Blog 31

There are many problems with work and family balance in the legal profession. For example, when a woman gets engaged, people are automatically wondering when she will be leaving because she has a baby. It is extremely difficult for women to have children, leave the workforce for a period of time and then re-enter and continue working the same hours that she worked before she had a family. Some ways that legal firms have tried to deal with balancing work and family is by allowing flexible work schedules. Some may want to work from home one day a week, or leave the office by 5:00 pm at the end of the work day. This becomes problematic because the lawyers that are working like “real” lawyers get upset and view the lawyers that have flexible schedules as “not real” lawyers. The individuals, who work flexible schedules, begin to feel guilty and end up taking on more of the workload and get right back to where they were before, working 80 hour weeks. They also realize that there is no room for advancement, they are not going to make partner not working like a “real” lawyer. They also begin to feel resented by others at work; people no longer want to work with them because they think they are just slacking off at home instead of actually working and helping them out. They get ridiculed a lot and people make jokes about how they are not really available at home when they say they are or that they do not take their job seriously.