Some Job Perks Are Better Than Salary

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‘Yessssss! This is awesome!’

As regular readers of this column know, I am a huge fan of “The Office,” which I watch almost every day. In one episode, the main character (Michael Scott) tries to explain that salary isn’t everything in a job and that sometimes job perks can make up for a lower salary. Although the things that the main character points to as being job perks that are better than higher salary are laughable, many job perks can make up for being paid less. The most obvious job perk that can offset salary is the ability to work remotely, but there are others.

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Travel

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I once worked at a job that required me to be on the road about 80% of my time in order to attend court conferences, depositions, and other appearances. I spent over 70 nights a year in hotels, and the rest of the time I was out of the office at appearances close to my home. While traveling, I had all of my expenses — food, airfare, hotel costs, and so on — reimbursed by the firm’s clients.

The value of all those reimbursements could easily be in the tens of thousands of dollars. Having my food reimbursed was a huge perk; I love to eat, and I often had meals at great restaurants on my clients’ dime. When it came to hotels, airfare, and other costs, I would put this all on my credit card before being reimbursed and earned credit card points worth thousands of dollars in value. I also earned rewards points from hotels and airlines so that I could travel extensively for free on my own. Moreover, all of the travel was fun since I got to meet new people and be away from the office.

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Of course, attorney travel has been substantially reduced in the post-COVID world of appearing virtually. However, if you have the opportunity to work at a job that requires travel, it might warrant accepting a lower salary in return.

Out-Of-Office Experience

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I can get a little stir crazy, and I do not like being in an office. Not only is sitting in one place and working for an extended period difficult for me, I don’t always like to see my bosses when we are all forced to share an office together. Earlier in my career, I worked at a job that required me to attend court conferences all over the city close to where I lived three or four times per week. I also had to take a deposition every week or two, attend site inspections, hold client meetings, and fulfill other obligations that kept me out of the office for long periods.

While working at this job, I usually would spend my mornings in court, mostly sitting around with people I knew from past court experiences, having a fun time with acquaintances from around the courthouse. I typically would not return to the office until around lunch, and then I only needed to spend a brief time in the office before heading home at the end of the day. If I attended a deposition or another longer court appearance, I would usually head home if I could not be back at the office by midafternoon. Most of the time that I billed was due to appearances, so I spent much less time on the more boring tasks like dealing with discovery and drafting motion papers. Again, there are fewer jobs like this in the post-COVID world, but lawyers might consider taking less money for such a job.

All told, Michael Scott is likely right, and money is not the only thing that might motivate people to accept certain jobs. In some cases, job perks can convince a lawyer to accept a position that pays less.

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Jordan Rothman is a partner of The Rothman Law Firm, a full-service New York and New Jersey law firm. He is also the founder of Student Debt Diaries, a website discussing how he paid off his student loans. You can reach Jordan through email at [email protected].

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Biglaw, Jordan Rothman, Small Law Firms, Work/life balance