Stop Training People to Interrupt You

One of my favorite sayings is, “You teach people how to treat you.”

By now, you’ve probably figured out that I don’t run a law practice like it’s 1987. I don’t do faxes, I don’t bill in six-minute increments, and I definitely don’t sit around waiting for someone to call the office just so I can pounce on the phone like a bored receptionist at a car dealership.

So, what’s my latest sin according to “That’s-not-how-we-do-things” John? I don’t accept unscheduled calls. It’s not even a latest thing. I haven’t accepted unscheduled calls in more than 10 years.

But apparently some people, including other lawyers, still think this is how law offices work.

Someone calls the office and expects to be transferred directly to a lawyer. No warning. No scheduling. Just raw, unscheduled chaos. And when they find out we don’t do it that way? Cue the exasperated, “Back in my day, I could call and get a lawyer on the phone!”

Yeah. And back in your day, you probably printed out directions from MapQuest and thought pagers were high-tech.

Scheduling calls teaches people that I value my clients, my time, and my focus. I show up to scheduled calls prepared, informed, and ready to solve problems, not scrambling to figure out who you are and what you want while juggling a motion deadline or preparing for court.

If you’re a lawyer still operating on the “just patch them through” model, I have questions. Do you not have any active matters? Are you just hanging out hoping the phone rings? Is this a customer service desk at Target? Is everything an emergency that requires your input this second? Maybe there is a practice area out there that is 100% emergencies?

From a time management perspective, the most inefficient thing you can do is jump from one task to the phone back to the task (if you can remember what you were doing before the phone rang) and then back to the phone again. If you’re doing real work, you shouldn’t be interrupting yourself every five minutes because someone refuses to schedule a time to have a productive discussion at a mutually agreeable time. That’s not responsiveness, it’s dysfunction.

Every time you answer an unscheduled call, you’re reinforcing a bad habit, for you and the caller. When my 9-year-old whines to get her way, the last thing I want to do is give in and reinforce that behavior. And yes, I roll my eyes at both whiny 9-year-olds and the lawyers whose complaining prompted this article.

There’s nothing noble about being constantly available. It’s not client-centered. It’s not impressive. It’s just messy.

Stop training people to interrupt you.