London to China: The Win/Win of Remote Working

International

London to China: The Win/Win of Remote Working

Trading a position as a promising associate in a big law firm for the night shift in a non-client facing role is not an obvious career move. But it is one of the best career decisions I've made to date, and I'm grateful to Withers LLP for not just accepting this change, but for embracing it.

Just over a year ago, I left what might be called a standard career path doing client-facing work as an associate lawyer. I then switched to a hybrid role working part-time as a salaried knowledge lawyer, with my client work now done flexibly on a zero-hours contract.

My reasons for the move were two-fold: the first was that I was returning to work after having my son, who is now just shy of two. The second, more unusual reason, was that our new family of three was about to relocate from London to Beijing, an 8-hour time difference away, for my partner's work.

I cannot deny that I felt uncertain about the decision. Wary of stepping off the standard trajectory and unsure about moving to a fully remote working arrangement where I thought colleagues might forget I exist. I was wrong to worry. My two roles have proved to be hugely complementary. I'm a better knowledge lawyer for keeping my client skills up, and for being able to understand what my colleagues need to know and how they might use the information I provide. But, just as importantly for the firm, I'm a better client lawyer for the increased knowledge at my fingertips.

Remote working with a time difference has also proved to have more advantages than disadvantages, from both a work and a personal perspective. The firm can have work turned around overnight and in a client’s or a colleague's inbox by 9 am. Since I work partly when London is awake and partly when it is asleep, I can interact with colleagues and still have time free from distractions. I also appreciate the asynchrony in my personal life; I can spend time with my son without being concerned that my inbox is filling up.

Looking back on 2020-2021, it is difficult to convey how unnerving it was to experience all of those life changes at once. And it certainly was not all plain sailing. A low point was when my son tested positive for Covid just before we were due to take our much-anticipated flight to Beijing (spectacularly well-timed to be the day after we'd waved goodbye to all of our worldly possessions on a truck destined for Beijing and signed our house over to tenants). China's zero-Covid policy and the fact that you will struggle to enter the country if you've so much as recently glanced in the direction of a coronavirus meant that we weren't able to fly to Beijing and be reunited with our possessions for five months. We eventually made it to our destination by a somewhat convoluted route, spending a few weeks with my inlaws in England, and then a further few weeks in Taiwan.

However, with the benefit of hindsight, all this change proved to be empowering. I have a much better relationship with work, having made a conscious decision to continue working rather than be a trailing spouse, and I have far greater agency over what my role and its terms look like. Withers has been incredibly supportive and open to non-traditional ways of working. A firm that looks at my working arrangements and sees only difficulties and disruption, rather than opportunity, would be missing a trick to say the least.

Pitch for the terms you want

What does any of this mean for others? I'm certainly not suggesting having a baby and moving continents as universal career advice. But I do think each of us should make time to think about what set-up works best both for us as individuals and for our colleagues, and then advocate for it. The likelihood is that there is something to be gained all round. 'I want to escape the daily grind' is probably not a good pitch and too one-sided. But 'I want to work remotely as part of a dual-career couple and provide an overnight service for the team' proved, in my case, to be just the right pitch. And my firm, colleagues and clients quickly saw the major benefits.

Women are famously reticent to negotiate with their employers, yet they sometimes have the greatest need, given that children often have a large impact on their careers. So, as the Chinese would say: Jiãyóu (Go for It!).

Victoria Harrison

Knowledge Lawyer, Family, Withers