Work's a beach
Boss of law firm Quinn Emanuel gives employees $2K each to 'work anywhere in the world for a week'Employee benefit innovation is evident in the pages of The Lawyer, where it’s reported that a US law firm is offering employees $2,000 each to work anywhere in the world for a week.
A man described as a ‘legal titan’ – Quinn Emanuel CEO John Quinn – sent the following around his global network on the last day of January:
Its january and its dreary in most places of the qe world, and next month it will be february, and then march, promising more of the same. hard working qe lawyers need a break for sure. so we are introducing a new program. we haven’t really come up with a cool name for it yet–maybe “qe work away week”? the idea is this:
the firm will give associates $2k to go work anywhere in the world they want to work for one week. all expenses above $2k are your responsibility. associates will be assigned to a group of 6-10 other associates who also sign up for the program. you can ask to go with a particular person, but there are no guarantees that they will be in your group. part of the objective is to get to know lawyers in different offices, so associates will generally not know the other people in their group.
once you are assigned to a group, it will be up to the group to decide where you want to go work for a week and when. u can go anywhere you want. but we expect that you will be working together. maybe you will throw down a power strip in a beach cafe in india. maybe a hostel in a village in the mountains of columbia. freak street in kathmandu? its up to the group.
there are rules: there must be 24/7 connectivity wherever you go. you must be available at all the hours you would be available if you were in your home office. you are expected to continue working and be available just as you would if you were home.
When asked by The Lawyer if the scheme was likely to turn into a permanent benefit, Quinn replied: ‘Who knows, maybe it will be a disaster. Maybe there’ll be too much screwing round.’
In related news, the editor of HRville has said he’ll happily accept $2,000 from Mr Quinn to fly over to his LA office and point out the Shift button on his computer keyboard.
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