Daily Diary

Facial discrimination

Posted 13/03/2007 by The Daily Diary

Partner retreats are not all fun and games – a precious weekend spent talking lockstep away from the family, holed up in some five-star executive prison. But while the tedium is to be expected, perhaps less so was the ritual humiliation endured by one new Herbert Smith partner after joining the firm a couple of years back.

Leisure options on offer included such wholesome outdoor pursuits as golf, dirt-biking and tightrope-walking across a swamp – none of which appealed to the shy partner, who was understandably reluctant to get down and dirty with colleagues he had only known for a matter of weeks.

The partner therefore opted for what he imagined was the option most likely to give him a little quiet ‘me time’ – a facial at the hotel’s onsite spa.

After donning his standard-issue white robe and entering the spa, however, the partner was shocked to discover the firm’s entire contingent of female partners waiting in matching robes for their own treatments.

A series of rather awkward introductions ensued, with word soon spreading around the firm that the partner was either a pervert or simply very much in touch with his feminine side.

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