Senior Associate

One day, as a young first year associate, I sat in the office of a senior associate who was talking to a client on the phone. He had just been running on a treadmill in his work clothes and was sweating profusely. He had strapped his phone headset tightly to his head such that a vein was pulsating aggressively on the right side of his forehead. To his right, around 30 bottles of 5-hour energy were lined up in a row on his desk. At one point, he pushed the mute button on the phone so that the client could not hear him, reached to the right, grabbed a bottle of 5 hour energy, ripped the top of the bottle off with his teeth like it was a grenade, spit the top of the bottle to the ground and swallowed the entire bottle in one gulp. He then pushed the mute button again, returning to the call, invigorated by the caffeine. I don't remember what was said on that call, but when the call ended, he looked to me and said, presumably referring to what he perceived to be a masterful phone call on his part, "Don't worry bro, someday you will be doing this just like me." The next day, he invited me to lunch. I politely declined.