Four days work, five days pay: Wollongong law firm's bold plan to beat burnout

Coutts Lawyers & Conveyances has implemented a four-day work week for senior lawyers, with no salary decrease. The firm will also reduce billable targets by 10 per cent for those who take up the scheme to reduce pressure on the remaining work days.

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In a profession that is notorious for pushing staff to long hours, the move is designed to reduce burnout and ensure staff achieve their best, said partner Karena Nicholls.

"Being burnt out is often considered a badge of honour in law," she said. "However, Coutts hopes to shift this mentality and show that achieving great legal outcomes isn't necessarily tied to wearing yourself down."

One of the first employees to take up the scheme is senior associate Melissa Care. Ms Care said the four-day work week would enable her to be not only the best lawyer but the best mum at the same time.

"I originally started my career in the city and the culture was you would work late hours," she said. "I was doing 20 hour days."

Ms Care said that as a historically male dominated profession, the law was unsupportive of women, particularly those who would take time off to have children.

In the wider workforce, 94 per cent of Australian women in a Deloitte survey said that taking advantage of flexible policies would affect their chances of a promotion.

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Having senior lawyers take on flexible hours would change attitudes not only within Coutts, but across the wider legal profession, Ms Care said.

"I think it's really about changing that stigma that you have to be available 24/7 and to show that you can be a competent lawyer and climb the ranks, but have that bit of flexibility."

Wider experiments with changing work hours have found increased productivity and staff wellbeing. A pilot in the UK involving 3300 workers at 70 companies currently underway will be one of the largest tests of whether 100 per cent of pay, for 80 per cent of the time, will lead to 100 per cent productivity.

Smaller trials have also found decreased sick days when workers shifted to a four day week and improved staff satisfaction. Ms Nicholls said she had seen the benefits first hand.

"Work-life balance is essential to employee wellbeing. When we reduce a layer of burden from our employee's lives, this enables them to be more clear-headed, focused, and motivated at work," she said.

Ms Care said having a four day work week will allow junior staff to take on more responsibility during her days not in the office, providing opportunities for growth, but said that she was looking forward to having an extra day with her young children.

"I've got two children under five and it means that I can go to their activities, which are things that I don't get the chance to do."

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