Input for my next American Lawyer column: work life balance in a dismal economy
Wednesday, February 11, 2009 at 3:28PM
If greed was good in the '80's, the overriding mood of early '09 seems to be quavering panic, at least in the legal profession. Above the Law's posts are dominated by layoffs (209 entries and counting), slashed salaries, withheld bonuses, bounced checks, and the incredible shrinking perk. Gordon Gecko's obnoxious wardrobe choices — and one can only assume accompanying attitudes — are making a comeback. Law students are scared to death to blog, and billable hours are eating work life balance for breakfast, lunch, and dinner — at their desk, of course.
It seems to me that going fetal in a down economy is "a bad choice" (as I would say to my son), and that innovating and distinguishing one's business methods and philosophies — fishing in a storm — are key to both short- and long-term survival.
Abandoning work life balance and career flexibility considerations in hard times strikes me as unwise and shortsighted. What do you think, and what do you see happening now and in the future?
[Update:] Further discussion spaces in Facebook at Law Students Building a Better Legal Profession and Women Lawyers — Back on Track.
Column tagged: work life balance
Reader Comments (7)
In hard times, the big thing might not be what YOU abandon, but what abandons YOU.
So much option goes right along with it.
Given the economic malaise and associated uncertainty at play in our society, the ability to obtain, analyze and respond appropriately to information seems more important than ever in maintaining flexibility and, in turn, survival in life. From the perspective of a sole practitioner in legal practice, I think that time can be well spent experimenting with social media in trying to determine the best use of information to meet business or life goals. However, I also think that a lot of discretion should be used. When I was litigating 10-14 hours a day, I had little time for marketing and I was left with a virtual network vacuum when the economy slowed. I had always paid for advertising with Martindale-Hubbell, but I eventually stopped that once I started using LinkedIn, Avvo, Cornell, Blogger and a host of other free options touted for communicating about business on the internet. But while these relatively new services seem to offer good value, I cannot help also associating them with the growth in electronic media which has been used to fuel waves of certain societal misbehavior (and hysteria) that seems to have gotten us where we are in the first place. First there was the dot-com hype and implosion closely followed by real estate. Similarly, there now seems to be increasing 'hype' about the inherent power of Web 2.0 to create value through the manner or 'mediums' we use to exchange information between individuals and groups. But is this perceived 'value' in the methods of communication real and sustainable? These questions of value are always at the top of the 'conversation' regardless of the kind of commodity or practice we are talking about. It would seem that if there is a value inherent to electronic/social media it is their ability to fluidly convey informational content to a discrete or widespread audience. But, in these times of uncertainty, there seem to be far more 'sellers' of the mediums of communication than those who profess to know exactly what the valued content should be. The 'buyers' are presumed to possess the content and if they do not have it certainly they can now find it and learn how to convey it! No doubt it will be blogging, Twitter and the next new communication thing for years to come because "new" and "more" is typically equated with "better" especially in some business environments. However, social scientists who have identified a variety of human behaviors (e.g., political participation)that seem to be adversely affected by certain kinds of information might tend to disagree. For simple example, some people who uniformly hear and experience bad news about our economy will indeed go 'fetal'. The dot-com and real estate fiascoes are other examples of the impact of information upon attitude. I think that people will struggle more than ever in the future to cope with the sheer volume of often uniform information in their lives and in trying to discern personal value in the messages they receive. The people who have the ability to recognize the power of information and who can approach or avoid it in ways that promotes their own free will, creativity and good judgment should have a better chance of success (and happiness) in this information age.
One of the articles this week suggested associates were working harder to distinguish themselves on their own initiative, rather than responding to firm pressures to work harder and longer hours. I'm not in big law, but I have found I'm doing the same thing in my very small, very specialized firm. Also, in playing single mom for three weeks while my husband recovers from surgery, the stresses of being the sole caregiver, the daycare crises, the drop-everything-to-take-the-sick-kid-to-the-pediatrician - that stuff is crazy-making. I wince every time I arrive late to the office or cut short a meeting, when before I wouldn't have been concerned. My boss is completely fine with it, but I'm not.
I wonder if there is any gender difference in how attorneys are coping with the balance issue. Are women more sensitive to being perceived as not working hard enough because they are usually considered the ones to "give" when kid issues appear? Is the economic situation making both men and women feel the same degree of pressure?
I have no answers, but the questions are intriguing. Thanks for the post!
There's lots of opportunity in a bad economy if you are creative. Great Post!
I don't agree that there's such a thing as "work life balance" - at least not in the way that there's a static condition known as "balance." True balance is always a real dance, physically, mentally, and emotionally. (And spiritually, too, I guess, though that's outside my realm of expertise and I'm just another seeker like any other.)
But insofar as we're talking about fear-based reactionary thinking - well, no, of course. That's never a good idea, especially (not "even") in times like these.
You just have to live your life, fully. For some that means working harder temporarily but it must be matched by equally valued periods of nothingness and/or play. That's balance.
For others, it means going solo. That's a ton of work, married to a crapload of inspiration and creativity, but it too must be balanced by downtime and feeding the soul. Here's where self-knowledge comes into play. The more deeply you know the inner self, the easier it is to reach those places that need to be let out into the sunshine, so to speak.
I am a first year student taking night classes in San Jose, CA. With the economic turmoil, just like after the dot com bust, finding jobs is not as easy as people who are secured in their positions say it is.
I do IT contracting work full time and I run three independent business which I attempt to bring in revenue. One deals with fashion/commercial photography and media production (www.nikicruz.com), a new ventue called Bay Area Pet TV (www.bayareapettv.com) and my primary side is my Motivational Speaking business (www.apathtosuccess.com).
Most of what I do now is try to gain exposure to bring in some sort of ad revenue. I am not one to believe in having on one source of revenue for income. Time are tight, and people are becoming even tighter with their money. Per Se.
My night classes have gone to crap because I've allowed the distractions to get to me. So I may not do so well for my first year and may have to retake 1L again. But that doesn't concern me as not being able to pay for my year since the school I go to isn't part of the federal grant program. Go Figure.
As for becoming a lawyer. That is four or five, maybe six, years down the road. The economy will have improved by then and much of what we worry about will have passed into distant memories. I am curious, when that time does come, who will be the winner once law firms start to do mass hirings. Will it be the ones who spent 100K or more for full time day classes taught by professors, or those who spent 20-30K for part time night classes to be trained by active lawyers and judges.
I do believe, when that time comes, it will be very interested. But the more interesting time is right now. Surviving in an economy where if you have only one skill to exploit, you have probably cut your own head off. If you can extrapolate and capitalize on all of your skills, you have a better chance of staying afloat until the floods subside. I know I will get my JD. I'm not sure what that means for mean practicing law. But as I develop my law blog (www.adictedtolaw.com) things will come around. A path will eventually present itself to me, whether by chance or design. I wish everyone else the best of fortune and not luck. Luck has nothing to do with surviving.
Carlos Rafael Cruz
www.apathtosuccess.com
The single hardest thing to do is find time to do the personal branding necessary to leave options open. When you take a job in a down economy, and see little opportunity to make a lateral move for better circumstances, you have to hold the job you are in, especially if your financial reserves are low.
I have spent the last year building up a blog that now has some momentum (www.thecomplexlitigator.com), expanding its reach with social media cites (twitter, linkedin and facebook), and participating in professional organizations (e.g., Consumer Attorneys of California). But finding the time to do that and maintain it is exceedingly difficult. I have a 4-year old child to care for, and I have to balance those activities with just keeping my job.
H. Scott Leviant
www.thecomplexlitigator.com