The Law Firm Associate or, the Mammal's Version of the Honey Bee

Remember when you were little and one of the first things you learned in elementary science class was about the Honey Bee. You would see pictures or videos of their colonies and witness the Worker Bees' incessant flying back and forth bringing nectar to the comb. We learned about the Queen Bee and her rule with an iron fist and the Drones whose sole purpose was to mate with the Queen Bee and then die or be thrown out of the hive. Do you remember being intrigued by this fascinating element of nature, but, at the same time thankful that you, as an upright, rational and intellectual human being had the ability to create your own destiny and not be relegated to what nature imprinted upon you? Apparently, we forgot what we learned in kindergarten....

We grew up, spent money on overpriced educations and entered our respective law firms as both Drones and Worker Bees, with a scant few Queens thrown in. Now, the dream of being the Queen Been may have been all of our motivations at one point--but once we entered the colony, excuse me, the law firm, our instincts kicked in and survival was the name of the game. Now, I think it's a matter of interpretation between who has it better, the Drone or the Worker Bee.

The Drones have no stingers and do not collect food or pollen for the hive--their sole purpose is to mate with the Queen. However, if the colony is short on food, Drones are often kicked out. I think you'd agree that this describes the way in which most of us try to eek through life at the law firm--laying low, making nice to partners and getting by with the bare minimum, just hoping that no one noticed that we didn't contribute anything to the betterment of the hive. However, once we were found out, there was little hope for our survival.

The rest of the law firm associates are the Worker Bees. Workers feed the Queen, collect the nectar and produce the wax comb. However, their life span is approximately 28-35 days. I think we all know the Worker Bees--they are constantly flying about, rubbing their legs together making that deafening buzzing noise. They are always eager to do more and more, so busy scraping the honey off their legs that they never bothered to notice that there is no way they are ever going to become a Queen but, they still plug away because they know of no other way. (As an aside, the Worker Bees are the only sexually undeveloped bees in the colony--do with that analogy what you will).

The Queen of course is the largest bee in the colony. She is the fat cat partner who rakes in the proceeds from the labor of the Worker Bee. It's hard for us Drones to respect the Queen, because we realize that we are only valuable for one thing and then we are expendable. However, the Worker Bees make us root for the Queen, because at the end of the day, they will die the same death as us Drones, only they will be a lot more tired...

-- K-bull