Question of the Week
If You Could Declare a Moratorium on a Work/Life Balance Hog, What Would it Be?
Posted Feb 7, 2008, 10:01 am CDT
By Reginald Davis
Canadian government ministers may be onto something. Recently, one implemented “BlackBerry blackouts” for his department’s staffers during evenings, weekends and holidays. The idea being to restore the proper work/life balance.
"When we can 'balance' our work and personal responsibilities, we, as a team, stand to not only serve and perform more effectively, but also to attract and keep employees to help us build a stronger Canada," Richard Fadden, deputy director of Citizenship and Immigration Canada, said in a memo, CNET News reports.
This moratorium on CrackBerries made us wonder...
What other time-consuming part of your life would you want a moratorium on?
Answer in the comments section below.
Read last week's question and answers about favorite footnotes.
Our Favorite Answer From Last Week:
From "JDH": My vote, Judge Evans who dropped this gem in the first footnote to correct a spelling error:
The trial transcript quotes Ms. Hayden as saying Murphy called her a snitch bitch “hoe.” A “hoe,” of course, is a tool used for weeding and gardening. We think the court reporter, unfamiliar with rap music (perhaps thankfully so), misunderstood Hayden’s response. We have taken the liberty of changing “hoe” to “ho,” a staple of rap music vernacular as, for example, when Ludacris raps “You doin’ ho activities with ho tendencies.” U.S. v. Murphy, 406 F.3d 857 n. 1 (7th Cir. 2005).
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Comments
Posted by JD Howell - 4 months, 3 weeks, 5 days, 21 hours, 56 minutes ago
I live in Atlanta and would put a moratorium on commuting to the office on Fridays. I don’t have a bad commute b/c I live in the city, but I know people who spend 2-3 hours in traffic on Fridays - it is lost productivity and lost quality of life at the start of the weekend.
Posted by MommyEsq - 4 months, 3 weeks, 5 days, 21 hours, 44 minutes ago
I have to second that it’s commuting time. After my son was born, and after using up my maternity leave, my company allowed me to work from home for about a month. Having those extra 2 hours per day was like being on vacation. Plus, I have never been so productive. Without all the constant interruptions in the office I was able to do about 150% of the work in the same amount of time.
Posted by Houston Lawyer - 4 months, 3 weeks, 5 days, 21 hours, 35 minutes ago
Commuting time, commuting time, commuting time. Why companies are so resistant to telecommuting is beyond me. How often do you really need to communicate face-to-face with your co-workers? I think a certain amount of face-to-face time is very important, but telecommuting 1-2 days per week is not going to damage anything. We spend 90% of our days on the computer and on the phone, anyway. Why not do it from home? Save the gas, save the traffic hassle, improve the environment, and make people safer by avoiding driving, with no loss of productivity (in fact, possibly an increase in productivity because people won’t spend as much time around the “water cooler.")
Posted by KShimp - 4 months, 3 weeks, 5 days, 20 hours, 12 minutes ago
Yes, telecommuting once a week would be a great help. But how about something even more basic: put a moratorium on the mentality that lawyers have to work more than 40 hours a week. Instead, trust lawyers to be billing as much time during those 40 hours as possible, while realizing that will rarely translate into 40 actually billed hours. “Work 40” instead of “Bill 40” - THAT would help restore some balance.
Posted by Law Clerk - 4 months, 3 weeks, 5 days, 19 hours, 32 minutes ago
I agree with KShimp! That’s why I’m getting out of the legal profession when my clerkship is over.
Posted by Philly lawyer - 4 months, 3 weeks, 5 days, 18 hours, 38 minutes ago
I would say a periodic moratorium on meetings and new projects (except in an emergency, and “emergency” would be very narrowly defined), perhaps one week a month. This might sound a little scandalous, but it would actually allow a person to be productive for one week a month and guarantee time to focus (whether at home or in the office). Of course, one cannot completely eliminate interruptions but this is amazingly effective at reducing them. I do something similar now on an ad hoc basis by blocking my calendar for “projects” and pushing off new stuff until the next week. While it may sound luxurious, it is the one week a month (more or less) that I walk away from feeling I had accomplished a trememndous amount, thus giving me fuel to make it through the next three weeks’ barage.
Posted by R - 4 months, 3 weeks, 5 days, 8 hours, 37 minutes ago
Email. Simply shut down the firm server from 5 pm until 8 am. No one is allowed to send or receive email during that time. No exceptions.