New York Lawyer
August 19, 2004

Q:
As a mid-level associate at a New York law firm, I'm actually quite happy with big firm life. Amazingly, many of my attorney-colleagues are as well. From our perspective, our firm is a great place to be.

Unfortunately, not everyone has had the same experience. Specifically, who I'm worried about here is support staff. I'm concerned that our management does not appropriately appreciate their efforts. Management appears to treat support staff (including secretaries, paralegals, etc.) as easily replaceable and thus, makes no investment in their morale.

The result, as one can easily imagine, is high turnover. Not only is this disruptive on a personal level (it's upsetting to see good people leave because they feel under-appreciated and under-valued), but it is quite disruptive as a business practice (qualified and trained employees that leave are hard to replace). I find it hard to accept how, as an associate, I've been treated with such consistent respect and support but staff members 5, 10 and even 15 years my senior are not.

Other than showing my personal appreciation for support staff, what is an associate to do to make management realize the importance of support staff?

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A:

This overly hierarchical approach is common in professional services firms. Some indicators of a status-conscious culture are attorneys and support staff lunching separately in the kitchen, lawyers who don't recognize or even say hello to support staff, frequent and abrupt transferrals of position (resulting in upheaval both for the staff members and the lawyers they work for), stark differences in benefits and work practices (such as to-the-minute insistence on work attendance for staffers versus great freedom for lawyers to come and go as they please), and many others too numerous to mention. The result of this multi-tiered arrangement is one that glows with satisfaction at the top and is dark with resentment at the bottom.

Some of those in the upper tiers enjoy the sense of being more important than others. For others the differences are simply part of the wallpaper that they haven't noticed and don't question.

And the syndrome you're talking about is a vicious circle. If it's assumed that people are expendable, as easily replaced as widgets, underlings will respond in turn and go out the door rapidly. This affirms for some observers that there's an endless stream of support staff available (or that support staff are inherently unable to commit to a workplace) and that no effort should be made to retain them.

By contrast, some law firms and many other industries deliberately foster more egalitarianism and teamwork among all their employees. The business reason is to run things more efficiently, keep costs and turnover down, retain institutional memory, make work a more pleasant place, and ultimately make your firm an employer of choice. Employers of choice attract the best-qualified candidates, who remain in their jobs for many years because of a firm's strong reputation. Efforts made to increase the morale of support staff, to encourage career paths, to respond to staff concerns, pay off.

The human reason to encourage teamwork is that treating people with a discernible lack of respect, as second-class citizens, is objectionable. People in the lowliest of positions who are treated with respect often speak enthusiastically about their workplaces and stay on for long periods; those who are looked down upon feel resentful, deliver sub-par performances and exit as soon as possible.

The fact that you are concerned is laudable in and of itself. Don't discount your personal efforts and the efforts of others. You can be role models for others in the way you deal with support staff. And the more power you gain in the future, in terms of supervising people, the more you can help to change the culture in your practice area of the firm. Keep track of retention rates and performance skills in your department; you can use good results to point out to others than their practices don't work out very well and are contrary to the firm's long-term interests. Another tactic is to bust people (humorously or seriously, depending on the situation) when you observe them being unpleasant to support staff, to let people know that their actions get noticed.

There are other, more institutional things you can do, too. The associates' committee has clout when it bands together and demands that something be done. Get this issue on the radar screen of the associates' committee and ask that the partners pay some attention to it. Talk with sympathetic partners, especially ones who are on powerful committees, and point out the ill effects of this poor treatment. Sometimes people aren't even aware this is going on, and simply need a heads up about it, or they haven't thought about the business effects that a strongly hierarchical workplace has on the bottom line. You will need to tailor your arguments depending on the person: some will respond to human concerns, others to business issues, still others to both.

In any event, it is both smart business and the right thing to do for you to be concerned and to try to do something about this state of affairs.

Sincerely,
Holly English
Principal Consultant, Values at Work