Who Needs Work?

The question of who needs work and what do you do when it eludes you should be on everyone’s mind. The intrinsic value of work is so ingrained, it is almost a part of our essential identity. Without work, what is the meaning of life?
I will leave the value of work for another blog.

In this blog, I want to look at the consequences of not having work or not having enough work and how it affects us.

We have always endured fluctuations in the economy and the resulting impacts on the employment market. From the beginning of the recession in 2008, over 8.2 million jobs were lost in the US (some say more and the new jobs coming on stream were temporary, lower paying or in service sector) bringing unemployment rates close to 10%. In Canada there has been a similar experience although not so dramatic, except for Ontario where the manufacturing industry, particularly car manufacturing, has been decimated.

Unless you or someone in your family has experienced the pain of lay-offs, redundancy, early retirement or not being hired back, this all may seen a bit theoretical rather than personal but you should not be deceived. There are and will be long term effects from this recession, as there have been historically from other recessions.

The impacts have been discussed by Don Peck in his article in The Atlantic, March 2010 – “How a New Jobless Era will Transform America”.

There are many ideas in this article worth exploring. As Peck points out, young people who either lose their jobs or are unable to get into the labour market for a period of time following graduation suffer lifetime earning losses and face more severe difficulties because they must compete against fresh graduates who don’t have to explain why they have been out of work for a year. There is also downward pressure on salaries as the unemployed pool expands.

Experienced workers holding prestigious degrees are accepting unpaid internships, cutting out the new graduates from even this source of work. There are other long term consequences such as heavier consumption of alcohol and more incidence of depression throughout lifetime even for those do get jobs.

People are diminished by loss of work. Men out of work struggle to find a place in their marriages, probably to a greater degree than women.

The recession has had serious negative repercussions on law firms. Work has declined. There is downward pressure on fees. Some clients have financial problems and cannot pay or cut back on legal services, etc. These problems are simply a mirror image of the overall economic situation. Law firms, like other employers, want to protect their bottom line and the simplest way to do it, in the short run, is cut staff or implement a hiring freeze. Individual lawyers who, for the most part and despite express declarations to the contrary, “eat what they kill” ie are paid on their billings, are very disinclined to share work or reduce their take-home pay.

Law firms cannot solve the problem of unemployment or the economy. However, they must protect and foster their vital resource, their people and in order to do so have to appreciate firstly the negative impacts on their people of a recession and secondly that they must carefully examine alternatives based on both short and long term planning.

According to Jordan Furlong in an article which appears in the Canadian Bar Association website:

“It’s time for something new — a law firm that takes organizational commitment seriously and recruits people not just for skills, which are abundant in the talent pool, but also for their willingness to work, share, build, train and innovate as a team.”

I think some of the answers may be found in developing strong management and a firm culture which will promote and implement the following:
Ø proactive approach which recognizes the onset of economic problem and plans for them
Ø giving the young lawyers training and mentoring in client development – this is not an inate skill
Ø training the young lawyers to live with the stresses of the new environment
Ø promoting work sharing and demonstrably requiring it both with financial incentives and monitoring with the intent of carrying this forward as the economy improves
Ø making long term decisions to keep those young lawyers who have superior talent with the commitment by the more experienced lawyers to get in more work or to work share
Ø use time and talents of underutilized lawyers for education and community work
Ø acculturate the partners to the need to modify their financial expectations for the betterment of the firm because of the positive benefits of retaining employees over the long run