Hardworking lawyer shows up to work hours before everyone else and still gets fired: 'The three hours early riser put in before the sun was up did not count, because no one was there to see them.'

Author image for Christiana Maimone
Christiana Maimone • Freelance Writer
Jun 20, 2025 6:00 PM EDT

You know what they say: "The early bird gets the worm." But in this case, being early to work backfired on this lawyer. It's a tough job market out there, and you can lose a job for a number of reasons – layoffs, poor performance, absences and tardiness, and apparently, being early? 

In this instance, we have a lawyer who'd start work in the wee hours of the morning in order to finish at a decent hour and spend time with his wife and kid. He'd come in around 6:00 a.m. and finish his day at 5:00 p.m. The other lawyers would put in the same amount of hours but just at a later timeframe, starting around 8:00 a.m., going to the pub together at 5:00 p.m., and then working until 9:00 p.m. Despite consistently being the first one in the firm each day, the early bird was let go because, to his bosses, it looked like he was slacking. 

Among many red flags in the workplace, not valuing an employee's time and hard work is one of them. Is time even real, anyway? We live on a floating rock floating through space. How dare a man want to get out of work a little early to spend time with his wife and kid…

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  • 01

    A lawyer I knew got fired for coming in too early

    A young lawyer I knew was fired not for slacking, but for being invisible. That's Big Law for you, and it's one of the reasons I don't work downtown.
    via Calledinthe90s
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    Cheezburger Image 10515703296
    via Getty Images (Unsplash+)

         The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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    At the firm where I articled, I'd show up at 6, maybe 6:15, me being a morning person and awake by 5, no alarm needed. But there was a lawyer there at the firm, a young early riser, who was always at work before I got there.
    via Calledinthe90s
  • 04
    Early Riser was in by 5:30, he told me, and sometimes earlier. He had a wife and a young kid, and liked to spend evenings with his family. He'd put in his time, eating lunch at his desk, and not long after 5 p.m. he'd head out to catch the train home.
    via Calledinthe90s
  • 05
    Other young lawyers would roll in at 7:30, 8:00 or 8:30. They'd work until 5, then they'd hit the pub downstairs for an hour or two, then come back and work hard until 9 o'clock. They put in as
    via Calledinthe90s
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    until 9 o'clock. They put in as much time as Early Riser (maybe) but they understood something that Early Riser did not. Working long hours wasn't enough downtown; you had to work the right hours, the hours that got you noticed.
    via Calledinthe90s
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    LA
    via Javad Esmaeili

         The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

     

  • 08
    The three hours Early Riser put in before the sun was up did not count, because no one was there to see them.
    via Calledinthe90s
  • 09
    When the recession hit in 1990 and the defence insurance bar was gutted by a set of No-Fault rules, the firm went looking for lawyers to chop, and the axe fell on Early Riser.
    via Calledinthe90s
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    Cheezburger Image 10515711488
    via Vitaly Gariev

           The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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    When he got the bad news, Early Riser and I went for a beer at the pub downstairs. Early Riser was staying late for a change because he didn't know what to tell his wife. We sat in a corner away from the rest of the associates, the ones that worked the right hours.
    via Calledinthe90s
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    "They said they didn't know where I was half the time," Early Riser told me.
    via Calledinthe90s
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    His billables were fine, the partners told him, but still, they knew he wasn't working hard enough. They were positive, because he wasn't around after 5. He wasn't a team player, not one of the guys.
    via Calledinthe90s
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    Cheezburger Image 10515718912
    via Curated Lifestyle (Unsplash+)

          The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

     

  • 15
    A few months later the firm told me and all the other students we would not be kept on. None of us was surprised. I'd already started making plans, and in no time | had another job in a good downtown firm.
    via Calledinthe90s
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    But at the new place I noticed that I was often the first guy to come in. The place was usually dark when I arrived. I was newly married, just like Early Riser, and I liked to head home by 6 p.m., when the other associates were still at their desks.
    via Calledinthe90s
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    "This isn't going to work out," I told my wife, "I can see where this is headed."
    via Calledinthe90s
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    Six months later I moved on and started my own practice, not because I was ready for it, not because it was a good idea, but because I didn't want to get called into a partner's office and be told I wasn't a team player because I got in too early and left too soon. I didn't want to be told I was working the wrong hours.
    via Calledinthe90s

  • The lawyer's misfortune inspired the original poster to start his own practice. He didn't want to go through what his former coworker experienced. 

  • 19
    MrStormChaser I thought lawyers were supposed to ignore their families and live at the office?
    via MrStormChaser
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    PetalGlitc Ah yes, the sacred law of optics: thou shalt toil under fluorescent lights only when someone's around to witness it.
    via PetalGlitc
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    sirennmist The obsession with clocking hours instead of evaluating actual performance is such a toxic mindset. If someone's delivering high-quality work and meeting their goals, why micromanage their schedule? Flexibility shouldn't be a privilege, it should be part of a healthy, modern work culture.
    via sirenmist
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    eggs_erroneous It's more important to be seen as a hard worker than it is to actually be a hard worker. I truly believe this is why middle management loves make-work bulls. They look busy because they are inefficient, but it creates the perception of "hard work." That's my opinion, anyway. Corporate America is a stupid.
    via eggs_erroneous

  • Moral of the story? Try not to work too hard – your boss will probably assume you're not working hard enough anyway. If you can, work for someone who views you as a human being and not a machine. 

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getting fired boss bad boss antiwork workplace-stories fired story bosses coworkers true story Memes career workplace Horrible Bosses family Reddit
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