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Staff At London Law Firm Can Work From Home Full-Time -- If They Take 20% Pay Cut (theguardian.com) 113

Posted by BeauHD from the post-Covid-flexibility dept.
Staff at a top London law firm have been told they can work from home permanently â" but they will have to take a 20% pay cut. The Guardian reports: Managing partners at Stephenson Harwood are offering lawyers and other staff the option as City firms try to move beyond solely office-based working in a post-pandemic cultural shift to flexible and remote models. Junior lawyers at the company have starting salaries of 90,000 pounds, meaning anyone taking up the officer would lose about 18,000 pounds. Stephenson Harwood, one of the top 50 highest earning legal firms in the UK and with its headquarters in London, employs more than 1,100 people and has offices in Paris, Greece, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea. A spokesperson for the firm told the Times that the new working policy would apply to staff at its London office and most of the company's international offices. Partners will not be eligible, though. Full equity partners receive an average of 685,000 pounds annually.

The new salary sacrifice for full remote working policy is being introduced after the company's experience of recruiting lawyers during the coronavirus pandemic who were not based in London, where living costs tend to be higher. However, the company said it expected only a few staff to take up the full-time work from home option because "for the vast majority of our people, our hybrid working policy works well." Staff already have the option of working remotely for two days a week. "Like so many firms, we see value in being in the office together regularly, while also being able to offer our people flexibility," the spokesman said.
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Staff At London Law Firm Can Work From Home Full-Time -- If They Take 20% Pay Cut More

Staff At London Law Firm Can Work From Home Full-Time -- If They Take 20% Pay Cut

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  • Or... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Monday May 02, 2022 @08:46PM (#62497978)

    Or maybe you can find anther firm that lets you work at home full time, and gives you a bit of raise in salary to boot.

    20% is way too much of a haircut, and any reduction is absurd when you stop and realize a full-time employee saves them money on office space!

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward
      yeah right, and pigs will fly. it may save some money, but it also costs a butt load in productivity and communication costs, especially with professionals at somewhere like a law firm where they need to meet with people and will obviously need to find alternative solutions for that.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Askmum ( 1038780 )
        The only upside for employees I see in this is that they (probably) don't have to live in or near London anymore. I'm sure the housingmarket in London is such that taking a GBP 18.000 salary cut and moving away from London would still mean having more money to spend.
        But it is a win-win for the lawfirms as well. Salary cut and less need for expensive offices, they would be so happy if they could pull this off.
    • Yeah, this is one of the more hilarious things I have read in a while. Maybe this lawfirm is the real life Hamlin, Hamlin & McGill (HHM) from better call saul..

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Kisai ( 213879 )

      I don't see why a 20% paycut should even be a thing.

      If you are working from home, and nothing else has changed, you are using YOUR HOME resources instead of the Office. If anything you should be billing the office for your electricity and internet, and any additional HVAC costs from you being home. You are saving "the office" money. If you drive, you're saving yourself even more money by not having to pay for fuel and insurance on a vehicle, and if you can get rid of the car entirely, you save a lot of mone

      • It probably feels like an insult because in reality they probably donâ(TM)t want anyone accepting it. They provide an option to say it is there, so that box is checked, but they poison the option with pay cut.

        Having worked with some remote teams I can tell you some people are terrible at remote work. Performance drops off and the team becomes less cohesive. On the other hand hard workers end up working too many hours.

        Also in person social time does help, since it is not simply limited to team members.

    • 20% is way too much of a haircut, and any reduction is absurd when you stop and realize a full-time employee saves them money on office space!

      On the other hand, you can live for about 38% less money for the same standard of living if you want to move from London to Cardiff [numbeo.com].

      Like say you're into Dr. Who or Only Connect.

      • On the other hand, you can live for about 38% less money for the same standard of living if you want to move from London to Cardiff.

        OR you can make the same amount of money while moving to Cardiff because you are still working for a London based firm, and the amount of money a firm can afford to pay is based on where IT is located, not where YOU are located.

        In no way should a salary be based on where you choose to live. It should be based on where a company is located and what it can afford to pay for wor

        • In no way should a salary be based on where you choose to live.

          And yet it is.

          It should be based on where a company is located and what it can afford to pay for workers.

          What has where the company is located got to do with it?

          • And yet it is.

