Tears on the Job

In my line of work, January is a busy time, and it’s sure to involve tears.

I often think about the world of work being divided into two distinct types of jobs: those where your day might include seeing grownups you barely know cry, and the other kind. If you have the other kind, say you’re a cashier at a supermarket, or an executive at a pharmaceutical company, or a graphic designer, you talk to the people you’re providing a service or product for about their vegetables, or their marketing strategy, or whether they like Trebuchet better than Times Roman. If you have the first kind, if you’re a doctor or a cop or a therapist — or, like me, a family lawyer — an integral part of your job is to sit with people who are not your friends or your family members, who you might have met just half an hour before, and be with them when they are so sad that they cry. Or so angry that they scream. Or so sad and angry that they cry and scream and maybe also curse a lot.

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