Lessons From Academia About Working From Home

In this preview of our Work, Wellness and Space project, set to launch July 15, we feature Monica Hakimi, the James V. Campbell professor of law and the associate dean for faculty research at the University of Michigan. She discusses introverts in academia and whether the legal industry will ease up on work-from-home restrictions in a post-COVID world.

You might think introverts are well-equipped to handle the work-from-home world of the past few months. Heck, they might even enjoy it.

But experts point to an array of reasons why that’s not necessarily the case. And with some amount of remote work likely to persist in the coming months – and possibly years – employers must understand its effects on different personality types.

Doing so is crucial in managing the virtual office space – which is itself a major theme that emerged from Work, Wellness & Space, the inaugural research offering by Immediate Frontier. The project, a partnership between GreenHouse::Innovation and Greentarget in special collaboration with Learn Adapt Build (LAB)/Amsterdam, will launch on July 15.

One area ripe with introverts is academia. Like much of the economy, universities across the country were shuttered in March, forcing classroom instruction to occur over Zoom, Skype and other platforms. At the University of Michigan School of Law, this meant finding ways to teach interactive classes in new ways, making sure that faculty, students, and staff -- many of whom lean toward being introverts -- did not become alienated.

“We are all independently in charge of our personal and professional well-being,” said Monica Hakimi, the James V. Campbell professor of law and associate dean for faculty research at the University of Michigan. “In some ways, introverts are well set up for it. But the fact that this is their M.O. could lead to more isolation.”

Two weeks after going remote, the law school faculty checked in with every law student to make sure they were taking care of themselves and getting the assistance they needed. Additionally, the school is now having weekly faculty workshops via Zoom instead of in person to maintain community, Hakimi said.

Hakimi also said the past few months might make the legal profession reconsider its hard stance on work-from-home privileges, which she said would be a “major quality of life enhancement” in an industry known for burnout and long hours.

“You still want to have those collaborative spaces,” she said. “But it seems crazy to me that the expectations in most white-collar jobs mean that people have to commute 45 minutes or more every day to sit in an isolated pod and work for 12 hours per day and then commute another 45 minutes or more to go home.”

Whether the legal industry loosens up on work from home once some sense of normalcy returns to the workplace depends not only on employers but employees, Hakimi said. Modern students make clear that they want more freedom in their working arrangements – but that could come into conflict with a desire to succeed and get ahead.

“How much will they actually fight for what they think they should be getting?” Hakimi said. “The people who are focused on these things are also focused on personal advancement, so there’s a friction there.”