Legal Practice #3 - Agile Working

Welcome everyone!

There will be no personal offices in the near future. Whether you like it or not, mobility is one of the biggest demands in all professions nowadays.

On yesterday's post, I talked about how millennials (and latter generations) are putting their personal life at least at the same level as their professional lives, and agile working is key to achieving these demand from the work force.

I was discussing one matter with one of my partners when he had to stop me because his son was calling. His son was sick. My partner apologized, grabbed his computer, left the office, called me one hour later when he had picked up his son and drove him home and we continued the discussion as if nothing had ever happened.

I was surprised at first with how naturally and smooth we changed from an office meeting to a phone meeting with both of us in the location we are supposed to be. But then I realized that we won't get to be happy if we are always with the fear of not being at the office when we have something that it is important for us or something that we just want to do.

That's why I think that in the future law firms will have meeting rooms and "open" closed offices (meaning a closed office where anyone can just plug in and work). For instance, I like to work from the office because I am used to having two displays, but I could easily purchase an additional display and work from home with the same speed and efficiency that I do at the office.

Some may argue that people tend to avoid work and get distracted at home, and they have a point, but working from home has to be a possibility. If your employees cannot deliver good work from home, I doubt that they can deliver good work from the office.

As lawyers, we need to be responsible, assume our duties and deliver good work. As employees, we need to be able to work from wherever we want knowing that we need to be in a place where we can continue to provide that good work.

I will continue coming to the office, but I will also have some "home-alone" days.

T

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