Practice Imperfect
At the Chicago office of Perkins Coie, partners recently unveiled a “happiness committee,” offering candy apples and milkshakes to brighten the long and wearying days of its lawyers.
No this is not a joke. According to Alex Williams, “The Falling-Down Professions” in Sunday’s New York Times, other firms are trying to retain associates with means that appeal not simply to a sweet tooth, means such as money, for example, while others use a simple, dignified “Thank you.”
This is all part of a broader examination in the article of the unhappiness of some lawyers and doctors under the age of 40, shall we say, whose values include such shocking goods as free time and family and the unhappiness of the practices that need to retain them in order to prosper.
Let’s see if sweets, lolly and punctilio will actually turn the trick.
[Thanks to Rob Hyndman for sending me this bonbon.]
Along the same lines, the American Bar Association reports that the status of law has now declined among students to the equivalent of densistry (the new prestige profession apparently being investment banking …). http://www.abajournal.com/news
I’ve come accross several lawyers working for major law first that have suddenly decided to reorient their careers. When asked why, the common response is: “firm life is not for me”…
What is a “firm life”? A firm life is being able to achieve your billable hours, keep your clients happy so they come for more, work long hours, weekends, show them you can do it, prepare for that big conference, meet all those deadlines, lose sleep, sacrifice family time, personal time…see where this is going (hopefully you not a burnout). Firm life is about the “firm”, it’s not about “your” life. To keep you in the grind for as long as possible, firms need to find ways, other than monetary incentives, to show that they care for you, want you, and need you.
I wonder, if I’m handed candy apples for the first time, it may put a smile on my face; a milkshake would be nice; ice cream even better, then what?…stop…pause…maybe, just maybe, allwoing lawyers to live outside the firm could be a start.