Once upon a time, Mr. A’s job bothered me. I mean, I am a FEMINIST. A LIBERAL. And here I am, living off the profits Mr. A earned by representing corporations who kill puppies and destroy the ozone layer for fun.
Just kidding, I actually don’t know what companies he represent actually allegedly did or did not do.
I don’t know, because when Mr. A starts talking about work, my brain gets cloudy and I hum a nice “la la la la la” song in my head while trying to look interested until he gets it out of his system. I learned this technique when M started telling me ridiculously boring stories about dragons, imaginary friends and super heros. It works equally well with both of them.
Anyway, what I was trying to say is that I used to be more bothered by Mr. A’s clients until I got used to living off his income and not needing to work myself. The ethical stuff doesn’t bother me much at all anymore, now I just wonder why they aren’t paying him more. Ahem.
Recently, though, Mr. A got assigned to a case that is clearly on the good guys’ side. For the sake of lawyer-client-lawyer’s wife confidentiality, we will just call that client “Benevolent Corp.” I like Benevolent Corp. I think they are very interesting and cool, so I gave Mr. A a big thumbs up when he told me about the case.
I think Mr. A is trying to leverage this rare opportunity of wife job-approval. His is name dropping Benevolent Corp. all over the place.
“I was really busy at work today, the Benevolent Corp. case is taking a lot of my time.” he said.
And: “I was researching blah blah blah for Benevolent Corp….”
And “Today I was talking to XYZ person about Benevolent Corp…”
“I have to work late tonight — it is the Benevolent Corp. case!” he said, knowing full well I wouldn’t begrudge the extra time for Benevolent Corp.
I am starting to think I am lucky he doesn’t work in public interest law all the time. If it was his career I may actually have to be interested in his job, rather than just pretending to listen. We would probably be a lot poorer if he did that kind of work too.
Hopefully, he will get this bit of do-gooder-ness out of his system before it becomes a lifestyle choice. Everything in moderation, right?
Hopefully moderation does not apply to compensation
You should try being married to someone like DoctorDude. When he says, “Sorry I was late because I had to save someone’s arm/life,” what do you do? I even do some work for Benevolent Corp.s occasionally, but it doesn’t get me so far.
harrumph.
All I’m sayin’ is – ask him if Benevolent Corp work is going to result in his getting a HUGE bonus this year. If so, then you have the best of both worlds – a client you actually like, AND mo’ money!