Reflections on Covid Office Gymnastics (Part WFH)
By Chris Robinson of Friedman Law Firm, P.C.
Wednesday, August 4, 2021
A mechanic will tell you that 50 percent of a successful job is having the right tools. A supervisor will tell you that 80 percent of a successful job is having the right mechanic. An owner may tell you that 90 percent of a successful shop is having the right dynamic amongst supervisors, mechanics, and tools. In the previous post, we happily concluded that we had the right tools (old and new technology) and the right mechanics (our attorneys, paralegals, and support staff). Fourteen months working from home tested our team dynamic.
Two primary WFH challenges testing our dynamic were communication and discipline. The communication challenge arose in external and internal arenas. Externally, email was not an issue but fielding the phones and managing the mail proved more perplexing. Mail duties devolved upon the two staff members remaining in the office. They devised a pretty slick system which was nonetheless time-consuming and not entirely consistent with their talents. Meanwhile, the cell phone app that tied into our central phones proved unmanageable at the receptionist level, so after seven months she came back on-site. But most important, our attorneys had to learn to conduct hearings via teleconference with client and judge. Albeit offering relief from travel, phone hearings remove the visual contact which can help a judge understand a claimant’s inability to work.
Internal communication depended on Zoom meetings and email. The challenge was in being deliberate. For example, when still in the office, we intended to hold weekly deadline review meetings. But too often it became too convenient to reschedule a meeting for some other day or even some other week. In the new paradigm we desperately needed communication constancy, so we set standing times for two different Zoom meetings each week. I can count on one hand the number of times we moved a meeting, and never did we skip a week altogether.
The other primary challenge was discipline – namely professional presence, and distraction avoidance. We added a policy requiring new employees to work in the office for a year prior to being eligible to work from home. This gives new employees time to embody the Friedman standard of professionalism. Furthermore, during our weekly meetings we deliberately addressed the myriad distractions that pop up in a home environment. Unable to avoid such distractions, we had to learn to manage them. With accountability measures in place, we relied on each other to maintain the conduct and focus becoming of a professional service.
What did we gain from these challenges? Flexibility, confidence, and gratitude. Technical and proximity limitations forced each of us to overlap more, both in understanding others’ duties and willingness to cover them. This gain in flexibility led also to a gain in confidence. Confidence in our own ability to find answers to questions usually left to others, and confidence in others’ abilities to answer questions usually left to us. And finally, gratitude for the privilege of returning to working together with new appreciation for each other. The Friedman Law Firm team dynamic was tested – and substantially strengthened during the WFH period.