lawyers and extreme work
Although there’s little likelihood of anyone confusing the practice of law with the adrenaline-infused, on-the-edge activities highlighted in X Games coverage; it’s well-known that Americans can take just about anything to an extreme, including our work habits.
A little while back, I looked at the topic of lawyer depletion as it relates to the problem of over-work in the legal profession. The post included a few different takes on forfeiting vacations in favor of more time on-the-job.
Refreshing the issue for us is a new article by lawyer and writer Michael P. Maslanka titled: A Plea for Sanity: How GCs Can Help Stop the Culture of Extreme Work. In it, Maslanka notes that “there's no return on investment on exhausted employees” and chronicles the fallout from work-induced sleep deprivation. Among other remedial initiatives, Maslanka discusses mandatory vacations and training GCs (read firm leaders) to decipher the telltale signs of “an extreme worker” who needs an intervention.
But, it’s not only the extremists who need to understand the value of downtime. All of us benefit from a healthy life outside the law. Then, of course, there are the hybrid activities that join the worlds of work and leisure time.
Last night, my wife (and legal sanity co-producer), Lori, and I attended the NYC pre-launch party for BlawgWorld 2007, a TechnoLawyer publication that we contributed to along with a number of other law bloggers.
Among the folks we met and chatted with were hosts Neil Squillante and Sara Skiff; and attendees Tom Collins; Allison Shields; Josh Fruchter; Bruce Marcus; Bruce MacEwen; the Wired GC; Matt Homann; Walter Olson; Ron Friedman; and Tom Mighell (in order of connecting as we made our way from the front to the back of the restaurant). It was a lot of fun.
