Out of Shape: Flexibility, Autonomy and a Common Purpose

It can take many years of hard work and sacrifice just to engineer a first opportunity, followed by decades of continuous effort to sustain any original sense of ambition.

Whatever one's job, it occasionally constitutes a challenge. Large volumes of work and pressing deadlines play a part in sometimes making a vocation seem more of a chore.

Our lives outside of the office can add extra pressure.

It was something which occurred to me while reading recent coverage in The Lawyer about the proportion of individuals in the legal industry who are contemplating whether to quit their posts because of the strain of balancing their professional and personal responsibilities.

The story was not an easy read. As a lawyer and mother, I am only too familiar with the delicate balance required to do both.

Law is a demanding profession but one which is, at the same time, incredibly rewarding. The many different individual disciplines which it covers serve a series of important purposes in our home and work lives.

I believe that it would be a shame if talented men and women who have dedicated themselves to carving their own niche in the law felt that their parenting obligations make it impossible to continue.

One particular line in the article, though, struck me as relevant not just to mothers and fathers but the broader workforce.

According to one commentator, there has been a "rowing back on flexibility that existed for all employees post-Covid".

It was a comment which had me wondering whether flexibility - the ability to manage a variety of competing elements in and out of work - was considered more important than having control over how, when, where and with whom we work.

Perhaps appropriately, the term 'flexible' can be bent and shaped to apply to many different circumstances and, therefore, doesn't always lend itself to specificity.

So, I took a look at the closest related working practice for which there is recorded data; namely, hybrid working.

Figures published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) this month suggest that there is more hybrid working since the end of the pandemic - a finding which might be a surprise to some people.

Not all of the individuals who value hybrid working are parents. Many regard it as a form of autonomy rather than simply the ability to adapt their working hours or days to what happens in their home lives.

They include the many talented lawyers who have joined Bexley Beaumont since we launched five years ago.

Our focus and theirs has been establishing a way of actually fostering instead of inhibiting career development.

It is a recipe described earlier this year by the professional consultancy PwC as "a clear plan for its direction of travel".

That unique approach - a commitment to quality and collaboration which blends the very best of fee share and traditional law firms - does work.

Last month, Bexley Beaumont topped an influential growth ranking compiled by Codex Edge, an independent company specialising in market research about the legal profession, for the third year in a row.

Codex Edge found that our partner ranks grew by 30 per cent last year.

Many of our lawyers have enjoyed immense professional success in their careers but have realised that what we offer is very much different and better to what's available elsewhere.

Put simply, they appreciate that we can provide them with an environment and the support to determine how they want to work and take their careers even further.

Some of those individuals who have joined us have children and understand full well the issues involved in combining the roles of parent and professional.

Yet they know the distinction between flexibility and autonomy.

Whereas the first arguably constitutes some give and take in the working week without enabling an employee to control the nature of the work itself, the second really allows someone to take the reins.

I think that certain commentators have, to a degree, interpreted flexibility as a way for people to cope with the pressure of the school run.

At Bexley Beaumont, we believe that autonomy promises far more in the way of freedom to lawyers, whether parents or not.

For further information, please contact Karen: karenbexley@bexleybeaumont.com  |  07971 859332