Optional Work from Home Articles

[blonderachelzane]

Hey everyone!

I got such great advice on my last post so I figured I'd ask another slightly anxiety ridden articling student type question. I currently work in the office five days a week but at the beginning of my articling term we were told we would work in the office 3 times a week and work at home twice a week after a month of being in the office full time. Last week we were given all the equipment for working from home but this week we weren't given any instructions on whether we could start or whether we are expected to be in the office every day.

I personally really want to work from home a few days a week because I think it will be more productive for me as it takes away the 40 minute commute and I can start working essentially when I wake up and also my articling principal works exclusively from home. Most of the staff in general at my firm work remotely 90% of the time. However, the other students at my firm aren't very keen on work from home and would rather be in the office all the time. I don't want to come off as lazy or unenthusiastic about being in the office especially since the other students would rather be in the office but how would I go about confirming that we have the green light to start working from home a couple times a week? I imagine normal people would just go ahead and ask but I, as an anxiety ridden articling student, get worried about how I would come off if I'm the one to ask the question and confirm. Is it a fair question to ask given that we were told a few times we would be able to work from home and we were given all the equipment for it? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Pantalaimon]

Do you have a good relationship with any junior associates? You can see if they'll ask the student coordinator if the students writ large are working partially from home or always in the office. If they're particularly paranoid they can frame it in terms of needing to know for commissioning, delivery law, etc.

I'd just ask your principal though. If they're 100% WFH, why would they judge you for wanting to? Pitch it as confirming when you can start using your new WFH tech, not if. I think you'd only come off as lazy or unenthusiastic if you wanted to WFH more than is offered and react badly to being turned down.

[Vizslaw]

Don't sweat it. I think the presumption is that you will be doing some work from home if you've been given the equipment to do so. Why not speak with your articling principal and say that you understand everyone will now be working from home 2 days a week and ask whether they have any preference on what days you work in person vs. remotely. They may have a preference to be in person the same days (if they are also working remotely). You can check in every week to see if there are important dates/hearings that would be better for you to be in person for. We do the same thing and it's best to communicate openly so no one assumes when you're there/not. 

There's no need to stress. Just have an open chat about how you can make the most of your experience (and be the most helpful) by being present when needed and still work efficiently from home when not needed in person.

Good luck!

[BlockedQuebecois]

@Vizslaw and @Pantalaimon I think you both misread OP's post, as it: (1) explicitly said the other students are planning to always work in the office; and (2) communicated the exact opposite of the understanding that "everyone will now be working from home 2 days a week".

I think you're both also putting too much weight on the fact that OP's articling principal works from home. OP is at a firm with at least two other students, meaning they are likely to be getting the majority of their work from people who are not their articling principal. Whether OP's principal works from home or not is largely irrelevant; what matters is how frequently the lawyers giving her work are working from the office. 

OP, a lot of this is going to depend on how big your firm is. At most mid-sized or bigger firms, who your articling principal is doesn't matter at all. If that's you (and your post history suggests it is), you should check in with your student coordinator about work from home expectations. If you don't have a student coordinator, I would ask either your articling principal or your mentor, if you have one. 

I do agree with viszlaw in that this doesn't need to be a big deal. Just shoot whoever it is an email asking to hop on a call or meet them during the day to discuss work from home policies. Go in with a plan about what day(s) you would like to work from home on. Explain that you have a relatively lengthy commute and think you could be more productive if you work from home [once/twice] a week on [insert days]. Say that you understand you'll have to be flexible and proactive about informing lawyers about your work from home schedule, and then ask if they have any advice on managing that situation. 

Then, once you start working from home make sure you're proactively reminding lawyers about your status. Inform all the lawyers you're working with. Send a gentle reminder before your first WFH day, then remind them as convenient for the next few weeks (e.g. add a postscript to an email handing in work on a Thursday that you'll be out of the office the next day). Put a note about it in your calendar. You can ease off the reminders after a few weeks, but you'll need to do them fresh again whenever you start working with someone new. 

