Up to her eyeballs in work, Jess receives a call from a partner. Normally that would be a thrill, because the partner is known to preside over exciting projects – but today it’s not exactly welcome. She takes the call. It’s about an exciting project. Can she take on some tasks?

Jess now finds herself in a dilemma. Say yes, and she’s going to have far too much on her plate; say no, and she may never hear from the partner again. Say yes, and she develops her career at the expense of her wellbeing; say no, and she protects her wellbeing at the expense of her career. She’s trapped.

Associates often experience this dilemma. It’s something that comes up again and again in our conversations with junior lawyers. It’s something the former lawyers in our team recall with a thousand-yard stare. No lawyer wants to say no to a partner, and especially not to exciting work. Yet sometimes that’s exactly the answer they should be giving.

The science of saying ‘no’

Back in 2022, four scientists got together and made a solemn pact: to say ‘no’ to any work-related requests that came their way. They turned down 100 engagements between them – things like journal article reviews, grant proposal writing, and no less than 31 speaking invitations. Then they published their findings.

Tracking their busyness, they said, made it easier to decline work when it was ill-timed. Building a little slack into their schedules meant getting ill didn't throw everything out of whack. That slack, of course, is itself a buffer from work-related illness and burnout. That made them more productive. This year, the scientists are aiming to quadruple their ‘nos’ to 100 each.

For these scientists at least, saying ‘no’ to work was a productive thing to do. We think it can be in law firms too, and with Capacity we’re now helping our clients navigate this paradox themselves.

Making ‘no’ productive

The key to Jess’s dilemma is information asymmetry: she’s well aware that her workload is too heavy to take on more tasks, but the partner on the end of the phone is not. Jess doesn’t want to disappoint the partner, and she’s fearful of developing a reputation for turning down exciting work. She wants the partner to keep calling, because she’s not always this busy.

We’ve designed Capacity to communicate all of this to the partner, and to everyone who allocates work at Jess’s firm. With Capacity, Jess’s tasks, along with their deadlines, are visible on her profile. Her availability is regularly updated so that partners know who’s got the time for their tasks. And she’s even able to set work preferences, so partners know which work Jess finds most exciting.

All this means that, when the partner calls, Jess can evidence her workload. Looking it up, the partner can tell at a glance that Jess is pretty swamped. It’s true: she really doesn’t have the time to take on more tasks.

Using Capacity, the partner can now search for a more available fee-earner, finding one in seconds. In fact, with Capacity they simply would not have called Jess at all. They’d have searched Capacity before picking up the phone, finding that Jess’s utilisation is already in the red while other, equally qualified associates are more available.

But today, for this particular piece of work, it really has to be Jess. That’s why they called.

So the partner uses Capacity to look up who’s supervising Jess’s other tasks, and puts in a call to get them reassigned. Actually, more often than not, they ask a resource manager to do that for them. Like the partner, the resource manager has a complete, real-time overview of every lawyer in the firm. They search Capacity for a suitable stand-in for Jess, finding one in seconds.

Now, Jess gets to work on the exciting project. The partner gets the person they really need for the job. The resource manager gets everything they need to perform their job effectively. And the stand-in, selected because their availability is high, is no longer underutilised. Everyone’s a winner.

No more dilemmas

Saying ‘no’ to work can be a prudent, responsible, and productive decision. The most ambitious lawyers might always say ‘yes’ when faced with Jess’s dilemma. But those lawyers are putting themselves at risk of health issues as a result – issues that can compromise their work and even set their productivity back to zero.

Why take that risk, when Capacity throws a spotlight over every associate who’s available and capable of taking on your task? Why overburden one lawyer when another would really love to join your project? Why have one go-to associate when you can trust two, three, ten?

Capacity is designed to help associates like Jess say ‘no’ to overwork. It’s just that, when our clients start using our solution, they find their associates no longer need to.