Title. I feel isolated and sad when I have to go into the office because there is 0 camaraderie, and the norm (for partners and associates alike) is to come in and close the door, leaving only to go to the bathroom or the rare in-person meeting. I’m a first-year at an AM 100 in a large city so I recognize my lateral prospects are nonexistent, but also because I’m a first year and this office has no productivity pipeline, there’s not a ton of work going around and no one in charge of ensuring we have sufficient work. So every day is the same drudgery of depression, isolation, boredom, begging for work, rinse, repeat.
Second year is coming around so I’m trying to wait it out until I’m marketable to lateral but just needed to vent, cuz every day sucks and I’m seriously disappointed that the reality didn’t match the expectations, at all.
EDIT: I’m not expecting or even wanting to be besties with my coworkers. In previous jobs I’d go out for drinks with them sometimes at best, but I could expect to have pretty regular friendly or positive interactions at the very least. I understand biglaw is different in many ways, but it’s the same as every other job in that it involves humans who don’t (usually) thrive in isolation.