Good Job is Slate’s advice column on work. Have a workplace problem big or small? Send it to Laura Helmuth and Doree Shafrir here. (It’s anonymous!)
Dear Good Job,
I am one of four lawyers that owns a small law firm. We share two paralegals between us. During the pandemic, we began letting the paralegals work from home, and they loved it. They are just as productive as always, so we’ve kept that policy.
However, we have run into issues because the office is not always staffed. With both paralegals at home, and lawyers in court, or meeting clients, or taking a day off after working three straight 12-hour days, we’ve had issues with missing time-sensitive mail or deliveries, clients stopping in to pay bills to find the office locked, or even people walking in off the street and directly into sensitive client meetings because no one was out front.
The solution was to hire a “receptionist” to work in the office from (roughly) 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. We explicitly stated this was an in-office only role, and the duties included processing the mail, answering the phone, greeting clients, copying, filing, etc. We were VERY clear that the purpose was to have the office staffed during the day, and that there would be downtime in which it would be fine to read, study, or do your own thing as long as the office was staffed and tasks were complete. We hired “Janice,” and for 18 months, things were great. She is in her mid-30s, divorced with two kids, but her mother provided reliable child care coverage. Unfortunately, that coverage fell through about three months ago. Her starting time of 8 a.m. is now closer to 9 a.m. because of school drop-off. And 4 p.m. is completely out the window, as she’s been leaving around 2 p.m. to do school pickup. She does not have a solution for the summer, either.
This isn’t working. We are back to things being missed. We’ve all talked to her about childcare options, but they are all either unaffordable (we pay well, but not two-kids-in-daycare well), or inconvenient to the point of not solving the problem, or full. We are still paying for the full-time role we hired her for, and our coverage issues are back for big chunks of the day. She’s asked about moving to a hybrid/remote role like our two paralegals, but she isn’t trained as a paralegal, and we don’t really need another one. We need someone in the office, so this isn’t an option. It seems cruel to let someone go due to our country’s awful childcare system, but we aren’t sure what other options we have other than refilling the role. What do we do here?
—Daycare, Esq.
Dear Daycare, Esq.,
I’m sorry, but you probably will have to let Janice go. It is cruel, but the cruelty is not your fault. The lack of affordable, quality daycare in the U.S. is systemic cruelty. Tell Janice that her job is in jeopardy because the in-office hours are essential. Give her a final chance to figure out how to meet her job responsibilities. She might be able to do a child-care swap with another parent, rearrange the custody arrangement with the kids’ other parents, if they’re in the picture, or find another solution. If she doesn’t make changes within a month (or whatever time you specify), try to budget for a generous severance payment and offer to provide a good reference when she looks for her next job.
Alternatively, you could consider moving Janice from full-time to part-time employment. It would be difficult to find someone who could job-share with her by showing up in the mornings and afternoons, while Janice works during school hours. (And that’s leaving aside the problem of the summer.) But if she can arrange daycare for her kids for two or three days a week, she could work those days, and you could hire someone else part-time for the other days. That’s a more complicated administrative burden for your small law office, but having two people might make it easier to cover office hours when one of the part-timers is sick or has an emergency.
—Laura
We had kids late in life, and people cannot stop telling us we “will never be able to retire.” I used to laugh it off. But we grew up with little money, so I’m beginning to wonder if there is something we don’t understand about paying for college. We are 50-year-olds with a 4- and a 6-year-old. I’d like to retire at 60 or 62 at the latest. Our ability to plan is complicated by the fact we are posted overseas for my work about 50 percent of the time.