            Not everywhere. At the (very small) company I work for we have set wages for a role, and don't care where people live.

            The rise of more and more people demanding to work from wherever they choose will make it impractical to choose wages based on where someone lives, because over time you will no longer get the best people, as more and more people are willing to pay for talent at a rate unmodified by where that talent choses to reside.

          • In no way should a salary be based on where you choose to live.

            And yet it is.

            Salary must be sufficient to meet my needs. If the salary isn't high enough, I try to negotiate. If the negotiations fail, I pass.

            It should be based on where a company is located and what it can afford to pay for workers.

            What has where the company is located got to do with it?

            A company chooses a city based on property value / taxes, expected salary, and talent pool. The do not budget for a lot of candidates demanding higher pay.

    • Agreed: 20% is too much, even given the savings you might have, by moving out of the London area. I have the feeling this is a case where the extroverts - especially the partners earning close to 7 figures - have no clue why much of the staff would prefer WFH. They feel like they *have* to offer an option, but they want to make it unattractive, so that no one chooses it. Any when people do anyway, they will be replaced sooner rather than later.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by N1AK ( 864906 )
      The article, and most other coverage, does a really poor job of explaining what is going on coherently. There are some remarks from the firm that are quoted which effectively say someone new in can't really do the job without experience gained from the office environment, but they are willing to hire for fully remote just paying a bit less. Is the firm being illogical or is the information provided not sufficient or unclear so we can't actually tell what is going on.

      The 20% decrease does sound crazy as a

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

        You'd also pay less tax, so it's not really 20%. If you didn't have some overwhelming desire to live in London, this sounds like a fantastic deal financially. It might be career suicide for a junior lawyer though.

    • You realize this is the outsource debate all over again. So long as work-remote-firm is free to hire anyone including lower cost of living areas, what incentive do they have to hire a Londoner at a cost that significantly exceeds what they can pay someone in Dairy? You might think its going to hurt the other firm, but in reality there might be thousands of people willing to work for a prestigious london firm while living in the countryside of northern ireland or somewhere else where 20% less pay is still hi

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Opie812 ( 582663 )
      awesome. work from home and fridays off.. w00t.

    • 20% is way too much of a haircut, and any reduction is absurd when you stop and realize a full-time employee saves them money on office space!

      if you live outside of London and commute in by train, this is about right...

      • So you think it's worth being paid essentially the same (because it's cheaper to live outside London) but then ALSO having two hours of commute per day when you do go into the office.

        No.

        If you are good enough to work at a London firm, you should be paid wages to compensate, period. Otherwise just go work at a Cardiff firm and have no commute.

        • So you think it's worth being paid essentially the same (because it's cheaper to live outside London) but then ALSO having two hours of commute per day when you do go into the office.

          the whole point of the article is that they work full time from home and no longer spend the two hours commuting in... if they had to take a paycut and still come in thats shitty, but thats only something you just said

  • sounds decent. (Score:3)

    by bloodhawk ( 813939 ) on Monday May 02, 2022 @08:48PM (#62497986)
    350 pound a week reduction for not having to travel into London centre each week sounds like an awesome deal actually.

    • 350 pound a week reduction for not having to travel into London centre each week sounds like an awesome deal actually.

      They can -expletive- off, and then -expletive- off some more, they can keep -expletive- off until they arrive at the edge of London, then continue to -expletive- off across Wales. Finally they can go -expletive- themselves.

      I hate to say it, but the remote employee costs FAR less than the office employee in a professional setting even when you add in the VPN licensing. The square footage reduction of office space alone is a big boon. That's on top of minimizing direct data network costs, less structured

  • Given what it costs to live in London (Score:5, Insightful)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Monday May 02, 2022 @08:49PM (#62497990)
    that's probably a raise.
    • exactly, the ability to live in a more cost effective area and avoid the travel cost and time cost it could actually be a considerable raise for those willing to do it. I have been considering similar in my role where I work, offering to take a cut to not need to ever need to come to office on a weekly basis and move further out of the city (currently I work about 2 days in office, rest at home, would need some of the respoinsibilities removed for me to be able to be full time from home so would also expect

    • They don't live in London. They pay (through the nose) for public transport season tickets to get to the office. However, that cost is dwarfed by a cut of £18k.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Inertia keeps people in jobs, but a 20% pay cut is usually enough to get them polishing their CV. These days if you update your CV on LinkedIn or one of the job sites, within literally seconds your phone will start ringing with recruiters looking to temp you away.

