Post-Pandemic. Work/Life Balance?

By Erica and Karen

When we were practicing lawyers, and mothers, and wives, and friends, we came to understand there is no work/life balance, except in the sense that some days—or months—you’ll do more of one thing and some days or months more of another. And in our view it was worth it. We needed to earn our living, we loved our demanding jobs, and ultimately, we thought, our families benefited. We never really experienced a work/life divide, either. Whatever we were doing was part of our lives.

Periodically, debates would ensue about work/life balance. We would mostly listen, but if someone came to ask us how to live a lawyerly life we would say go with the flow and try to fit in whatever is essential every day. Even if many days you feel like you are in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Of course, the pandemic changed things. Working from home, via laptop and Zoom, is very different from working in an office where you can actually be with humans and see their expressions and reactions and commiserate about missing someone’s soccer game. We think it is critical to have boundaries between workplace and home, but no such boundary was possible during lockdown. And no-one was experienced at figuring out how to create boundaries for remote work. Many people, as a result, felt that they had to be on at all times, or that they had a right to reach people whenever they needed, or wanted, to. Just because you were home with the kids didn't mean you could be fully with the kids, ever. Or fully at work.

Now, people are normalizing a new workplace approach, often partially remote, and trying to figure out the new rules. It’s not easy, and we applaud those who are trying to figure it out.

But—we suggest discussions with stakeholders might be a worthwhile approach.

We read about a recent 37-point memo sent to employees of a top flight law firm laying out rules for work/life balance—in the context of a recent pay raise. Among the points that have been disclosed are (a) that lawyers need not turn on cameras for video calls between 8 pm and 8 am; (b) that emails need not be checked more than once on Friday evening or a couple of times on Saturday and Sunday, unless work dictates otherwise; and of course (c) that lawyers have always to be reachable by phone.

These rules presumably will make life better for inexperienced people who have no idea what boundaries have existed in the past. But they suggest that there is no real boundary between work and non-work, because the assumption is—if someone calls, you have to be on, no matter what. Now of course that is true, when you are working on something exigent. But the memo seems to suggest every day will be without boundaries—except that no-one needs to see you in your nightie.

We worked in this world, and we understand the tradeoff—fascinating work for amazing clients, and excellent pay, requires constant commitment. But the message that there will never be real time off seems counterproductive. Especially if people expect to have families and friends and mental health. We also think it might make more sense to talk all that through with employees and partners.

We can, after all, meet in person again, and this seems an apt topic for that innovative approach.