Working During a Global Pandemic

By Tracy Scanlan
Director of Client Development and Legal Affairs at Paragon Legal

It’s been distressing to read about how some companies are (mis) managing their employees during this hard time. Don’t get me wrong, those of us that have jobs right now, are SO fortunate. But during this time when people need flexibility and empathy, it’s hard to read about companies micromanaging every minute of someone’s day or contrarily, not providing any info. I feel lucky, proud, and humbled to be where I am right now.

For those of you who don’t know, Paragon provides in-house legal departments with attorneys and other legal professionals on a project basis. All our team members are Paragon employees and spread throughout multiple clients. So while our internal management team is small, our entire team is large and in different locations, which means we’re keeping on top of developing situations in multiple companies and locations, as well as our own.

Through all this, our managing directors are providing weekly updates to our entire team and are doing everything possible to make sure things are moving smoothly and to reassure anyone who might be worried. We’re making sure that our team has what they need to work remotely and productively. We have gotten so many positive comments from clients about how responsive our team members have been and how they’ve rolled with the punches while the client goes through their own processes.

With our team, candidates, and clients, we’re taking phone and video calls while people have kiddos in the background or are hiding out in their car. No judgment! We’re just happy to do whatever works for you (and speak to another human being!)

Within the internal team, we’re holding daily video meetings where we check in to see how everyone’s doing. We share funny memes, pet pictures, and interesting articles that we’d normally talk about in the office. We’re even holding a “virtual happy hour” this week to establish just a LITTLE bit of normalcy.

It’s really hard to juggle working from home with family obligations and worries about the state of our world. Although these times are difficult, it has been heartening to see how our values of acting with integrity and putting people first have played out during a crisis.

Please stay safe out there and be kind!