Musings on What I am Learning at Work During These Strange Times

I have no idea how this relates to being Flawed but Fearless but maybe by the time I stop typing it will and my musings will resonate with you in some way.

I work at a downtown Dayton law firm that planted its roots here in 1853. Having worked at the firm for around three years, I can honestly say that I know many of the people there only a little and only a few very well.  This is changing with our times.

In the last month or so, we have all been struck by a once-in-a-lifetime event.

Pull out and think about it from a legal perspective. Every facet of our lives has changed in a few, short weeks. With those changes, so did State and Federal laws that govern our actions — from employer and employee rights and responsibilities and taxes to how the judicial system is operating and what is being done to provide relief to families and businesses struggling to survive during this crisis.

Now pull back in.  I have watched my attorneys (and our whole firm) adjust to working remotely for the first time, manage their own personal challenges at home while simultaneously poring over lengthy, continually-changing orders, laws and regulations to best understand and provide guidance to the people who put their trust in our firm to know how to help them – now.

For the record (pun intended), attorneys are a unique breed.  They are particular. They are exact. They are deliberate in every way.  And working with them when you don’t have that kind of brain can be challenging sometimes.

And then this crisis hit.

Seeing my attorneys navigate calmly through a time when sweeping legal changes are marked in hours not days, has been quite comforting. All of those traits I listed above are their biggest strengths right now. Working crisis communications, it has been fascinating to watch my attorneys work independently, based on their areas of expertise, and then collectively – bringing their interpretations back to the larger group to debate/discuss small nuances and phrases, to ensure it is right. It’s like watching an orchestra or military unit work together. In fast forward.  I just appreciate them more and how legal partnerships work.

Also, we spend 1/3 of our lives working, most of us in an office. It is our routine and our familiar.

But it is gone for now.  We are working together apart.

For me, work relationships are changing as our professional and personal lives blend together in this new normal.  With online video being the connection to our co-workers, we are in each other’s homes, seeing two-day beards, family pictures behind the desk, tee shirts instead of a suit, a husband popping his head into a virtual meeting by accident and the dog going nuts as another Amazon package is delivered.

This is an intimacy into someone’s life — another dimension of knowing who they are as “real” people. All, while fighting the good fight together as best we can in these trying times. This combination of looking behind the curtain and appreciating that we rely on each other more than ever, will bring us closer together as co-workers even though we are apart.

So, for me, one of the upsides of this awful time is I feel closer to my colleagues. A crisis helps you determine who you can trust and not trust pretty quickly.  The people I work with have that true Midwest backbone — level-headed, smart, kind and practical with the ability to soldier on in the face of adversity to do the right thing.

It makes me proud to be an Ohioan, and a Daytonian, and that the people I work with are good in good times and even better in bad.

Stay well and be safe.

Photo by Allie Smith on Unsplash