In another of my incarnations, I work on a publication called Lawyers Weekly. Last week there was a fairly large event, the Law Masters of Management Conference. One of the keynote speakers was Danny Gilbert, head of Gilbert Tobin and the 2003 Australian Law Awards Managing Partner of the Year.
Work-life balance backlash
In another of my incarnations, I work on a publication called Lawyers Weekly. Last week there was a fairly large event, the Law Masters of Management Conference. One of the keynote speakers was Danny Gilbert, head of Gilbert+Tobin and the 2003 Australian Law Awards Managing Partner of the Year.
Gilbert wowed his audience in his speech when he took exception to some of the other management gurus presenting, instead emphasising that hard work, and recruiting people able to drag the most business into the firm were the ones he was after. He asserted that he did not care whether people were the right cultural fit so long as they were well-respected and able to make money. Branding strategies for creating a “a sense of belonging, or family” within organisations was not “sustainable”.
It’s hard to fault his logic when his firm has enjoyed what can really only be described as a meteoric rise since its inception 15 years ago. He says his rewards are based around the same measure as the firm’s performance – money.
Such hard rejection of the many of the softer notions of reward, recognition and culture follows hotly on the heels of another story we covered in Lawyers Weekly where 45 members of business-based law firm Nicol Robinson Halletts have walked out citing a culture of carrying poor performers and not enforcing a harder work ethic as simply unacceptable to what they desired.
While the law is renowned for its culture of hard work, it’s not atypical of Australian workplaces in general.
Certainly eyebrow raising stuff. It’s also made me sit back and think: is such honesty not a breath of fresh air when it comes to workplace culture?
Most of us would be lying if we said that we did not do what we do to be remunerated. Sure, I love my job and honestly would still do it even if I didn’t need to be remunerated, but I doubt I would work the hours I do nor would I stay in the role for the other employee benefits that I receive.
I’m not suggesting that companies’ attempts to strike a balance between work and life is not a good thing – it is – I’m merely suggesting that perhaps there needs to be a degree of honesty currently lacking about the real reasons we come to work and what we expect from our employers.
There are plenty of arguments surrounding the need to attract the best talent by more than just salary and a lot of those temptations can be around work-life balance and other employee benefits.
However, what do we mean by best talent? I’d like to suggest that talent in this respect means those people who can come to work, do the job better than anybody else and do so by working really, really hard.
That just might mean that they’re able to do the work in less time than their peers and they, therefore, should not be punished by being made to stay and work the longest hours of anybody in the office.
Performance metrics, after all, have hopefully removed us from the measure of the clock on the wall.
Similarly, I don’t think that creating a family environment is necessarily the right thing for a company to do either. I for one, would actually rather come to work, do my job, then go home and be with my real family.
Love my work colleagues as I do, I’m afraid they will never substitute for my real family. As such, I find extracurricular work functions a drag rather than a boon.
Of course, this has not always been true. When I was a young single journalist, socialising with work colleagues was a big part of my life – it’s just not for everybody all the time.
Please send your letters in and crucify me, I just thought it was an interesting point and potentially worth a bit of debate.
Speaking of feedback for the magazine. You may have noticed the small news item next to this column announcing the establishment of an editorial board. I would like to thank each and every member of that board for their commitment to Human Resources.
With such thought leaders on our side, I’m confident that we will be ever more able to service your needs. Having such experts highlighting the areas they have identified as most relevant for you to read about is a great step forward for us and I hope that you will reap the rewards.
They might just be able to keep me in line too!
