Busyness And The Billable Hour
"I’m busy" is the automatic lawyer response, regardless of whether there is any truth in that.
We all tell everyone else as well as ourselves that we are busy. After all, if we’re busy, then doesn’t that correlate to billable hours? And isn’t that what we’re all about? Or, at least, that what we think we’re all about. Isn’t “I’m busy” the automatic lawyer response, regardless of whether there is any truth in that?
Busyness as a status symbol? Yes, at least, according to the Harvard Business Review, which recently published a study about busyness and its morphing into a status symbol. Although the research discussed the effect of busyness and its concomitant higher status on marketers, the research applies to us as well, how we view each other and the work we do.
Who knew that all that busyness, whether real, created, or in-between, would become the workplace symbol to flaunt like other trappings, such as a Tesla, a Patek Philippe watch, yachts, or vacation homes in exotic locations? (Those are just the first examples that come to mind.) So long status symbols of the past: luxury goods seem to be losing their luster. The new status symbol is busyness.
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What does busyness have to do with the billable hour? Everything. The “busier” you are, the more hours you will bill, and hopefully, the more fees collected, some of which will eventually be reflected in your direct deposit.
How many people are really truly that busy all the time or is that something that we say in order impress others (partners, clients, colleagues)? Saying you’re busy could be nothing more than a giant game of “one upmanship,” letting others know that you are more sought after, your work is more prized, and the other trappings of “status.”
The HBR researchers found that people who were thought to work longer hours were perceived as having higher status and thus, more important. It made no difference whether those “busy” people worked more slowly but worked more hours (a variation of the theme that work expands to fill the time allotted). The impression was the same: the one who works more hours has more status.
How many times has each one of us heard from another lawyer how many hours that person has billed in a day, a week, a month, a year? How many times have we heard other lawyers complain that they haven’t met their billable hours requirement? How many times have we heard firms raise the required billable hours per year? Are we more impressed with those who bill more hours? If you agree with the HBR report, the answer would be yes. Unfortunately. Skipping leisure time to work more is now a status symbol. The result: the less leisure time, the higher the status. Goody.
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What about the lawyers who work more efficiently? Who bill less hours because they don’t churn the files? Who bill less because they know what they’re doing, they know how to separate what’s relevant from what’s not? The research also indicated that those who were more efficient had less prestige. It seems that those folks would be viewed as having lesser status because they don’t bill as many hours as someone else. Silly to think that efficiency would be status symbol worthy.
However, in the eyes of clients, those more efficient lawyers are worth what they’re being paid, because they know what they’re doing and they do it in the most expeditious way possible. They’re the ones who will get the repeat business.
The more hours worked, the more hours billed, but that assumes that the hours are actually “worked,” and that a client is not billed for re-inventing the wheel when there’s a form contract or form pleading that can be easily revised to meet the client’s need. That also assumes that there’s no creative billing involved. That never happens, right? (One outside counsel billed my client for 28 (not a typo) hours in a 24 hour period and, no, he did not cross the international date line on my client’s behalf.)
If more billable hours are now linked to status, what does that say about the fate of alternative fee arrangements? Does use of a flat fee or other arrangement mean that the lawyer’s status is diminished?
Another casualty of the whole busyness “ethic” and I think that’s the right term to use, is that we don’t take vacation time. According to the Project TimeOff website (did you know that there is such a website?), more than half of American workers leave vacation time on the table. How many of us brag that we’re too busy to take any vacation? How many of us say that forty hours of work a week is enough?
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Busyness seems to be the new badge of honor. When asked, does anyone say anything other than “busy?” We’re afraid to say that we’re not as busy as we could be, want to be, should be, and so, that diminishes us in the eyes of others in this competitive, “eat what you kill” world. Perhaps that’s why we’re always on our smartphones, looking busy even if we’re not. Really busy people may even have more than one. How status is that?
As the researchers say, when we say we are busy and working all the time, we are telling others that we are wanted. Being “busy” handling a client who sucks all the air out of the room: is that truly busy or our failure to manage client expectations? And what are we busy with? Are we truly busy or is it busy work?
So, if artificial intelligence and automation can do our jobs or large chunks of them (and increasingly, that seems to be the case) will busyness still be a status symbol going forward? Perhaps the new status symbol will be a robot, automaton, or vendor (name your poison) and then our “busyness” becomes their business.
Jill Switzer has been an active member of the State Bar of California for 40 years. She remembers practicing law in a kinder, gentler time. She’s had a diverse legal career, including stints as a deputy district attorney, a solo practice, and several senior in-house gigs. She now mediates full-time, which gives her the opportunity to see dinosaurs, millennials, and those in-between interact — it’s not always civil. You can reach her by email at oldladylawyer@gmail.com.