If it were me, I would probably start with working from home once a week just to iron out any wrinkles, then increase it to twice a week if things are going smoothly and you don't think it will harm your experience. I would also keep an ear to the ground on what the lawyers are doing. Your WFH policy is unlikely to change over the year, but if all the lawyers are back in the office four days a week in January and you're still working from home Monday & Friday it might start to affect your reputation.

Edited October 5, 2021 by BlockedQuebecois

[epeeist]

Generally liking/agreeing with @BlockedQuebecois (and given caveats I'm PT solo, pay more attention to others), two thoughts.

One is, I'm not saying do this but it's a potential approach, BQ is more about explaining the benefits. But you were told you could work at home, and you were just provided the equipment. Rather than explaining why you want to work at home, maybe focus on e.g. "Hi, I'm going to be working from home starting one day a week, I just wanted to briefly chat to discuss the best way to do this so that other lawyers know I'm still always available for work and to make sure I'm in the office when there are specific needs." That is, not explaining nor seeking permission, you were already given permission, just wanting to clarify best practices.

Two, I agree about not getting reputation of working from home every Monday and Friday, I'm not sure whether your firm expects specific work from home days, or just two per week with some flexibility. If the latter, subject to the nature of your firm and when people are there, I think it might be worth explicitly stating in your conversation that in case of last-minute assignments you intend to be in the office Fridays. Implicitly (not explicitly) emphasizing this is not about having long weekends.

[Pantalaimon]

43 minutes ago, BlockedQuebecois said:

@Vizslaw and @Pantalaimon I think you both misread OP's post, as it: (1) explicitly said the other students are planning to always work in the office; and (2) communicated the exact opposite of the understanding that "everyone will now be working from home 2 days a week".

Fair point. I glossed over it, probably because nobody's actually allowed to work from the office 5 days a week in plague-ridden Alberta. My firm frankly wouldn't care if some students "aren't very keen on work from home", we'd still have to.

I think there's two points here. First, whether OP is expected to work in the office 5 days a week. I don't think that's true. My bit about asking the student coordinator in a roundabout way was to get directly at that expectation - in other words, "are the students expected to be working 5 days in the office".

The second point, which you tackled, is whether it's a good idea to work 5 days in the office if the other students are. That I can't say. Our firm's Toronto office still has the vast majority of lawyers at home, so I wouldn't expect being WFH vs in the office would matter so long as the days you're in vs home are well communicated. I personally source 1/3 to 1/2 of my work directly from my articling principal, which is probably why I overvalued the fact that OP's principal is WFH.

But my basic personality also doesn't care what other students are doing. OP, you seem to be a pretty anxious person. You should probably balance the benefits of WFH against the anxiety it will cause when you compare yourself to the other students. I'm not saying you're jumping at shadows, but you appear to be conscious of the fact that you worry about things that may not necessarily be logical. So WFH may not be worth the anxiety for you, and you should invest some thought into that angle.

[pepesilvia]

I would just start going in as the other students are and see what the general vibe is like. If it is going to be just students most of the time, thenI would make a decision on whether or not it would be a good use of my time to come in as often as they do. Also, committing to it for a couple of weeks will allow you to get a sense of who is coming in what days, so you will be able to plan your schedule around the connections you want to build, etc.

I also really struggle with productivity in the office environment. It is weird because when I WFH, I can sit down at my desk and just work all day, non-stop with few interruptions. My partner will throw a banana into my lair every once in a while so I don't get hungry, but other than that I'm really focused. Meanwhile in the office, every little thing Is quite the distraction - commuting, striking up random conversations about non-work thnigs, eating, getting water, "stretching" my legs. I think the worst part is wearing office clothes and not pyjamas - I have sensory issues so "real" clothes can make me uncomfortable and distract me. 12 hours of productivity on my average day at home ends up translating to like 5 hours in the office... it is really kind of a waste of time, especially when I tend to be one of the only people in the office. 

But, that being said, I have been going in more frequently than I probably need to for two reason. One is that I think in-person connections are so much easier to foster and nourish, and it is so much easier to get to know a person offline. Second is that eventually, we will start transitioning back into the office "seriously" and I want to be prepared for when that happens. I want to "get used to" being in the office environment and become efficient at working in the office. There are many pros to working from the office that are overlooked, I think.