Everyone (or at least all the people reading Above the Law) is aware that working in Biglaw is a beast of a job. The hours, the stress, the competition — it is a lot to deal with. Then throw on responsibility for making sure a tiny human doesn’t die, and wow, that’s a lot.
Over on CorporetteMoms, they have a series that details the week in the life of a working mom. This week a Biglaw working mom from Chicago was featured, in what was termed a “slow week.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, the days start early and end late. But despite the hours this mom is logging on a daily basis, the specter of face time looms large:
6:00 p.m. – I leave work. Supposedly this firm is not big on “face time” but even though I work most evenings from home, I’m usually the first one to leave at 6:00 and feel weird about it. I think my department is actually pretty keen on face time. I am almost always the first one in in the morning, but no one is here to see that — they only see that I leave at 6:00.
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As much as flextime, part-time, and remote working options are touted by firms as a response to a need in the market, they are only meaningful if using them doesn’t hurt the user’s career. Worrying about face time means these benefits won’t be used as much as they could or should be. The bias, whether conscious or not, towards in office work in the legal profession is a real issue that needs to be dealt with head-on if firms want to be serious about diversity.
A BigLaw Mom in Chicago [Corporette Moms]
Earlier: Departure Memo of the Day: Parenting Gets The Best Of One Biglaw Associate
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Kathryn Rubino is an editor at Above the Law. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).