You’ve landed that elusive role at a large commercial law firm. Few are fortunate enough to get the chance to commence their careers like this. You probably hustled your way through law school, with many sleepless nights and coffee-fuelled study sessions, dreaming of the day when you’d finally get that coveted piece of paper. And you got there. Congrats! Unfortunately, though, the hard work isn’t over. The next question is: how can you get on a proper progression track and maximise your chances for career advancement? What small things can you do to make the job work for you? And more importantly, what things should you avoid doing?

Many graduate lawyers enter the profession with huge expectations about the doors that will open to them. They can’t wait to experience the interesting, challenging and varied work that’s ahead of them. They’re excited to start building professional relationships with clients and colleagues. And yes, these times are exciting, but it doesn’t take long for reality to set in. There is no doubt that doing a stint in a commercial law firm will add value to your career – but the value is what you make it. The key to getting the most out of your experience is to be proactive, enthusiastic and curious.

Often, the day-to-day work doesn’t turn out to be as interesting as you expected. You thought you’d have ample opportunities to collaborate with your peers when in reality you’re just competing for work. For many young lawyers, this is not sustainable. Only the lawyers who are able to accept this reality and work proactively are successful in the long-term.

Why is this? Well, the top performers tend to come into the job with an attitude of enthusiasm and gratitude that their more entitled colleagues may not possess. This attitude impacts hugely on your progression and enjoyment of the job. You’ll establish better networks within the firm and build respect from partners and colleagues. These relationships are crucial to progressing your career.

It might be hard at first, but finding a way to check your ego at the door is the smoothest path to the success you’re looking for. For those who are committed to practice, with the goal of becoming a partner one day, here are 5 areas where the best associates shine.

They Have Realistic Expectations

It’s hard not to believe the hype about yourself, right? You were one of the best and brightest law students and a true high achiever. You outshone the competition and landed the top graduate role. You deserve to be where you are and you deserve all the great things you have coming to you.

For young lawyers, this is an easy trap to fall into. It is also something that can really hold you back from advancing in a large law firm. Stepping on toes might work in the short-term but, in the long-term, it’s a recipe for failure. The most respected junior lawyers are realistic in their assessment of themselves and of the day-to-day work they will undertake.

They know they have little real world experience. They know that this means they need to put their heads down, learn as much as possible and produce the best work they can before they earn the respect of more senior colleagues. They also understand that they are a part of the business and have to operate within the reality of this structure.

You don’t practice law in a vacuum, so taking a commercial approach to your work and outlook is a huge leg up.

They Are Patient

It can be easy to get ahead of yourself. You can be forgiven for expecting the very best work to be directed your way from day one. Firms are notorious for creating the misplaced expectation that you’ll be handed interesting work on a silver platter.

This usually isn’t the case, as workflows and allocation are complex issues. Remember, you have zero experience. You need to start at the bottom. You need to learn before you can step up. Building knowledge, experience and credibility is a slow process.

The best young lawyers recognise that it is all a process and that patience is key. Don’t let impatience prevent you from learning all the incremental skills that form the foundation of something much bigger. Importantly, start building your personal brand while you’re young, and it will reap dividends as you climb the ranks.

They Are Enthusiastic

Time and time again, senior lawyers and partners tell us about the importance of enthusiasm from juniors. Being genuinely enthusiastic about learning and doing the work is the surest way to ensure your success. Yes, even when you’re doing dull day-to-day stuff.

Being enthusiastic means that you bring a totally different level of energy to work. This is something that partners and senior associates pick up on easily. Turning your nose up at work you think is below you, or huffing and puffing about having to do menial tasks will get you nowhere.  By doing this, you appear closed minded or unwilling to do what is required to succeed within the firm. This impacts the work that will be delegated to you.

Your learning and development is a long process. Try to be enthusiastic about whatever tasks are handed to you and learn as much as you can. This will make you stand out in the eyes of those in charge of your progression.

They Are Proactive

Young lawyers often have a misplaced expectation that their firm will deliver internal and external opportunities. Law firms are businesses and partners are very busy people, so they might not be in a position to make these things happen for you.

The most successful lawyers are proactive. They make the most of any opportunity that could separate them from the herd. They explore and learn about how the firm operates. They actively seek avenues for mentorship and discover ways to contribute in non-billable areas. They seek out these opportunities themselves and look to take advantage of them.

It takes effort and enthusiasm to achieve this. But, if you want to separate yourself from your colleagues, you need to seek out mentorship, business development opportunities, client facing time, seminars, and other ways to make yourself indispensable to the firm.

Actively position yourself as a doer – someone who can be trusted to get the job done. This gives you the opportunity to flex your autonomy and independent thinking muscles. By proactively taking part in activities that you enjoy you are already one step closer to making your career work for you, and not the other way around.

