Be Well, 0620 WYBJ, Vol. 43 No. 3. 56

• Author: Maryt L. Fredrickson Ninth Judicial District Court & 307 Yoga LLC Jackson, Wyoming.
• Position: Vol. 43 3 Pg. 56

Be Well

Vol. 43 No. 3 Pg. 56

Wyoming Bar Journal

June, 2020

Working Through It: Work-Life Balance When Work and Life Converge

Maryt L. Fredrickson Ninth Judicial District Court & 307 Yoga LLC Jackson, Wyoming.

Iasked a group of friends during a Zoom meet-up how they were enjoying working from home. Having worked at home for a year and a half and written about its benefits twice for the Be Well column, I was curious how everyone was feeling about it.^[1] The responses included (1) people like me who love it and never want to see an office space again; (2) people who might like it except that their partner or spouse is on top of them also working at home; and (3) parents working at home and home schooling kids at the same time.

This month’s column is directed to the last two categories— when work and life physically clash together. This is also a chance to evaluate this issue as a tiny ecosystem in which to apply the principles of attorney wellness. As you likely recall from the April column about Top Tips for attorney wellness, and from the stellar social media posts and emails sent by the Wyoming State Bar and the Young Lawyers Section during Attorney Well-being Week in May, “wellness” is an umbrella term. Each segment of that umbrella is a different category of wellness: professional, social, physical, mental/emotional, intellectual, spiritual, and environmental. By keeping each segment strong, when the stressors of life or of the practice of law hit you, your wellness umbrella provides the resilience to help those stressors roll off of you.

Professional: You Are More Productive Than You Think

While you may think that kids needing help or your partner or roommate making noise disrupts your workflow, it probably does not impact your productivity as much as you think. Working remotely is not a new thing in many sectors. As a result, the benefits and increased productivity of working remotely has actually been studied quite a bit. In the corporate context, two-thirds of managers report an increase in productivity by remote employees. A study by Stanford University found a measurable 13% improvement in performance by employees who work from home.^[2]

Trust the research that you are likely more productive or at least as productive at home as you would be working from an office space. And if you have doubts, look to what you are measured by— did you get the brief or memo out? Did...