Employment Case Study Saturday Sarah Phillips was a partner at a law firm. She had worked diligently and creatively to earn this position, and when she was promoted to this senior tole, she knew it didn't mean she could now take it easy. In fact, she felt she was working harder than ever. On top of her original workload, Phillips found herself workinglong hours on a number of new responsibilities. For example, she now spent significant ime mentoring junior associates, leading internal initiatives (such as improving and expanding the company's diversity initiatives), and helping the firm strategize ways to stay profitable in an ever-more- competitive environment filled with nimbler boutique firms. While at a firm retreat, Phillips was having dinner with several partners with whom she'd come up through the ranks. Although she no longer worked with most of them directly, she knew them all well enough to broach a topic that had been nagging her for months. \"I don't know how to say this without coming off badly, but I trust you guys. I need to vent a little, and 1 want to hear what you all think. Here's the deal: 'm feeling increasingly taken advantage of by one of our partners, Will Walker you all know WilL, I thinkand frankly, I'm upset about how unfair it feels. Will leaves work eatly a lot of the time, has all but stopped coming to firm meetings, and has hardly developed any new business. The new folks bately know Will, so they come to me instead. Even Will's assigned mentees often come to me when Will isn't around. Our managing partner has stopped asking Will to be on committees and speaking panels because there's no follow-through. So guess who now has to make up for all of that wotk Will isn't doing. Phillips continued, \"I know Will has two young kids and a pattner who wotks crazy hours as a doctor. And I don't want to come actross as the person who doesn't understand or care about how hard it is to juggle everything. But if 'm being honest, I don't see how it's right that Iand othersshould shoulder the burden of Will's attempt to have it all. My husband and T have made sacrifices that Will isn't making, and it makes us look like suckers. We decided we couldn't both work full-time in high-stress jobs and be the type of colleagues, partners, and parents we wanted to be. So we've lived with less money than we could have made collectively, and my husband has made some real career sacrifices.\" Phillips looked down at her plate as she went on. \"It feels like Will is trying to have it all, while the rest of us make that possible by picking up the slack. Will goes to pick up their kids from school every day, while I'm lucky if T get home in time to tuck my kids into bed. And more and more, the reason I'm here late is because I'm doing my share, and then some of Will's too. I'm getting resentful to the point where I can hardly stand being in the same room as Will, and I have trouble seeing any of the good things Will does.\" Page 2 Phillips stopped talking and looked up, afraid she had stepped over the line into truly undiscussable tertitory. She was surprised to see several heads nodding in apparent empathy. Jane Smith responded first. \"I know what you mean. I chose not to have childrenand while there were many reasons why that was the right choice for me, it was in large part because I knew my career goals wouldn't be compatible with raising a family in a way that worked on both fronts. In my expetience, 'having it all' needs to be mitigated with a healthy dose of reality.\" \"Yes,\" Manny Rogers added, \"and that's why my partner and I have a full-time nanny for our kids. My partner tried to stay home with them, but she missed her job too much. Now the reality is that the nanny raises our kids. We're lucky to see them on the weekends. I'm torn up about the decision, but I don't see any other choice given the demands of our jobs. And I don't have to worry that people are having #is conversation about 2 me. \"Just the prevalence of these conversations spooks me about having kids,\" Michael Yang, the youngest pattner there, observed. \"T haven't met a working parent yet who seemed at peace with the trade-offs they wete making between career and family. I feel like I do more than my fair share, too. People know I don't have kids, so they seem to assume I''m happy spending evenings and weekends in the office doing all sorts of extra work so they can be at home. But just because I don't have kids doesn't mean I don't have a life. I could be spending more time with my parents. They're getting older and could use some help around the house.\" \"Wow,\" said Phillips. \"I was thinking maybe this was just me, and I was afraid to say anything for fear of being labeled insensitive or a jerk. But now it's clear 'm not the only one struggling with these issues. Heck, maybe my problems with Will are just the tip of the iceberg.\" The Following Tuesday Phillips left the retreat determined to have a conversation with Walker as soon as possible. Thus, when she saw Walker coming out of a meeting early the next week, she asked if they could speak for a moment in ptivate. The two ducked into a conference room and Phillips began. \"Will, 've been wanting to talk to you for some time about your lack of availability around the office. I feel like I''ve been doing more than my fair shate of our service duties for the firm, and that every time you leave an hour eatly, or don't volunteer to be part of a committee, or don't put in the effort to bting in new business, all these duties then fall on me or others around here. You don't think the work just magically gets done, do you?\" Phillips continued, \"I know you have young kids, and your partner travels a lot for work. Having kids of my own, I''m sympathetic. But it's become increasingly clear to me that you're spending more time with your kids at the expense of me seeing mine. Something cleatly needs to give in your life, and I don't think it's fair for you to expect that you can simply do less at work when there is so much to do and so many dimensions to our roles. It's like you took your promotion as a tight to do less, apparently not realizing that all the work still has to get done. I want to suppott you, dual-career families and all that, but honestly I'm tired of feeling like my family is making more sacrifices than yours to make that happen. Do you know how sick I am of covering for you with your own juniors?\" With arms crossed in a defensive posture, Will responded angzily: \"I didn't realize I had to justify my every move to you, Sarah. How dare you call my professionalism into question or judge my life. I worked my ass off to get promoted, just like you did. If I want to make different choices now, that's none of your damn business. And you know what, Sarah? We don't all have the luxury of a stay-at-home spouse.\" Will then walked out of the room