They Are Honest

For some, having the courage to speak up is the hardest part. It can be terrifying to put your hand up and ask for help, or suggest a different approach, but will anything change by remaining silent?

If those you work with don’t know that you are unhappy, for example, there is very little they can do to address potential issues or make the necessary changes to help you. So, be honest and seek out guidance from those in more senior positions. An open and honest approach to work issues can open doors and gain you the respect of your colleagues. Chances are, they may be thinking the same thing but lack the confidence to speak up.

Bear in mind that senior staff and partners in firms are time poor, so be selective about when you make an approach and how you raise the issue.

Conclusion

Given how competitive the legal profession can be, some of the above points may seem counterintuitive. But, in our experience, it is an approach that lends itself to long-term success in private practice.

While you have worked hard and achieved a great deal to get where you are in your career today, an element of luck also comes into landing an elite graduate role. Don’t lose sight of this fact – it will direct your actions in practice in a far more positive way: a little gratitude goes a long way.

What other personal qualities do you think are critical in building a successful legal career? Let us know in the comments! 

Nowadays, the pressure to stick with and succeed in one chosen field has, in many ways, lessened as more young Australians vote with their feet and regularly change careers.

Commonly referred to as a slash career, these alternative career pathways can manifest in many different ways. You may hold down a full-time job but have a side hustle or work on a passion project over weekends. You might run multiple projects simultaneously or even focus on one full-time job but consciously change careers every few years to keep your interest alive and skills current.

This type of career can blend multiple professional titles, such as writer/lawyer/entrepreneur, or it can involve making giant career leaps from actor to banker to lawyer. However you choose to look at it, slash careers are widely considered to give you a competitive edge.

Now, a growing trend is seeing many Australians pursue further education as a means of segueing into a different career or upskilling to increase their chances of securing a better career opportunity.

Latest research

According to Melbourne-based startup, training.com.au, more Australians are turning to upskilling through further study to ready themselves for a career change.

Many within the education industry are predicting that online education and course delivery is the way of the future, with the annual growth rate of the Australian university sector projected to slow to 1.6% (IBISWorld, 2017) between 2017-2022.

In a recent survey of over 3,000 Australians, training.com.au sought to gain a better understanding of what motivated people to consider further study as well as the role of technology in the delivery of courses.

Marketing director, Mike Thomas said:

We were surprised to find that 43% of all survey respondents advised that they were seeking alternative employment in the coming 3-years and a further 41% identified that a lack of qualifications was their greatest professional limitation.”

Although 55.06% of survey respondents said that technology had positively impacted their ability to upskill, not all suggested that online education was their preferred study stream. Times Higher Education has reported that about 20% of students who choose external study options drop out in their first year, compared with approximately 7% for those on campus.

For tertiary institutions, this could mean potential losses in student fees since student course completion is a prerequisite for securing fees through the HECS-HELP study assist structure.

Regardless of individual preferences to study online or offline, it is clear that technology is playing an integral role in modern learning environments. Although the results of this survey show that flexibility of course delivery, technology and online learning options influence overall student interest in further study, it is clear that student preference for traditional campus delivery is still very much alive and well.

Have you considered further study as an option to help smooth your transition into a different career? Let us know in the comments!

Gone are the days of a job for life, and thank God, how boring. Today we must all be ready to adapt and embrace change. The only certainty in our professional and personal life is that things will change whether we are ready or not. So instead of fighting it, make it happen the way you want. Consider the benefits of slash careers, write your own story and don’t be limited by the scepticism and fears of those around you. And remember, even when you feel lost and uncertain and second-guess yourself, don’t worry, it’s normal, we’ve all been there. Just hold strong and have faith in yourself and if all of that is too hard, then just pretend until your ego catches up to your success!

I wanted to be a famous actress

For me, the attributes of embracing change, remaining adaptable and having a love and understanding of language have all been integral to my career. These attributes were incubated in the performing arts. Yes, I wanted to be a famous actress. I know, not the most common starting point for a lawyer.

Or … maybe a lawyer

After studying performing arts at UWS Theatre Nepean and taking up acting, I then found myself
teaching … something I had never planned on doing. Then, with the intervention of a good friend, I decided to take the leap and study law.

I remember being terrified because I really didn’t think I had the brainpower. I was always the fun, bubbly, arty one … not the serious lawyer. Thankfully, my brain cells managed to multiply and I ended up practising law for about nine years before moving from the legal arm at one of the big four banks to the frontline as a bank manager.

Now I am thankful for the skills I’ve picked up along the way because they enhance my client-centric focus in my current role at Nexus.

Opportunity doesn’t knock, it whispers!

