Monday, December 22, 2008

Secretaries' Day

The Pat Lykos bloodletting continued today with several Administrative Assistants around the Office being told, three days before Christmas, that their services would not be needed under the Reign of Queen Snookems.

I have to say that I honestly don't get the timing of this one, because, quite frankly, it couldn't have been worse for the hard working folks that help us all get our jobs done every day.

You know, I expected to get fired by Old Patsy the second she won the election. I had pretty much been planning on it all year. I had campaigned very diligently against her and I knew her reputation of not tolerating political opposition.

But for me, it was a calculated gamble. I'm an attorney and even if my services weren't needed with the Harris County District Attorney's Office, I still have the potential to make a living outside of it - whether that be hanging out a shingle (which I'm doing) or trying to get on with a law firm.

The Administrative Assistants have it a bit more difficult. In spite of their priceless support to the prosecutors of the Office, they can't really set up their own shops if they lose their jobs. They have to find somebody to hire them in order to continue their profession.

And in today's economy, that's getting to be more and more of a challenge.

Now, Lykos was barely able to land her broom in front of the CJC before she had Jim Leitner fire me and the other attorneys. That has given me more than ample time to get my ducks in a row and get ready to set up my next career move by January 1st -- more on that later.

But for some reason, she elected to wait until three days before Christmas before letting go the secretaries. These are the folks that will have to fan out their resumes wherever they can and hope that somebody has an opening.

It won't be easy for them, and they needed as much advanced warning as they possibly could have to give them time to look. Considering how most businesses in the legal field are closed down (or on extremely light schedules) because it is three days before Christmas, that is going to be no easy task.

My sad prediction is that thanks to Lykos' timing, most (if not all) of those terminated today will begin 2009 with no jobs lined up.

It didn't have to go down that way. There are a lot more attorneys than there are secretaries, but Lykos wasted no time in gleefully starting her firings on the prosecutors.

Why did she wait so long on the secretaries?

None of the secretaries that were fired today actively campaigned for anyone that I'm aware of. If one were to assume that they were fired based on job performance, what exactly does that say about dear Snooks?

What it says is that her lust to fire her political enemies far outweighed her desire to get rid of people based on their job performances.

As a result, some very qualified Administrative Assistants will begin the year amongst the ranks of the unemployed. In this economy, you can guarantee that is a terrifying prospect.

You are doing a bang up job so far, Patsy. You've put the Office morale in the crapper worse than Chuck Rosenthal ever did (even during the scandal).

And you haven't even taken office yet.

Good God, it's no wonder the Coronation is mandatory. I imagine attendance would be pretty damn thin if your people had the choice of whether or not to attend.

Oh, and in case I failed to mention it earlier, Lykos did this three days before Christmas.

30 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, the Harris County economy is starting to hurt, what with the price of oil dropping 75% and all.

Is it any surprise that the DA's office staff is effected? They've already had to lay off numerous lawyers. And, rumor has it, come January, the DA's office is going to have to lay off seven judges as well.

Times are tough.

Murray Newman said...

Huh?

Anonymous said...

AHCL,
Why are you or anyone so surprised? Lykos has always been arbitrary, spiteful and bitter.....ask ANYONE who knows her...ANYONE!!! Why would you expect someone like that to change? Only now she has greater authority to wreck havoc on a greater number of lives. You haven't seen anything yet.....the baby prosecutors are in for a rude awakening if they think they're immune!

Anonymous said...

What an opportunity to rewrite the Twelve Days of Christmas from Hell:

On the 1st day of Christmas my true love gave to me, 1 bitter Troll....

Anonymous said...

I urge all DA employees to avoid Lykos at all costs. If you are in her presence, don't speak unless spoken to, keep your eyes cast down in a humble gaze, and get away as soon as possible without being obvious. Above all, never, never say anything critical about her, because she will have spies and snitches everywhere. Never disagree with her, no matter how moronic she gets. She is always right about everything. Of course, only do these things if you want to keep your job. Best bet is to start looking for another one, or pray that Roger and Jim keep her in her office as much as possible.

Murray Newman said...

Twilight Zone,
You totally read my mind! I'm working on it!

Anon 7:30,
I'm afriad you are exactly dead on in your assessment. It getting frightening. As one person mentioned to me yesterday, "it's getting to the point where those of you that got fired are going to be apologizing to those that are staying because they have it so much worse".

Anonymous said...

effected

Is there something about this blog that makes people misuse this word? Where's Bennett?

Anonymous said...

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me, two Leitner balls, one bitter troll from a spider hole.

Leinter, you nutless disgrace.

Anonymous said...

On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me, three washed out judges, two Leitner balls and a bitter troll from a spider hole....

Anonymous said...

On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, 4 free tickets to a reception on January. 1, 2009 that I am forced to attend,three washed out judges, two Leitner balls and a bitter troll from a spider hole....

Anonymous said...

On the 5th day of Christmas my true love gave to me 5 new pantsuits, 4 free tickets to a reception on January 1, 2009, that I'm forced to attend, 3 washed out judges, 2 Leitner balls and a bitter little troll from a spider hole.....

Longhorn Lawyer said...

Affected vs. Effected. Everyone better watch out. The grammer cop is on patrol.

