Knowing When to Stop: A Major Drawback from the COVID Work-From-Home Lifestyle that Technology Provides Lawyers.

Photo by Ekaterina Bolovtsova from Pexels.

I read a great article in the Wall Street Journal this past week.  Journalist Chip Cutter writes about "A Year Into Remote Work, No One Knows When to Stop Working Anymore." (It's behind a paywall, sorry).  Apparently, stay-at-home workers, including us attorneys, are spending their commuting time not catching up on rest but working.  Also, they are working more hours in a day on top of the recouped commuting time.  In this COVID-Era, people are rolling out of bed straight into their work and back to bed without missing a beat.  To some extent, the legal profession is all-too-familiar with this lifestyle.

Attorneys are used to putting in the long hours.  Back in the day, before technology made the gains it has today, attorneys would go to work early, come home late and even have some office work to do at home and sometimes worked weeks.  With the advances of technology over the past 20 years making it easier to work from home, more solos and small- to mid- size firms have been getting rid of the brick and motor office and embracing the virtual-office lifestyle.  The virtual-office lifestyle, while a blessing, on the one hand, has also been a problem for attorneys, myself included.  It is difficult to separate home from work.  It was a little bit easier pre-COVID when we had somewhere else to go – the gym, a friend's house, the movies, a coffee shop, etc.  But now, when we have nowhere to go (being COVID compliant), it's hard to shed work without it staring at you regardless of where you are at home.

Do your best to compartmentalize.  Schedule breaks.  Schedule your office hours.  Go for a walk.  Read a book.  Go to sleep at a decent hour.  Remember, you don't live to work – you work to live.  Stop working and take some time for yourself.  Technology can be a blessing; don’t let it be a curse.

MTC