Since the employee is a lawyer, she could document each menial task given, the date it was assigned, and the amount of time it took to build a case for suing for constructive discharge if necessary.

One way to combat this is to increase your visibility with the other partners so they know you do good work as someone previously mentioned. They will then be less likely to go along if your boss tries to convince them that you have got to go.

Get the menial tasks done as quickly as possible and volunteer to do extra work for the other partners.

I would not say anything negative about your boss to anyone and just concentrate on doing good work. You cannot be aware of every possible connection in a social network and what you say can get back to the person you are talking about.

People learn by doing. If your job is not challenging, you are losing valuable time for learning that employees in the same company have. With a large part of your day wasted by being forced to do work that does not allow you to learn, you are at a disadvantage.

The situation you are in can turn into a self fulfilling prophecy. Your skills are expected to advance year over year. By wasting so much time on menial work, your skills may not develop as expected by the company especially if you get discouraged.

At that point, your boss could point out that you are not providing enough value to the company and would have a better chance of convincing the other partners that you should be terminated.

I would try to get assigned to a different partner as quickly as possible.

Anyway, one things has solved the problem (and it looks like the original poster may have the same opportunity) – if other people give you challenging, interesting assignments, take those and try to give something back that really exceeds expectations. Perhaps completed at a very fast pace, or learn the bits and pieces from the pros in your department – whatever you turn in may not only exceed expectations, but the quality of work that colleagues may be turning in.

I’ve done that and noticed that the supervisors of my boss now give me projects (and have told my boss not to give me any work for the next few weeks–and I am told to do project that they assign me instead). I lalso earn much more from these supervisors as it is — so for now, I prefer this situation.

I know my boss will ask me to complete some secretarial task again – don’t know what I will do at that time (and if anyone else has something useful to post that has worked for them – please post). However, for the short term, this approach works well for me — at least I get challenging projects/and my schedule re-arranged so that I do not have to work with the guy giving me ridiculous tasks.

Good luck – I am glad to know that other people are in the same situation at least.