Adverse Witness
A VIEW FROM THE BENCH: HOW TO SPEND YOUR SUMMER VACATION
The Honorable Judge Joseph G. Foster AW As I write this article, it is early June and as you receive it, it will be early July, so I thought, in keeping with our Attorney Wellness Initiative, I would play with the theme from elementary school and propose some ideas on how you should spend your summer vacation (whether you take an actual vacation or not). Before I begin, I would like to join with many other voices, and publicly thank everyone that had a hand in pulling together such an awesome program for our local bar. The Attorney Wellness Initiative was incredibly needed and offers tremendous benefits to all our attorneys. You all know that the practice of law is stressful, and from time to time, it is helpful to have a voice different than your own to talk to and bounce ideas off of. This initiative offers that and more. So thank you to everyone who had the vision, participated in the steering committee, helped raise and/or donated resources to make it a reality, gave of your time to be trained to be a peer mentor, and to the many attorneys that have begun utilizing the services offered. It is important in all jobs and professions, but it is critically important in ours, for “adults” to make and take time to “disconnect” and “smell the roses”. As you all know, it does not just happen. You have to make a conscious effort to “schedule” it into your lives. But I can guarantee you that if you repeatedly make that conscious decision, it becomes easier and more natural until you find that you don’t have to make as much of a conscious choice and you will have incorporated the philosophy into your day-to-day lives. We live in such a “connected” world, with immediate and unfettered access to voicemails, emails, texts, tweets, and a variety of social media platforms that our clients, friends and family members utilize to communicate with us. In a world of instant gratification and messages in 140 characters it seems like it is no longer acceptable to stop, think about a question, and then provide thoughtful legal advice, or to be “unavailable” for any period of time. I suggest that it is almost always better to slow things down
and ask appropriate follow-up questions, to make sure that the information your client or supervisor is asking for is the actual information they need and it is also important to set some boundaries in your personal life so you can “get away” from your work. You will find that if you set those boundaries, and articulate them with your clients and/or your supervisors in advance, they will come to understand and respect those boundaries from you. Of course, there will be actual emergencies that will take you outside of the boundaries that you set, and you will have to accept that, but make sure that those situations are actually “emergencies” and that those “emergencies” do not happen so often as to become a routine that overtakes your ground rules. Better yet, make sure that you establish a support system that can cover your emergencies when you are disconnecting, and offer to do the same for the members of your support system. In that way, everyone gets the same opportunity to disconnect from time to time. Also, if you absolutely cannot disconnect for an entire day while you are vacationing with your family, please do not be like a much younger me, and check your emails while waiting in line with your kids at Disney World! Set-aside some agreed upon time with your family that you will be doing some work each day. For me, that time was in the evenings after my kids had crawled into bed. If you can do this, then you do not miss out on the little things that come up while hanging out with your children. Also, if you have agreed upon ground rules, you will find that your spouse or significant other will not get as upset with you. Finally, you will not get drawn back into your work world and the stresses that come with it, while you are trying to relax and enjoy your family time. What types of activities can you do? If you are single, get out and explore the world, or the state of Florida, or even your own backyard. We live in an amazing place, make sure you make it a priority to get out and explore it from time to time. If you have a young family, also explore, but remember to take time for the little things, i.e. tea parties, building pillow forts – or actual forts, playing catch or hopscotch or board games, going to the beach or for a swim, or just exploring where your child’s imagination takes you. CONTINUED ON PG. 8
JULY / August 2022 Vol. 210
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