Clean break

An email sent by a partner at the London offices of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton caused something of a furore after it was leaked to an Australian publication. Writing to other partners, Raj Panasar suggested that lawyers at the firm should be available even when on holiday, and that it was unacceptable for any solicitor to be unreachable by email for more than a few hours, and then only if they were on an international flight.

Cleary Gottlieb is an American firm and there is no statutory paid holiday entitlement in the USA, which may go part way to explain Panasar’s concerns, given the apparently more committed work ethic of his American colleagues. Whilst there is no indication that the other partners at the firm agreed with this view, or that it is set to become policy, it does demonstrate that in our increasingly technological culture it can now seem that there is no escape from the office.

For the good of your health

For a few years mobile phones have meant that we can be contacted by telephone at any time; now the arrival of the BlackBerry and similar devices allows us to access and respond to our email without so much as having to find an internet café. It is tempting to let clients know that we are available to them 24 hours a day, seven days a week, especially in the current competitive and challenging market – but is it healthy?

Lawyers commenting on the leaked email on the American Bar Association online forum generally thought not. “SB” said: “I am a young associate and was recently told… that I should be accessible on vacation. Vacations are a time to unwind and come back to the office refreshed. When this isn’t possible, we return like zombies, make mistakes and are constantly depressed. In addition to the toll that a working vacation takes on our health and mental sharpness, consider the families and friends that have to experience ‘more of the same’ while we are supposed to be focused on them for a change!”

An anonymous contributor was more scathing: “And people wonder why lawyers have such health problems. The obsession with total accessibility comes at a price. If you don’t let your people decompress they make mistakes and ultimately you have a less productive and less intelligent worker.”

How to prepare

LawCare has long advised lawyers to ensure that they take their full annual holiday allowance each year – the statutory entitlement in the UK is 28 days on full pay, including public holidays. In the light of this email, we may need also to recommend that during holiday times laptops and PDAs are left at home, and mobiles switched off.

If it seems difficult to do this, a little preparation may help in making your break from the office more relaxing:

• Let clients know as early as possible that you are taking some time off, and exactly when you will be away.
• Tell them who will be dealing with your work in your absence, and give them any necessary phone numbers and email addresses.
• Two or three days before you go away, contact clients to remind them that you are going on holiday and update them on the progress of their matter.
• Accept that reasonable clients do not expect their lawyer to be available all the time, and unreasonable clients are welcome to go elsewhere.
• Out-of-office reply is not recommended because it can be used by spammers to harvest your email address, but set your email to forward to your secretary or a colleague.
• Ask this same colleague or assistant to forward anything which is truly urgent to your personal email address, and check this once or twice during the week.
• Even if you are simply going boating on the Norfolk Broads, tell anyone you think may be tempted to pester you that you are going backpacking round Africa and there is no mobile signal.
• Remind yourself that you are not a heart surgeon, and none of the matters on your desk are so life or death that they cannot wait a few days.

The ABA website forum ran a poll asking users: “Are you reachable by email while on vacation?” Nearly half (47%) of respondents checked their email at least once a day; the other 53% said that cutting themselves off from work was the whole point of taking time off. Happily, it seems that outside a few firms, lawyers know that their families, and their mental and physical health, are more important than any client.

LawCare is a charity which offers support and advice to lawyers suffering from stress, depression, addiction and other health issues. The free and confidential helpline is available from 9am to 7.30pm from Monday to Friday, and 10am to 4pm at weekends and on bank holidays. The number to call is 0800 279 6869, and there is also a comprehensive website at www.lawcare.org.uk.