I'm a non-traditional law student (29M) and took an SA position with a midsized firm in a MCOL area. Everyone from the support staff to the attorneys are extremely approachable and nice. It's just that the office culture is... weird... I asked my classmates at other firms if they're doing any of this and none of them have said yes. They're going to sports games, concerts, lunches/dinners, happy hours, etc etc. One of them is even doing things like attending cooking classes with the other summer associates which I think is really cool.

At my firm, we've been doing TikTok skits—a lot of them. I don't just mean like those normal lawyer/law-student TikToks where they say like, "Come with me on a day in the life of a lawyer/summer-associate at X Firm!" I'm talking actual skits, trends, and TikTok dances. I have never even gone so far as to make a single Instagram post before this and now I'm doing the same dances, skits, and trends that middle schoolers are doing.

For example, the four of us had to get into the office manager's minivan (which was disgusting btw) and DO A MUKBANG inside it. The marketing staff was also extremely strict with the manner in which we did this. They insisted that none of us were allowed to speak at all while recording. The four of us just sat inside her damn minivan shoveling trays of seafood boil into our mouths. The stranger part is that I don't even think the video was uploaded (not yet at least) so what the hell was the point of that?

Another insanely stupid one was where the four of us had to do the "double it or give it to the next person" skit but with cups of coffee. I'm not even sure what the hell was supposed to be achieved by this either because there was no message or even advertisement for the firm (aside from it being posted on their TikTok). We literally just doubled it and gave it to the next person until the fourth summer associate ended up with eight mugs of coffee. The poor girl spilled some on her shirt too because they kept trying to make her somehow hold all eight with just her two hands. She awkwardly stood there inserting one or two fingers into the loop of every single coffee mug in a desperate attempt to hold all eight. It was extremely frustrating watching her attempt this while mouthing "ouch" to herself as some of her fingers touched the hot mugs.

We've been doing a lot of TikTok dances lately and I'm near my last straw, if not at it already. I dread every single day I have to come into work and further ruin my own personal and professional image by doing all these. When I entered our supervising attorney's office to ask her if I could take a step back because I was uncomfortable doing them, she folded her hands together and tilted her head to answer, "None of the other summer associates seem to have a problem with it. They all seem to be having fun actually." I stood there shocked and at an utter loss for words; it was like I'd gone in third-person and could see the look of disbelief on my face, jaw dropped and everything. Not wanting to risk a bad reference or no return offer, I sheepishly stammered, "You know what, I'll give them another shot. I think I'm just cranky because I didn't sleep too well last night." She gave me a dismissive and patronizing smile, swiveled her chair back to facing her monitor, and didn't say a word in response. I walked away feeling nothing but hopelessness and anger.

At first I was worried about not getting a return offer but now I'm wondering if I even want one at a firm like this. Do any of your firms do this sort of thing? I made an appointment with my CSO to talk about this but they're not free for the next two weeks because of OCI. How bad is it if I quit in the middle of a summer associate program? I can't take this anymore.

(https://xoxohth.com/thread.php?thread_id=5879586&forum_id=2#49978342)