On the 6th day of Christmas my true love gave to me 6 emails from family wanting an explination for why I won't be visiting as planned for New Years, 5 new pantsuits, 4 free tickets to a reception on January 1, 2009, that I'm forced to attend, 3 washed out judges, 2 Leitner balls and a bitter little troll from a spider hole.....

anonymous c said...

On the 7th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me 7 insulted Yarmulke-wearing witnesses, 6 emails from family wanting an explanation for why I won't be visiting as planned for New Years, 5 new pantsuits, 4 free tickets to a reception on January 1, 2009, that I'm forced to attend, 3 washed-out judges, 2 Leitner balls and a bitter little troll from a spider hole.....

Anonymous said...

On the 7th day of Christmas my true love gave to me 7 days of Lykos Hell every single week, 6 emails from my family wanting an explanation for why I won't be visiting as planned for New Years, 5 new pantsuits, 4 free tickets for a reception on January 1, 2009, I'm forced to attend, 3 washed out judges, 2 Leitner balls and a little troll from a spider hole....

Murray Newman said...

You guys are doing awesome so far. HPD 101, I'm going to make yours into the 8th day of Christmas, so the next one we need will be the 9th day.
When y'all get done, I'll do them all as a post.
You guys are absolutely cracking me up.

Anonymous said...

AHCL,
It would make more sense to have HPD 101 as day 7 and anon c as day 8....just a thought.

Anonymous said...

As to the DA's office having to lay off seven judges... Do I need to name them? Sam Nuchia, Don Stricklin, Brian Rains, Devon Anderson, Rober Bridgwater, Mike Wilkinson, Brock Thomas ... I took Caprice Cosper out of the list, because she wasn't on the DA's payroll. Most of the rest were full-time prosecutors in robes, in the pocket of the DA's office.

Hopefully, a few more prosecutors in robes will be laid off in January, 2011...

Pretty slow on the uptake here...

Murray Newman said...

Ok. I will switch them. Still looking for # 9.

Anonymous said...

AHCL,
What happened to our buddy, Mark Bennett? I would expect him to contribute a witty and profound day before all 12 days are taken.
TSB

Anonymous said...

9 contractors measuring the dimentions for a new smoking balcony... Lol!

Murray Newman said...

Col. Bear,
You're right. I should reserve a space for him. He's probably in court.
I will send him a text message and let him know he is being summoned.

Anonymous said...

On the 10th day of christmas... 10 internal memos re: unprofessionalism of reading toxic, antiregime blogs at work

Anonymous said...

On the 9th day of Christmas my true love gave to me 9 new ashtrays for the 6th floor smoking lounge, 8 insulted yarmulka-wearing witnesses, 7 days of Lykos Hell every single week, 6 emails from my family wanting an explanation for why I won't be visiting as planned for New Years, 5 new pantsuits, 4 free tickets for a reception on January 1, 2009, I'm forced to attend, 3 washed out judges, 2 Leitner balls and a little troll from a spider hole....

Anonymous said...

Day 11: 11 free "crooked cop passes" from Mr. Police Integrity himself......

Anonymous said...

On the 12th day of Christmas my true love gave to me, 12 politically correct jurors to assure justice is aborted, 11 free "crooked cop passes" from Mr. police Integrity himself, 10 internal memos Re: unprofessionalism of reading toxic antiregime blogs at work, 7 days of Lykos Hell every single week, 6 emails from my family wanting an explanation for why I won't be visiting as planned for New Years, 5 new pantsuits, 4 free tickets for a reception on January 1, 2009, I'm forced to attend, 3 washed out judges, 2 Leitner balls and a little troll from a spider hole....

Anonymous said...

On the 12th Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: 12 jurors chosen witout a preemptive strike used by the state and a troll from a spider hole sat first chair as the prosecutor with her lackey leitner by her side....

Day 11: 11 free "crooked cop passes" from Mr. Police Integrity himself......Clint Greenwood.
On the 9th day of Christmas my true love gave to me 9 new ashtrays for the 6th floor smoking lounge, 8 insulted yarmulka-wearing witnesses, 7 days of Lykos Hell every single week, 6 emails from my family wanting an explanation for why I won't be visiting as planned for New Years, 5 new pantsuits, 4 free tickets for a reception on January 1, 2009, I'm forced to attend, 3 washed out judges, 2 Leitner balls and a little troll from a spider hole....

Anonymous said...

Grinch

Witch

Bitch

Anonymous said...

Ok, I have to ask because I have no idea....what is an "insulted Yarmulke-wearing" witness?

anonymous c said...

Anon 6:03,

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C06E6DD113FF935A35753C1A960958260

and

http://harriscountycriminaljustice.blogspot.com/2008/02/gil-fried.html

I apologize that I didn't use fancy-schmancy HTML links. After four hours of fighting my way through the freakin' crush of humanity at the Galleria, I couldn't be bothered. Had to go old school. :-)

Mark Bennett said...

I'm sorry I missed the fun -- I never got the text message. Next time, email me. This was even funnier reading how it developed here than in the following post.

I'm betting the ADAs are going to think that "eight" is the correct number of HPD 101's days of Lykos hell every week.

2253, even I can't justify your use of effected in that sentence. Sorry.

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