Question:

Asking boss to hire additional help

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I currently work for a civil attorney and have been for the past year. While most of his cases are out-of-court cases, there are a scattered few that go to trial. I have never had formal training as a legal assistant so have basically been learning the processes as I go. While I understand most of it, the trials seem to always throw me for a loop because I'm still unsure of the deadlines involved with getting certain things on file with the court, scheduling expert witnesses, etc. I've only been through a couple of them with him, but each time, in the weeks prior to the trial as well as during the trial, I find myself losing a lot of sleep, becoming so stressed I can't focus on anything else, a loss of appetite, etc. His firm is a private one and I am currently his only employee and have been since I started. I would like to know what other people think about discussing the possibility of him hiring someone with some formal training to handle the trials so that it frees up my time to get the rest of the work done. As of right now, I would say that our firm has at least 60-75 cases open and between two people, that's quite a workload. He has about 5 more trials coming up before the end of this year and I don't know if I can handle going through all of them without help because the other cases start to fall behind and that's not an option in this kind of work because there are deadlines for EVERYTHING. If anyone has any advice as to how I can best handle this type of situation, I would appreciate it.

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  1. It is really important that you let him know what is going on. Sometimes because the work is still getting done a boss will not actually realize that you are falling behind. It will also mean that if things do fail to get done he may be upset with you for not letting him know that you need help. Explain the workload to him and tell him that you need help. It is not your fault that you can't do everything that is being asked of you and it is a sign of your proficiency if you are able to communicate to him when you need help. I would rather my staff tell me before it all falls in a heap so that I can put plans in place before this happens.


  2. The work load is way to heavy for you.  Definitely discuss the hiring of a para legal. The worst that could happen is the boss says no.

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