Some advice about my work situation please.....

[lisalisa]

I am a solicitor in a small firm outside London. I have been here just over one year.

I was recruited just before the credit crunch in October 2007 and started work in January 2008. For the first 9 months or so I was very busy . The firm has suffered considerably due to its fairly unique place in the market as to the types of cleints it advises. Many redundancies have been made and my salary was greatly reduced and i now work a 4 day week.

Since Christmas my work has declined to the extent that I have nothing to do beyond the first hour of hte day in sorting out and replying to emails and letters. I am consequently really redundant here.

The set up is that the Partner I work for and I consist of hte whole of this dept. He is also not busy and can easily ( that is an understatement actually) take over my "work".

There is a department here whose work I could potentially branch into that is busy due to market conditions but it would not be a seamless move.

It would seem to be the obvious thing to offer to move there and help with their work and even to offer to get any necessary experience by retraining at my own expense if that will keep my job. I am however reluctant to suggest that less it bring matters to the fore. Matters must already be pretty clear to my immediate Partner any way but I instinctively feel he wants to keep me on to await the upturn that must necessarily follow but he must also answer to the managing partner. The MP may be unaware at the momemnt of the precise extenet of my empty days ( we do use a time recording system but it is fairly new and I do not think used to any great extent in monitoring fee earner's days)and by bringing this issue up I serve ot highlight my lack of productivity and force both Partners to discuss it and if I do not succeed in the retraining part may pre-empt my own redundnacy. That is because if it is refused the MP will say " well what now if she has nothing to do " and the Partner I work for will be forced to concede the obvious.

I think I am better off perhaps doing this nothing and wiating to see what happens. I cna always then offer to retrain or perhaps scale down again in salary and hours .

What do you all think and sorry for long post!!!

[pitterpater]

Rather than moving over permanently, could you offer to lend them a hand and do (say) bits and pieces of research? You could also tag along to meetings to get a feel for the area and then start building knowledge of the new area and confidence and then decide whether to apply for a transfer.

[lisalisa]

thanks pitterpater. It wouldn't be as formal as the firm is very small and no meetings as such or research necessary. Its basically work i could do now but wiht a small bit of retraining. It's just the tactics of whether to bring it to their attentino or not that is exercising my mind!

[pitterpater]

How much training do you think is needed? Someone in my team has moved across from corporate and is learning on the job - taking on as much work as he can and relying on supervision (and talking to people at his level) to teach him what he should be doing.

How many years pqe do you have? It may be easier to do this if you don't have to justify relatively high hourly rates to clients.

[llareggub]

I'm not a solicitor, but I'd say nothing. As you have less than 2 years employment you would not be entitled to any redundancy pay. The suggestion about moving into another area I think is something to suggest if and when they raise your lack of productivity with you, as a way of avoiding redundancy.

Now I shall reveal my lack of knowledge. Is there anything you can do to attract clients or do they come to you?

[Squiffy]

An informal chat with your partner need not necessarily lead to the MP getting involved though? Why not ask your current partner what he thinks. If he says 'keep your head down' then do so, otherwise get involved.

It is easy enough to raise this simply as "I love this job and am really happy here. I'd be really happy to help out in the other areas as well if they could use me, what do you think....?" and then see if he takes the bait or not. Better that than have your boss start to suspect that you are bieng lazy in not offering to help out when he knows you can?

FWIW I reckon the MP may well already know the situation if it is a small paertnership...

[lisalisa]

Hmmmm - some excleent advice here - am torn between llargeggub and squiffy advice ( pitterpater - yours was good too just that llargeggub and squiffy kind of reflect my own internal dilemma).

[flowerybeanbag]

I agree with Squiffy. An informal chat with your partner who obviously already knows the situation anyway can't hurt. If he wants to keep you he will be keen to hear suggestions from you as to how to ensure this happens.

How much are you doing to try and get work in? As you are not busy in terms of actual work are you doing lots of marketing? If the practice area has declined, then obviously competition will be fierce for whatever work there is, meaning that good marketing and networking will be key. In addition to that could the firm or department diversify slightly and get some work that way?

I think you should be as proactive as you can in addressing the lack of work, you could come up with a marketing plan or similar for example, and discuss it with the partner you work for. At the same time explore spending some of your time helping out busy areas.