In the world of remote work, the key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.
Stephen Covey
Over the summers of 1973 and 1974, I had the privilege of working as a laborer in the storied Homestead Works of U.S. Steel Corporation, the first business entity in the U.S. with a billion dollars in capitalization. These highly prized summer jobs for students paid as a base rate more than today’s minimum wage. My father, Big Bobby to my Little Bobby, was a Pittsburgh robbery detective at the time who had been assigned to solve a crime against the superintendent of the Homestead Works. So, my dad sent me to the employment office in Homestead where I was immediately hired for the summer. This was called “knowing somebody” back in the day instead of networking. Big Bobby did not solve the crime. As a beneficiary of the misfortunate of the superintendent, Little Bobby challenged the universality of the old adage that crime does not pay.
My entry to the workplace was as a full-time employee on probation for the first 30 days, delineated by a piece of masking tape across the mandatory hard hat. I was part of the unit covered under the collective bargaining agreement with union dues deducted after successful completion of probation. Summer hires were just like everybody else in our metatarsal boots and orange helmets, working any of three shifts paid by the job classification, just like the career co-workers.
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A key takeaway for me was that work was what you did 40 hours per week in a confined and unique environment separate and distinct from daily life. The workplace was world I entered and left via the City-Farm Lane gate five times a week. When I was there, I was fully present and engaged in my duties and in the collegiality that develops with co-workers despite cultural, political, religious and other profound differences. We arrived 45 minutes early to allow those leaving time to shower and dress and be at the gate five minutes before the whistle blew and the gate opened. When waiting to exit, we “hid” off to the side so that the supervisors did not issue write-ups for us not being at our posts. The open secret was that management did not look, and a pact was kept that allowed uninterrupted production. Looking back, I realized these few minutes were a mental transition period, a decompression “tunnel” where we moved from work to play, from work to real life. Once the whistle sounded, I never thought about what was happening at the mill until I crowded past the gate with the dozens of others at the start of my next shift.
Once I became a lawyer, that all changed, especially in 1979 when I opened my solo practice within two years of bar admission. Thoughts of cases and work projects intruded into my mind at odd times, including the occasional dream or waking moment. It took discipline to compartmentalize to attempt to be 100% present in the evenings and weekends. Of course, there were activities, including eating, drinking, sports, movies, and card and board games that created unintentional force fields or thought barriers of separation to shield me from work. When I left the office empty-handed without files, just like the mill, nothing followed me home. Unless someone called me at home. That was an understood no-no unless I gave prior authorization, which was rarely granted. Now it was up to me to control my own thoughts to avoid wandering to my cases.
Of course, this dichotomy between working only at the office and working after normal business hours is a relic of the crush of technology. First fax machines, then computers with modems that could reach into the home, then cellphones and now, the ubiquitous smartphone. Sometimes I wonder why they are called “smart.” Is that a mockery or an irony played on the users?
So, now we can work anytime, anywhere. Many lawyers can perform many of their job responsibilities rarely being in the same room with another human being.
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Working Remotely
Almost all law firms, legal departments, government agencies and solo practitioners have converted to a hybrid model of working partially from home or while traveling. Social scientists call this Digital Nomadism. It’s most effective with a laptop and remote file access, but also smartphones, tablets and guest access to devices and networks. I doubt there is a lawyer or support professional who has not squeezed in a few hours of work while on the road for leisure or as an extension to travel or other obligations. I have conducted numerous arbitration hearings, mediation sessions and meetings with counsel where participants are in coffee shops, automobiles or on hotel balconies overlooking bodies of water. It is all fine with me provided the visuals, access to document sharing, and audio are effective and the disruptions minimal. Recent research indicates that hybrid working represents the “best of both worlds,” offering workers greater work-life balance without the concern of being isolated from colleagues. See Choudhury, Prithwiraj, Tarun Khanna, Christos A. Makridis and Kyle Schirmann. “Is Hybrid Work the Best of Both Worlds? Evidence from a Field Experiment.” Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 22-063, March 2022. A report on a survey of over 2,000 lawyers conducted by the American Bar Association summarized the results:
Significantly, the overwhelming majority of lawyers reported that working remotely did not adversely impact the quality of their work, productivity, or billable hours. Remote work brought other advantages as well, such as an increased ability to balance work and family obligations, especially for women lawyers. On the other hand, for many lawyers, remote work increased their feeling of social isolation and decreased the quality of their relationships with co-workers.
See Liebenberg, R. and Scharf, S., “Where Does the Legal Profession Go From Here?” ABA Practice Forward Report, 2022.
These findings do not surprise me and are consistent with the social science research that has been the subject of many of my prior articles.
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