Mother... in Book Four: Ichi-no-Tani 2017

Karma is everything.
I had nothing to do yesterday.
Today I had 3.1 billable hours.
Of course; it certainly FEELS like I should have more than that.

My bosses arrived at 10:00 this morning. But apparently… Chinese Boss had made a lot of Powerful Government Connections yesterday and White Boss had discovered that one of the colleges specifically punished an Asian Immigrant without Counsel or Due Process.
So… they both had lots of stuff they wanted me to do.

And… I tried?

I wrote letters for them; I mailed things out for them; I picked up discovery for them; I answered my phone and talked to one of my own clients; I filed appearances for them… I was paralegaling but (again) at least it is work. Better to be running around doing than sitting around being.

Until the SNAFU that might get me another of those lovely “You Suck” discussions.
Chinese Boss tells me, “The client you were supposed to meet last week is available today. Could you meet with him?” Sure! I grabbed the folder and off I went. EXCEPT....
Last week I was supposed to meet two clients. One client showed up; one didn’t. Basing my actions on her word choice; I assumed that the client I was meeting with was the client that had not shown up last week. I was wrong. It was the client who had shown up last week. So I called Chinese Boss and asked, “So… uh… what? He already signed his agreement and we got him the stuff.” Nope. Apparently, I was supposed to be bringing him a Registration of Business that Chinese Boss had procured and put in his file. But of course, since I didn’t have the file… I fucked up.

I’m mad a little because
(1) I should know better than to not expressly, specifically, irritatingly ask for clarification
(2) Chinese Boss speaks acceptable English, but still… she’s only been speaking the language for 8 years. There are going to be areas where things are confusing and since I am the one that can get fired for it; I need to do better to make sure we’re on the same page.
(3) White Boss specifically asked Chinese Boss if she’d explained what I was to do. She got irritated with him and said yes, then told me White Boss had asked her that three times. I said, “Yup. Just meet with the guy up in Ames.”

Again…it’s like… I get that Chinese Boss works best in Chinese. I get that this is a firm that specializes in the Chinese Community. I get that they hired me and I need to prove to them that it wasn’t a bad idea. But… I don’t get why they hired someone that doesn’t speak Chinese. Maybe for White Boss? I don’t know.