I can feel myself calcifying into a relic saying this, but wtf is going on?
Millennial here, long-time advocate of remote flexibility, but I find myself saying things lately that make me hate myself—- maybe we really do need these newer attorneys to be physically in the office much more often? Maybe we need “professionalism in-person” training?
I realize I am responsible for training, mentoring, and supervising newer attorneys in the team. That is on me. This is a cry for help.
I’m seeing a new trend that is baffling to me. And no, it’s not all, yeah yeah. But more and more newer attorneys who are incredibly professional in writing are also atrocious outside of written communication.
Emails? Chat? Documents? Excellent communication, professional, a delight.
In person interactions? Jarringly casual. Openly unprofessional. Absolutely unfazed by feedback.
Zoom calls with video on? They appear to be hostages who would rather be anywhere else.
Am I just becoming a grouchy old man? Is this a post-Covid thing?
Maybe training on how to fix your face so as to not let clients know that you think they are stupid and to at least sort of pretend to care at staff meetings?
Edit: representative examples added per request
Major client leader giving an in-person update to legal team. Young lawyers in the room whispering and stifled giggle/snicker while client leader is taking, client leader absolutely notices, grouchy old man lawyer me shuts it down with death glare across the table. Same lawyers are a dream to work with via email and super professional in written client communications.
On a zoom, out-loud response heard by the entire call, including clients, to client proposal of what they want to do: “That sounds dumb.” (Full stop. No further explanation of why, seeking to understand what client wants, explain why bad idea, nothing. Literal silence. Client is very formal and not one for friendliness. The client idea was in fact dumb.)
Internal large staff meeting with legal team leadership, new attorneys chatting about how stupid it is that they have to attend these. Legal leadership team is literally in the room, seems to be pretty clearly in ear-shot. I certainly heard it a table over. (Again, staff meetings are stupid, and we can absolutely bitch about them in offices, bars, whatever. But not six feet away from the leader of said meeting.)
Second edit: How do I best help these new attorneys be successful? Without dragging them through the “back in my day”, you should be grateful to sit in stupid staff meetings, bs that we all went through. They are smart, talented, and full of potential. It’s like watching a slow disaster as the even grouchier and even older clients/leaders start turning up their nose to these newer cohorts.