Practice Management

I know what you are thinking.  Sure, it would be nice to wake up in the morning and not have to rush out the door into busy traffic in the commute to work.  You would have time to make yourself a decent breakfast and maybe actually enjoy a cup of juice, tea or coffee. It would be nice not be rushed to get the lunches packed for you and your children, and you might have time to get your children off to school.  It might be nice be able to sleep in just a little longer, or take your dog for a walk every day.  And, how wonderful it might be not to have to explain why you were a little late for work.  It might be nice to be able to do laundry in between drafting a pleading.  And, again, you could avoid rush hour.  Such represents the prospect of working from home.

But, you cannot enjoy this, you just cannot make yourself do it, because you have convinced yourself you need the social interaction that a separate, commute requiring, gossipy, drama packed, trial by fire, petty, outside law brings.  You will just not be able to operate until you know who is mad at who, who is sleeping with who, who is about to get canned, who gets the new office with the window, who caught what cold from who, who forgot to take the phones off after hours hold, who missed the deadline set by the Court, why someone did not remind you that you had court today, or who ate the last freaking jelly donut!  "Doggonit!  Everybody knew I had to make a court appearance before I got to work this morning, and everybody knew I was the one that asked for the damned jelly donut!  What is wrong with you morons!"

P-L-E-A-S-E!  Spare me!  I have worked at home exclusively since about 1998 and I have about all of the social interaction that I can stand.

You are not the first one to come up with this excuse for not making the move home.  The number of U.S. employees who worked remotely at least one day per month increased 39% during the past two years, from approximately 12.4 million in 2006 to 17.2 million in 2008, according to a 2009 survey by World at Work.  Also, the total sum of all contractors and business owners, which include lawyers, that work at home mostly full time has has risen 17% from 28.7 million in 2006 to 33.7 million in 2008.  From my experience and others I have spoken with, I am pretty sure most of these millions of people have thought or argued the same thing about the need for social interaction.  Yet, the ranks of those working at home keep increasing.

First, work is work.  When you need to be working, you need to be working.  If that is in an outside work place, and you wish to be productive, you have to cut yourself off to some extent to get your work completed.  So, how does that differ from working at home?  It does not differ, and more importantly unwanted interruptions are probably greater at an outside office.

Second, you need the outside interaction because you are working so long and so hard to pay for all of the increased overhead for the outside office and staff that you do not have enough time to satisfy your need for social interaction away from a business setting.

Third, between social media, telephone calls, email, texting, going for walks in the neighborhood (do you even know your neighbors?), meeting friends and colleagues for lunch, church, your kids' school events (that you can now actually attend), maybe the gym, and attending groups and organizations you need to achieve referrals, when does the social interaction stop.  You really do not need one more expensive, time consuming place to achieve this interaction.

I know everyone deciding to make a move home has to properly weigh the equities of the situation.  I do not deny that.  I have just thought for a long time that the need for social interaction is a throw away excuse because a move home causes anxieties with professionals that have grown up to except more formal environments.  The issue is not really social interaction.  The issue is general unexplained discomfort giving up what one sees as either a power position or a ladder to achieve such a position.  The problem is that in this day and age who needs such a power position.

Give it up.  You do not need to lord over others or hope to do so in the future.  You need to be more self-sufficient.  Go work at home.  Save some money.  Save your sanity.  Live comfortably.  Relax.