hacking "face time" expectations at work

early birds vs. night owls

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I wouldn’t know, but this is what I imagine being a Morning Person is like. (Photo by Sage Friedman on Unsplash)

Hi! I'm a UK resident about to start my first seat in a BigLaw US firm in London. I'm so excited, the culture really suits my personality and I have a few areas of law I'm already interested in. The question I have is whether you've got any tips for someone who is an early bird by nature. I understand that there's a lot of 'face time' culture in BigLaw and staying later often gets more recognised than starting early. It's more noticed if you stay until midnight, but getting to work early seems redundant if no one is there to witness it (I know it sounds superficial but I do think it matters to some extent that you are seen!).

If it were possible, I would happily be at my desk for 6:30am and finish earlier. My brain clocks off around 7:30/8pm and I can never manage to achieve any quality work past that time. How can I still be recognised as a high performer if I am genetically predisposed to getting my work done at an hour where most people are still asleep, so I'm less likely to be seen and appreciated?

- Anonymous

Congrats on the precipice of your new career! In recognizing that performing work is oftentimes just as important as doing work, you’re already ahead of the game. You’re absolutely right that Biglaw as an industry believes in some level of face time, as evidenced by the passive-aggressive and hypocritical return-to-office mandates rolled out over the past few years.¹ And even if you ultimately decide not to play this silly game of performative work, it’s better to make that choice ex ante rather than ex post realize you missed an entire unwritten plane of evaluation!

But first—I want to assure you it is totally okay to be an Early Bird. Many partners and clients are, in fact, Early Birds, because of parenting duties or hobbies (like running) or simply preference. One partner with whom I worked would routinely send off 5am emails to the team, so we’d wake up at whatever time we awoke to a lovely list of thoughts and to-do’s for the near future. And one of the associates with whom this Early Bird partner worked was a veritable Night Owl—staying up late and usually rolling into the office at 11am.

Point being: face time isn’t necessarily about fitting into an Early Bird or Night Owl mold—or mirroring the working hours of the partners/senior associates with whom you work—it’s about proactively signaling your presence to your team. When working with a new partner or senior/midlevel associate, I’ll ask them at the end of our first meeting some “working styles” questions, such as:

1. What is the client/matter number? (Okay, this one isn’t a working styles question, but it’s information I find that partners/seniors frequently forget to relay—and it’s easier to get it from them now than later.)

2. Between what times are you typically online? Is [Partner’s Name] online?

   1. [If their hours are Night Owl hours] If you need substantive work product from me after 9pm, would it be okay if I got that to you first thing in the morning, around 7 or 8am? I’m more of a Morning Person and would prefer to be at my desk at 6:30.

3. If I have questions, would you prefer I send them by email or call you?

   1. [If they prefer calls] Would you prefer I set up a time on our calendars to call, or do you prefer ad hoc calls?

4. What types of intermediate check-ins would you like, generally and for this specific assignment? How frequent?

5. Do you or [Partner’s Name] have any work-related pet peeves I should be aware of? (e.g., Track Changes vs. Redline; handwritten mark-ups that only the senior associate can decipher at first; arranging everyone in the To: and CC: fields in seniority order)

Everyone—Early Birds, Night Owls, all those in between—can ask the “working styles” questions above. They’re simply good questions to figure out how best to work with someone new.

In addition to adhering to stated working styles, here are other ways you can proactively signal presence as an Early Bird:

• Use those 6am timestamps. When you do log on at 6:30am, prioritize sending out some emails immediately. I know the quiet solitude of morning makes it tempting to get into deep work, but resist that temptation for half an hour. You’re right that people notice 2am and 3am timestamps—but they’ll also notice 6am timestamps.
  
  The key in Biglaw is to show your team you’re not treating the job like a 9-5 or 9-6 (because it really can’t be); you can do this by spotlighting email timestamps sent in the wee hours on either end of the day. Is this a little sneaky? Sure. Should you feel bad about it? Absolutely not.²

• Manage up. If it’s looking like a filing or signing or something else important will bleed late into the night, ask the senior/partner around 7pm what they anticipate the workflow for the rest of the evening will be like. And then ask them if it’s possible for you to complete substantive asks at 6:30am (or however early) the following morning. Frame it as a workstream/productivity question, not as an “I want to be logged off by 8pm” question. If they’re nice and good at managing people (which is unfortunately a big if), they likely won’t have an issue with your proposal.
  
