do at all much of the time. There wasn't much else to do but to read or surf the Internet.
This law firm was run by nutcases in San Francisco. I've never felt so degraded since I was in my 20's working for any entity. The guy in management was sleazy and reminded me of a con artist pimp with the huge gold cross around his neck with the overwhelming cologne he wore one could catch a whiff of each day from way down the hall. (They even joked about his cologne issue at the Christmas Party's stage act play.) Mr. Pimp would refer to me as a kid that was totally degrading and sexist for a 45 year highly skilled woman.
Finally, the Seattle H.R. Person who came out to investigate my claims never gave me the results because I left the Firm prior to her finishing her report. As if to suggest I was "paranoid" Mr. Pimp Schweda mentioned in his last meeting with me that the final check he was giving me was "good" for that day to cash suggesting he thought I was a paranoid person. Only a paranoid person would think a check from a law firm wasn't good, right? I didn't respond to his ridiculous subtle accusation and just left without a word. It wasn't my imagination that there was something very wrong with this law firm's San Francisco office.
P.S. This firm is connected with Bill Gates - his father is on the Firm's board. Preston Gates often represent Microsoft. Microsoft just got slapped with the largest patent infringement case in U.S. History - go figure.
P.S.S. I am a recording artist/jazz singer. I am a composer as well. My life isn't about law firm work. My life is not doing the nature of this kind of work or finding office romances this law firm encouraged in its sexual harassment seminar. A year after I left this firm these idiots sent me a free health book in the mail forcing their crap on me. They were just too into their employee's private personal lives and encouraging them to live out such lives on their property rather than do high quality work and keep them busy. It was truly scandalous the way this law firm conducted itself in San Francisco.
0 comments