September 2022 - Return to Office

[Pantalaimon]

36 minutes ago, Ohshmagoda said:

When associates were truly struggling with the insane pace of summer 2020 to spring 2022 there was literally zero talk about how remote work inefficiencies were contributing to the insane/unsustainable workloads.

To be fair, maybe it's our blindspot; that's why I was trying to understand Jagger's perspective as a client. I personally think any hours bloat is a result of many things other than remote work - the hollowing out of midlevels, general burnout (which is manifesting across the workforce in basically every profession, not just law), and the long-awaited demographic tidal wave of retirements > hiring that still seems to somehow be catching every business by surprise.

[Aureliuse]

Sigh, this post demonstrates the "OMG WHAT HAVE I DONE?" result of my making an innocuous observation about ME, MYSELF, and I "being more efficient in the office" and setting off an unexpected chain reaction.

People! You do what works for you! Your firm culture and clientele are likely different than mine! There is no one-size-fits-all here... Just like some of us are more efficient in the evenings vs. in the mornings.

 

[Bob Jones]

8 hours ago, Jaggers said:

LOL. When you're in house, "billable hours" are not a measure of productivity.

But yeah, people are billing longer for the same tasks now.

In house would be oh so sweet

[Jaggers]

7 hours ago, Aureliuse said:

Sigh, this post demonstrates the "OMG WHAT HAVE I DONE?" result of my making an innocuous observation about ME, MYSELF, and I "being more efficient in the office" and setting off an unexpected chain reaction.

People! You do what works for you! Your firm culture and clientele are likely different than mine! There is no one-size-fits-all here... Just like some of us are more efficient in the evenings vs. in the mornings.

 

"Me, myself and I" are not necessarily extremely self-aware about how and where they produce the best work. This is a fairly well-documented phenomenon.

[KOMODO]

14 hours ago, Ohshmagoda said:

Maybe the discussion in this thread needs to be more specific about big firm vs smaller shop environments (or solicitor vs litigator work). There’s a ton of dialogue in this thread that is baffling to me as a mid-level lawyer doing solicitor work at a national firm. Aside from situations where there are loud kids at home, it has been extremely rare to hear anyone voice the opinion that they (or others) are more efficient doing solicitor work while sitting in the office tower. I’m also skeptical of the suggestion that lawyers are choosing to continue to work from home at the expense of their efficiency. Big firm associates have not been struggling for hours during the pandemic and most would have gladly worked hundreds of hours less if possible. When associates were truly struggling with the insane pace of summer 2020 to spring 2022 there was literally zero talk about how remote work inefficiencies were contributing to the insane/unsustainable workloads. I regularly hear associates and partners citing their efficiency at home as the reason why they didn’t go into the office on a busy day when they otherwise planned to. 

... It is almost implied in this thread that people wanting to work remotely or that prefer remote work are lazy - this group includes massive workaholics that prioritize their careers and client service over everything else in their lives....

I'm a big firm solicitor and am more productive in the office, but that's my personal preference.

On the large scale, I'm still with Jaggers, and for different reasons than the reasons that personally motivate me to go to the office:

- associates can WANT to work less but might literally not be able to finish their work in time due to inadequate training and supervision in a remote environment. That makes billable hours higher while productivity suffers. 

- partners and other senior lawyers are delegating less effectively to juniors, so costs are higher for the same work to be completed, even though hours/revenue are up, because unnecessarily senior people are completing work that they did not complete pre-pandemic.

- juniors are receiving less effective training and mentoring, so in the long term they will be less productive than the juniors of yore.

- the constant "living where you work" vibe, coupled with the high workload demand during the pandemic years, is burning people out, and when people are burned out I suspect they complete tasks at a reduced pace.

All of this stuff can be absorbed during the short-to-medium term bandaid period, but for the long term, I think cracks are starting to show. I'm not saying everything about working from home is negative - there are definitely benefits including elimination of commuting time and more flexibility for those who thrive in a low-management environment - but I do think that on balance in the long term, we as an industry will be less effective/productive if we continue to have people working mostly or entirely remotely.

14 hours ago, Pantalaimon said:

To be fair, maybe it's our blindspot; that's why I was trying to understand Jagger's perspective as a client. I personally think any hours bloat is a result of many things other than remote work - the hollowing out of midlevels, general burnout (which is manifesting across the workforce in basically every profession, not just law), and the long-awaited demographic tidal wave of retirements > hiring that still seems to somehow be catching every business by surprise.

I also agree with this, there are so many burnout factors and Pantalaimon's list is an accurate one in my opinion.

[123]

4 minutes ago, KOMODO said:

- the constant "living where you work" vibe

I was really anxious all the time, when I was WFH. I didn't know what it was at the time. In hindsight, it was partly that I didn't have a space that felt relaxing, because my home space was my work space. I was stressed in my work space, so I was stressed all the time. For me at least, having some physical separation between the two is beneficial, because I have a place to recharge and a place to produce.

[OntheVerge]

I can't imagine not having the in-person mentorship and being able to shadow on things. I'm sure new calls can shadow on scheduled virtual meetings with clients, but the amount of exposure I had to things that just popped up out of nowhere has been invaluable. I'd be way behind in knowledge and experience if I'd been strict WFH the past two years. I'm sure it's different for experienced lawyers, but as a new call who literally got hired a month before the first lockdown, still being able to go into the office and learn physically "on the job" was a lifesaver.

[reaperlaw]

There seems to be misconception here that the academic research/studies are exclusively or overwhelmingly in favour of WFH having higher or the same level of productivity vs. at the office. That is not true. Google "work from home less productive" and you will see the opposite conclusion of the studies that sometimes get paraded out in the media or LinkedIn. This is especially true of the studies that adjust for number of hours worked rather than raw productivity. I know there are plenty of studies that say the opposite but I am personally persuaded by the studies that adjust for hours worked.

I know that is personally true for me. Since going back to primarily in the office in the Spring (personal preference, not office policy), I am billing just as much but don't have nearly as many days where I need to log back in late at night after dinner/evening relaxation. Of course this isn't true for everyone, but there are certainly studies that bear this effect out at the aggregate. 

Will also echo that mentorship and training is much better in person vs. over Teams or Zoom. Have seen more than a few LinkedIn posts from some of the big North American legal influencers" promoting that mentorship and training can happen just as well online but not sure I've seen any of them explain how that happens. Maybe some lawyers and firms are better at it than others.

[Jaggers]

I don't think there's any doubt that working from home most of the time is better for your personal life. Obviously for a lot of people (I'm not one of them) you save a lot of time commuting, but you can also take care of personal stuff around your house during the day. I'm pretty prolific in the cooking threads here and on the discord because I spend time during my day cooking great meals for my family.

All of that stuff is relevant to whether you're happy with your job, but it's not related to how well you do the actual work. Some of which is better done where you have a quiet space like a home office (which not everyone has, of course), and a lot of which is better done in the company of your colleagues.