      My guess would be that in a year this company is understaffed.

  • Win/Win for the Law Firm (Score:4, Insightful)

    by OnlyInAZ ( 7976792 ) on Monday May 02, 2022 @08:55PM (#62498000)
    The law firm gets to reduce pay and reduce their office costs. Sounds like a great deal for them.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by kmoser ( 1469707 )
      If I work from home, shouldn't they pay me rent for my home office?

      • I heard of a few countries where the rules say that for work from home, the employers have to pay an allowance for the expenses incurred at home.

        I think Switzerland is one of those countries I have read about.

        On a more related note, the travel time and cost savings (eating meals out when working in office) can be worth something to the employees.

        I know of many people who will seriously consider work from home on a perm basis if there is a small paycut. I know someone who wakes up 15 minutes before the job s

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by jabuzz ( 182671 )

          Yeah and I don't get that my work should have to pay for "expenses" incurred at home. They never paid for my travel into work and unless you live within walking/cycling distance of your place of work you are going to be saving more than the 2EUR per day that they pay in the Netherlands for example by not travelling into work. Noting that neither walking or cycling in are free either.

          I personally choose to provide my own computer despite my employer offering to pay for one. The main reason being that it gets

  • Red Herring (Score:3)

    by JeffOwl ( 2858633 ) on Monday May 02, 2022 @09:34PM (#62498086)
    Pay cut for WFH isn't the issue. The questions are... Can you get more from someone else while WFH? And... Can they replace you for what they are offering (either home or in office)?

  • Note that is for new hires : one set of money for 100% WFH, another set for hybrid. Legal I am sure.

    WFH though for Junior lawyers would be effective career suicide. Junior lawyers work shitty hours to climb the greasy pole to partner where the money is - never mind what the law is on working hours : you need to be known and seen to progress.

    Billable hours are king.

  • Well, that's the most disgusting thing I've read in a long while.

  • So partners cannot work from home permanently. Does it mean they cannot cut anything from the 685,000 pound partner salary when the partner works from home?

    20% is a big cut - this is an offer designed to be taken up by a trivial number of people.

  • This is plain old blackmail. Remote workers actually cost you LESS, so we can clearly see here that this is a standard boomer power play. Pathetic. I would not want to work for such organization. Both sides give something and I can also expect things I need, instead of being "forced" to adopt inefficient hybrid, or stationary model. Just go to hell.

    • Both sides give something and I can also expect things I need, instead of being "forced" to adopt inefficient hybrid, or stationary model. Just go to hell

      hey, we'd all love a fulfilling career, but someone has to clean the toilets. strange how its never those people complaining

  • Dumb move. They could have just waited a year for 20% inflation and then given CoL increases to commuters.

    Instead they'll have to rehire for more than 20% over.

    I wouldn't hire this lawfirm.

  • This is such bullshit. The firm will save money by not needing to have as much space for staff, electricity consumption, less sick days, more productive staff, etc. Paying people less is just a shitty thing to do. The work the staff are doing is the same, the value they bring is the same, the firm is continuing to charge their clients the same (probably more), so why pay less money for the same work? I'd leave a company like that.

    • so why pay less money for the same work?

      because you dont spend it travelling to work, duh, it was part of the salary. i mean, less is being asked of you... so pay you more? a bit cheeky

  • Nicely done Stephenson Harwood. And it's a good bet that if you take the pay cut and work from home ... that you'll be fired in pretty short order. Pretty much says it all about the company.

  • "You assume all responsibility for hardware, power, utilities, building maintenance, and all upkeep that we no longer have to provide... and we'll pay you less."

    Absolutely fuck any company that thinks like this. They should take a 100% cut in clients after that kind of move.

  • The initial response is to think that they're just being tight fisted. In reality, however this was inevitable and I think all companies will eventually follow suit. In order to work in London you must either pay over the odds for accommodation or endure an overcrowded, time consuming, expensive commute. Since Londoners have had the ability to work from home they've been moving out in their droves and buying up nicer, cheaper properties further out. Longer term this will erode their premium London wages bec

  • ...I'll take the Hybrid working, I'll be in once a year and every other day working from home ...

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