Bending the work rules: “flex-place,” “flex-time,” and job sharing

To attract and retain talent, law departments may need to bob and weave. Stamping the time card at 8:30, breaks at 10:20 and 2:20 with 40 minutes between for lunch, and rushing out at 5:30 doesn’t attract and hold today’s generation of lawyers.

For example, telecommuting encourages more freedom as to where work is done; it lets lawyers think outside the box: flex-place. (See my posts of Oct.19, 2005 on obstacles to telecommuting as well as Sept. 25, 2005 and Oct. 18, 2005 on survey data.)

Shifting away from a rigid insistence on 9-to-6 helps those who need to adjust their work hours because of childcare, commuting, or metabolic differences: flex time.

Splitting a position between two co-workers, as a major financial services law department has recently tried out, allows a third form of work-rule malleability: job sharing.

Part-time work, and contract arrangements add to these salutary and flexible work arrangements.