In-House Counsel, Media and Journalism

Leave Your Problems At The Office, Or Get Shamed At Home

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work life balanceIt has been a particularly busy past few weeks for our in-house team. In addition to our normal duties, we have been assisting our public relations team in a rather contentious dispute the media has taken an interest in.

Given the potential legal import of the statements our organization releases to the media, our office has been tasked with reviewing each of the statements and recommending any appropriate changes. Given the nature of the dispute, and our organization’s desire to preserve its reputation, the standard “we do not comment on potential litigation matters” response was taken off the table by our executives.

For better or worse, actually much worse in my humble opinion, we would have to fight this dispute in the court of public opinion before it would ever reach a court of law.

If you have not had the pleasure of working with the media, let me just say they can be a tough lot to deal with. Sure you may have dealt with a particularly cantankerous opposing counsel in the past, but at the end of the day, they at least abide by the Rules of Professional Conduct. No such rules apply in the field of journalism. Other civil things, like discovery or a motion for an extension, do not exist as well. You are often left with a few moments to craft a response the media may or may not use.

Operating in this type of environment for the past few days has been a bit exhausting and left me a little less than my normally sunny dispositioned self. And sadly, this impacted the attitude I brought home with me each evening as well.

Each evening I returned home visibly frustrated at the preceding day’s events and wanted to do little more than eat and head to bed.

On a recent night, my wife, an elementary school teacher, asked me what had been bothering me. After I gave her the high-level summary, she let out a sarcastic laugh and responded:

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“Are you serious? You don’t like an opinion of one reporter who is writing about your organization and you are mad?

“Before lunch today, I was peed on, puked on, hugged by a child who we later found out had lice, and still had time to come home and make dinner tonight. If you want real problems, let’s switch jobs tomorrow.”

She made a pretty convincing case.

In the news this past week alone, I read about firefighters risking life and limb to save tenants of a London high-rise fire, two correctional officers killed by escaping inmates, and the Kansas Innocence Project freeing a wrongly incarcerated man after 17 years.

Those are people who truly have to deal with on-the-job problems that matter. Not to mention the thousands of teachers with similar stories to my wife’s.

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Sure, as in-house counsel I like to think I am fighting the good fight to save my company from public embarrassment or legal troubles. And while yes, keeping a hospital in working order allows our medical professionals to continue to treat patients, it is a pretty far stretch for me to be claiming I am saving lives or educating our nation’s next leaders.

Which means, I should be able to leave whatever issue I am dealing with at the office when I leave in the evening, so I can be fully present with my family at home. Our media friends will still be waiting for me in the morning, as will our next legal dispute, whatever it may be.

So to my wife and all those who truly risk life and limb each day, thank you — a little perspective can go a long way.

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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