In-House Counsel, Money

Earning In-House Compensation Beyond A Paycheck

What can in-house lawyers do to earn this vastly more rewarding compensation?

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bonus money gift ribbon presentIn all my working years, it is hard to remember the last time I was truly grateful or emotional about receiving my paycheck from my employer.

Not to say I do not appreciate the compensation from my employer, but more so that it is a routine and expected transaction. I work my assigned duties and in exchange my employer, with an exponentially larger bank account than my own, gives me a portion of their funds.

However, that changed when I recently celebrated what would have otherwise been another run of the mill birthday, but for the fact my team staged a surprise celebration. There was a custom cake, my favorite homemade food, and a card containing a rather generous gift certificate to an upscale restaurant in town.

Yes, I understand brown-nosing the boss is universal in the workplace. But throughout the year, I have heard stories of personal financial hardship recounted by various members of my team, and I happen to know how much each of them earns in a given year, so I was well aware that for some of my employees, whatever they contributed in food or money likely had to be budgeted for in advance. To say this was a humbling realization would be an understatement.

I have written before on the lengths I have gone to in the name of fostering team unity, from potlucks to dressing up for Halloween, but this was different. What had I done to deserve money from a single mother of three on a strict budget? And more importantly, what can I do to continue to earn this vastly more rewarding compensation from my team in the future?

Truthfully in the weeks following my birthday, I have yet to answer my own questions. There certainly has not been a single moment or action I have taken that would merit such financial sacrifices. And my team knows raises are controlled at the corporate level, not by me individually, so while they may have been brown-nosing, it was more altruistically than financially driven.

The best answer I have been able to arrive at, and one I felt comfortable enough with to actually use the gift certificate for a phenomenal dinner with my wife, is simply that I tried to be present and accessible on a daily basis.

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Sure, this is an admittedly low threshold, but as an attorney who was used to locking himself in a room to knock out an assignment prior to managing my team, it was an incredibly difficult practice to implement.

Prior to my current management assignment, I could tune out the rest of the office for days on end and turn around assignments in near real-time. However, now I have learned to be comfortable with an extra day or two buffer in my anticipated completion times, knowing I will inevitably be interrupted to work through purely management-related issues.

Even if I am unable to resolve whatever the issue one of my employees brings to me may be, I know they appreciate being able to at least meet with me and vent. And as a habit, I make sure to let them know I am setting aside whatever assignment I am currently tasked with to meet with them — certainly not in a condescending way, but telling someone you are pausing responding to a federal court to meet with them is a surefire way to boost their ego and their level of respect for you.
Again, I recognize this is certainly not revolutionary advice, but as a profession, we attorneys tend to lock ourselves away when we have a deadline fast approaching. Anytime you are able to break the stereotype and set aside time to meet with your team in the middle of a busy day will not only be appreciated, but it may even earn you a nice dinner out around you birthday.

A dinner you can eat guilt-free if you know you earned it.

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Stephen R. Williams is in-house counsel with a multi-facility hospital network in the Midwest. His column focuses on a little talked about area of the in-house life, management. You can reach Stephen at stephenwilliamsjd@gmail.com.

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