{"id":8692,"date":"2007-12-20T10:58:46","date_gmt":"2007-12-20T15:58:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2007\/12\/20\/8692\/"},"modified":"2012-07-16T07:19:54","modified_gmt":"2012-07-16T11:19:54","slug":"focus-on-law-office-bullies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2007\/12\/20\/focus-on-law-office-bullies\/","title":{"rendered":"focus on law office bullies"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\" Oops!<\/a><\/strong><\/em> A little premature exposure at TCL<\/em>.<\/p>\n

(Dec. 21, 2007): The f\/k\/a<\/em> Gang apologizes for any confusion. When we enthusiastically told you about the focus on office bullies in the upcoming issue of The Complete Lawyer<\/em> yesterday, we forgot that the crew at TCL<\/em> is still in the final stages of putting together the entire edition. That means that the links provided below will indeed take you to the featured articles, but you can’t yet navigate around the TCL<\/em> site from those pages to see the entire Jan-Feb. 2008 version of The Complete Lawyer<\/em> — because it doesn’t yet exist. The complete package won’t be available until the first week of January. So, please enjoy this preview, but blame the f\/k\/a<\/em> Gang and not Don Hutcheson’s crew at TCL<\/em> for links that take you to their prior editions, and not to the understandably not-yet-ready-for-blog-time Vol. 4, No.1.<\/p>\n

Of course, you could do a lot worse — while clicking around in cyberspace instead of producing billable hours today — than serendipitously checking out the TCL<\/em> archives, which strive to provide “Tools and insights on professional development and quality of life and career issues that impact every lawyer\u2019s success and satisfaction.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"bully\"<\/span> V<\/em><\/strong>ictoria Pynchon of the Settle It Now Negotiation Blog<\/a><\/em> has a great little gift for anyone like myself needing help procrastinating over that Holiday To-Do List — a preview of the newest edition of The Complete Lawyer<\/em><\/a> magazine, which will focus on law office bullies and nasties. (via Stephanie at Idealawg<\/a><\/em>) In her post “The Complete Lawyer to Out Workplace Bullies<\/em><\/a>,” Victoria tells us about, and links to, her own contribution to the new TCL<\/em> edition: “Why Lawyers Are Unhappy\u2026 And Make Others Unhappy, Too<\/a>,” which she says “is a personal confessional of workplace misbehavior. In fact, it’s just about as personal as you can get without committing professional suicide.” Pynchon points out that striving for power, wealth and prestiges is a very unlikely path to happiness, even if you achieve them. (Although she focuses on lawyers who are “feeling trapped by our own success,” I must say that an awful lot of bullying seems to come from people who are feeling trapped by their lack of success and taking it out on those below them in the law firm pecking order).<\/p>\n

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\"\"As you might have guessed, the inspiration for this topic was Robert I Sutton<\/a>\u2019s book \u201cThe No Asshole Rule<\/em><\/a>: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn\u2019t<\/em>,\u201d which was released in early 2007. f\/k\/a<\/em> focused on Sutton’s prior writings about Lawyer A$$H<\/a>\u00a9les<\/a> in a post last February. A key point was made by quoting Aric Press of American Lawyer:<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cAt a minimum, what I\u2019m suggesting is that you [law firm managers] ask yourselves this question: Why do we put up with this behavior? If the answer is 2,500 value-billed hours, at least you will have identified your priorities without incurring the cost of a consultant.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

By the Way<\/em>:\u00a0 I recently learned at David Maister’s weblog<\/a> that The No Asshole Rule <\/em>was given the 2007 Quill Award<\/a> as best Business book of the year.\u00a0 The Quills<\/a> honor “the year\u2019s most entertaining and enlightening titles.”<\/p>\n

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under mistletoe —
\nthe CEO flashes
\nthis year’s bonus checks<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

…………………………………………….. by dagosan \"donkeyS\"<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Sutton, a Professor of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University, has an article in the new TCL<\/em>, “The No Asshole Rule by Robert Sutton<\/a>.” Although it does not deal directly with lawyers, it is a good summary of his thoughts. The article concludes with:<\/p>\n

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\"DeleteButtonN\" “Treating people with respect rather than contempt makes good business sense, although it won\u2019t always be enough to help save a troubled company. We can never know what the future will bring to our organizations and our lives. But if you work with other people, you know with 100% certainty that your days will be filled with face-to-face and phone conversations, email exchanges, meetings, and other kinds of human interactions\u2014and that your moments, hours, and days at work will be more meaningful, peaceful, and fun if you work in a place where the no-asshole rule reigns supreme.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Victoria provides links to four additional articles from the TCL<\/em> focus on workplace bullying, in Vol. 4, No. 1 (Jan-Feb. 2008):<\/p>\n