  As you gain more experience, you’ll also develop your own sense of context to be able to predict when work will bleed into the night. When you suspect that will be the case, manage up—tell the senior/partner what you anticipate will happen the rest of the day and propose when you’ll tackle those documents so that the docs are ready for their review by the required time.

• Offer a few late nights. Occasionally—if you feel up to it—offer to be available late. Part of demonstrating that you’re a team player is showing you are willing to work outside of your preferences if the need arises. Would I prefer to work until 2am? Yes. Did I also have my fair share of 7am calls? Also yes.

But I’m going to level with you: despite your best efforts, you may run into seniors/partners who are a little more… difficult. Read: they enjoy the hazing aspect of Biglaw. I know a partner who, for example, had a rule that junior associates could only go to sleep when (a) he went to sleep or (b) when the sun rose, whichever was earlier. The partner was a Night Owl and would typically go to sleep after sunrise, which meant the poor juniors he worked with went to sleep around 5:30am every morning and woke up at 7:30am or 8am so they could be on the receiving end of documents from the other side.

That is, unfortunately, the nightmare situation. There’s very little a junior can do to push back on someone hell-bent on making their life hell—except to get another, more powerful partner to intervene or to leave the firm altogether.³ If this does end up happening to you, I’d crowdsource strategies and advice from trustworthy midlevels/seniors, too.

While I hope you never have to force yourself to become a Night Owl, here are some strategies I used to stay up late with enough energy to get work done:

• Work out at 7/8pm. Good sleep hygiene protocols warn against working out too late… which is why if you’re trying to stay up later, working out in the evening is a great way to get a second burst of energy. Make sure the workout isn’t too strenuous, though—if it is, you’ll just feel exhausted afterwards instead of bounding back to your desk with renewed executive function.

• Take a Coffee Nap. My natural circadian rhythm loves afternoon naps. In college and law school, I’d enjoy a good 4pm or 5pm nap. At the firm, if I was reeeeally falling asleep at my desk, I’d drink a cup of coffee, crawl under my desk with my Snuggie and a pillow, and set my phone timer to 20 minutes. (This is a real thing—not just something I do.) The Coffee Nap isn’t a replacement for quality sleep, but it saved me more times than I’d care to admit.

• Avoid sleep-inducing foods for dinner. You know how some foods seem to give you more energy, while others make you sleepy? Pay attention to what those are, so you can select your evening meals accordingly. (Spoiler: it will probably end up being a lot of leafy, green salads.)

You’ll also find that the importance of face time generally decreases significantly with seniority. You’ll develop rapport with partners, and you’ll also be fewer chains removed from the client/work-generator. Quality work takes precedence over 24/7 availability, so don’t be afraid to establish reasonable boundaries as long as you’re doing good work. Remember that Biglaw—and your career more generally—is a marathon, not a sprint.

Final note: your health and well-being take precedence over all. If you find yourself thinking about abusing Adderall or cocaine or other stimulants (even caffeine) for the job, get help. I know people do it, but it should not be normalized. People die from abusing drugs to work more. And no job is worth your life. There is a place for Early Birds in this profession. It might not be with the first partners or practice group or firm you encounter, but I promise: there is a place for you. ◆

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1. Of course, your individual experience as an associate can vary wildly from the industry—or even the firm—at large. Because associate experiences are predominantly dependent on the particular partners with whom you work and your practice group, your level of required face time can greatly diverge from that of your peers. My former practice group, for example, had fairly liberal work-from-home policies even before the COVID-19 pandemic, even though the firm overall did not necessarily have a work-from-home culture. Figuring out what expectations apply to you is a fact-intensive and partner/senior associate-specific inquiry, so approach it as an ongoing investigation into others’ working preferences and your own seniority/power!

2. The Night Owl associates certainly do not shy away from holding off on sending emails until getting home after midnight, even if they technically finished drafting the email before midnight. (Source: many conversations with other associates on how to perform work.)

3. If you can stomach it, you can also grit your teeth through the matter and then try to stay busy enough on everything else so you can turn down assignments from/with the toxic partner. This tactic doesn’t work super well if the toxic partner is also a rainmaker at the firm, unfortunately.