PHONE A FRIEND

    When I started this site, I expected that a lot of the posts would be about the practice of law in Michigan,  back in the "Olden Days".  That term never had a solid definition, but somewhere  around the first decade of the new millennium and before seemed as good and vague a time to chose as any.  A time of paper files, no efiling and 3 public phones on every floor of the CCB.  

    Then came COVID 19, and there is now a line in the sand marking the "Olden Days" firmly at pre-March 23, 2020.  Now we are in the era of ZOOM, plexiglass, masks, remote everything,  no trials and no personal anything.  Progress will be defined as how and when we return to the past.  

    Not that a reminder was needed, but this weekend, I was impressed again with how fast times change.  When I tuned in to NBC last night,  Saturday Night Live showed up on prime time,  10pm.  There was a studio audience,  no masks on any one and no social distancing.  The audience was sitting closer together than fans at U of M Stadium or in the jury assembly room at Frank Murphy Hall of Justice (pre-March 23, 2020 historical references).  

     I clicked the info button on the remote and learned that this was a rerun of a show from 2013.  A mere 7 years ago.  No pandemic, and Donald Trump was nearing the end of The Apprentice. The old normal was indeed different, even unrecognizable. 

   On November 23, 2020, 8 months to the day from Michigan's first shutdown order, more lawyers practice from home than from their pre-2020 offices  Few of us have been in a courtroom or case evaluation room since March-even once.  We have become disoriented as our internal time clocks are no longer set by Monday mornings in Macomb, Wednesdays in Oakland and Fridays in Wayne.

    Many like working from home.  For my son (not a lawyer), working from home eliminates 2 hours of commuting.  And even though he keeps formal hours of work in a devoted space, he can see his very young children through the day.

    However, I have recently learned from lawyer friends that working exclusively from home is not necessarily all "Beer and Skittles" (Skittles the game like bowling, not the candy, which shouldn't go well with beer, but worth a try?).

     Last Friday, I needed some help with an issue under our new Court Rules.  Since May of 2019: the first comprehensive revision of the No-Fault Act since 1972, the first comprehensive revision of the Michigan Court Rules since 1985, and the COVID 19 shut down of the courts.  It never rains, but it pours.

    So, I called 3 attorney friends of mine, asking my question about the new rule about the scope of discovery.  I won't bore you with it.  

    All 3 attorneys had been working from home exclusively since March.  None of them were huge fans of the arrangement.  Even though I am not working at home, we all had the same complaint about not being able to network with other attorneys at the courthouse, at live depositions, facilitations or case evaluation tribunals.  But, with these lawyers, the frustrations were deeper.  One of them had been able to work from home sometimes, before the shut down.  He said, "I remember when working from home was a treat."  More like a trick right now.

    One of the lawyers said she had gained a fair amount of weight since working remotely.  "All I do is get up and work. In the same place.  I am doing nothing but working."  I had heard that complaint from all 3.  

    Home was once the refuge from the stress of work.  Now it was stress HQ, with little or no opportunity for release.  You are expected to be available all the time.  I mean, where else are you going to be?  That back yard and patio you worked on all spring and summer to be your at home "get away"?   It is staring you in the face every day.  But you dare not take a conference call or a Zoom meeting with the client, the judge or corporate, while the birds chirp merrily in the background.  "We knew you'd use working at home to screw off".

    Which reminds me, I did get confirmation of a rumor I had heard about the remote working set up.  One company has software installed that notes if the employees cursor doesn't move for 5 minutes.  The employee is listed as "unavailable", with no reason given.  Heaven forbid that in this day and age that there might possibly be an employment or life related activity that did not involve the constant movement of a computer input device.

    Working from home has become, for some, a sentence of house arrest, at hard labor, with the digital "screws" watching from afar.

    I am all for working from home for personal safety reasons, but, Friday's conversations opened my eyes a bit.  Personal safety does have its cost.  I might add that the attorneys I spoke with did not have to deal with the added stress of working from home while taking care of minor children or facilitating students' remote education at the same time.

    So, if you get some time, phone one of your homebound attorney friends to see how they are doing.  Give them a break from the pleasures of doing their job from home.  We need each other's support while the regular "Guild" meetings remain a "remote" memory.  My friends seemed so far gone last Friday, that they actually seemed pleased to hear from me.  Yike, things are worse than I thought.