New York Lawyer
September 5, 2002

Q:
I am a fairly new associate with questions, but the partner I work under won�t take the time to answer them. She always seems impatient.

I hesitate to interrupt her. I know she�s stressed and has a billion things on her mind. However, the inevitable result occurs -- I don�t do what she had in mind and she gets ticked off, billings get written off, she winds up doing it herself at the last minute, etc.

This has actually only happened once, but because of her rapid-fire assignment style I�m afraid it will happen again. What should I do?

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A:

Although fuzzy communication is common in many workplaces, it has to be more common in law offices than other places. Why is this? Perhaps because there�s rarely any extra training in communication; there�s a weaker appreciation of the importance of good management, which includes as a crucial feature good communication; stress and lack of time; and a lack of systems.

Both you and your supervisor can do more. If you empathize with your busy supervisor, she�s trying to keep her head on straight with a thousand things going on. Take a stressed-out reaction for what it is -- not a personal attack, just a person under pressure. The more specific and thoughtful your clarifying questions are, the less annoying it will be. Not "huh? Can you start over?" but rather, "I�d like to make sure I understand exactly what you want me to research and draft." Find a time of day when she�s more receptive than others. Use email if she�s more articulate and thoughtful that way. You can steel yourself and just be a little bit pushy. Remember, the best thing for the firm is to spend your time productively, not spinning your wheels. It�s nuts to work on something that�s not at all what your supervisor had in mind.

There is more of a burden on a supervisor. A truly enlightened place will have communication training on this so that there�s a structured way to walk through an assignment to avoid these sand traps. Short of that, a supervisor has got to do some emphathizing too. She can remember, quite easily, the ignominy of pestering senior lawyers for clarification on assignments and recognize the look of panic when she sees it. Remember that "no time" inevitably translates into even more time at the end of the day, when someone turns in a work product that you can�t use. So take the time to save time.

Don�t wait for the guy to come back to your office -- especially with a new person, seek him out and find out how he�s doing, to signal your openness. If the person seems a little intimidated, encourage him by saying "is this part clear? What about this?" Reach out to him and you can establish a two-way street of good communication. Using a form can help -- with the client, exact assignment, background facts and issues, deadline, etc. This not intended to heap bureaucracy onto an already crowded plate, but to give the associate a framework for graciously asking followup questions and not looking like a pain.

Although this is a common problem, it doesn�t mean that it�s either unimportant or unsolvable. To the contrary -- it�s important because its persistence means inefficiencies abound, and solving it requires only a little more effort on each side.

Sincerely,
Holly English
Principal Consultant, Values at Work