To me, life is like reading a book. You don’t turn to the last page to find out how it pans out. You want to see how it develops.

If someone pointed me out to you in the theatre while portraying Hermia in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and said, “Wow… she’d make a great general manager for a bank in 20 years’ time”, you’d laugh. For me, this is the most exciting thing about my career to date. I never saw any of it coming.

As my father once said to me, “opportunity doesn’t knock, it whispers, and you have to be listening.”

My journey into the law was amazing and a turning point for how I saw myself and my potential. Can you believe it? I was awarded first-class honours! And while I loved law and its practice, I didn’t like the way the traditional firms operated so, embracing change yet again, I moved to Hobart and began a PhD in bioprospecting.

Eventually, I came back to Sydney and worked in a couple of law firms including Truman Hoyle, which embraced my non-traditional lawyer personality. The more I practised law the more I became interested in what my clients did. I used to call it the “so-what” factor.

The law books say you can’t do it, but so what?

Really … a banker?

I contemplated work in business and ended up as legal counsel at Westpac. My inquisitive nature is never quelled and I started looking on the bank’s intranet to better understand its business. I thought the frontline sales team could do with some co-ordinated support, so I put together a proposal for a new job for myself. It coincided perfectly with Gail Kelly’s move to create a customer-centric culture. A series of secondments upskilled me to the extent I was then appointed as the bank manager at Hurstville, one of the top four branches in the country.

It was amazing. I loved it. Again I could feel my brain cells multiplying. It was a completely different skill set. Everything I had learnt as a lawyer actually hindered me. I had to learn to retrain a lot of things, even just simple communication.

I realised that legal language is terrible. After my experience as a bank manager, I now approach it differently. I can appreciate the mindset you get into as a lawyer, it is challenging, but it doesn’t work for everyday Australians, and that is who we are servicing. Communication fascinates me and I learnt that bankers are very good communicators because they are sellers. Lawyers traditionally aren’t.

And back to law … but no longer a “handbrake!”

Now back working as a lawyer I appreciate just how difficult it is to run a business unit. It’s a completely different skill set and I have huge respect for my clients and the work they do. What we do as lawyers is such a tiny facet of their business. It’s not everything, not the be all and end all. When you’re in a law firm you can trick yourself into thinking it’s a really important thing. It’s not, and for business it’s a headache and they don’t even want to think about the headache. No one wants to know about it.

The challenge is to be seen as part of the solution, not part of the problem.

When I was moving into the business arm of Westpac, the people who gave me a shot were more interested in my performing arts background. That’s what gave me the edge. My legal background was a concern to them. A lawyer in their minds was a handbrake. But a lawyer can be part of the solution.

What people think they need isn’t necessarily what they do need, and that’s where the skill set of the lawyer and the skill set of the banker come in. The theatrical background and love of teaching were integral to my success in the national manager role at Westpac, especially upskilling regional bank managers. Everything is simply a problem to be solved.

Many businesses and legal firms talk the talk when it comes to collaboration and collective wisdom, but few walk the walk. They baulk at bringing in people with different skill sets. That’s not the case at Nexus. It’s all about complete collaboration and striving for success. It’s all client-centric. Law is the only industry that thinks it doesn’t have to concentrate on customer service. My skill set from Westpac is a perfect fit – for me, the client is at the centre of everything.

Good business structure involves flexibility and strength. Those attributes apply to a good lawyer and a good law firm.

So remember … enjoy the journey, own your path and don’t apologise for taking a different route. Often it’s the choices that fill us with the most fear and make the least sense that end up defining our success and happiness.

What do you think about the prospect of sticking with one career for your entire professional life? Is the diversity and constant interest of a slash career something that interests and excites you? Let us know in the comments!

Congratulations!! After many years of hard work you have successfully completed your law degree.

The next matter for you to consider is: do you expect to have a long and productive career as a lawyer employed in a law firm?

Perhaps so, but, if not, maybe it would be of benefit for you to consider using your many skills in the pursuit of a career outside that of the traditional legal pathway of employment in a law firm.

More Than Law

The consideration of an alternative career path may be the result of the struggle to obtain any employment in a traditional law firm; or it could be that having started such a career you find that it no longer provides you with the satisfaction that you had thought that it would do so.

As many of you are aware, the current employment environment for lawyers is difficult and particularly so for young lawyers to get a start in their career. Of 12,000 law graduates produced each year, only 60,000 working lawyers exist in the entire country.

However, that does not mean that the learning that you have acquired is useless and that your options are forever closed because you have not obtained, or wish to continue in, employment in a law firm.

Skills To Pay The Bills

Among the many benefits that a law degree has provided to you is the ability to think in an analytical manner. This skill is central to the way problems are solved and issues are evaluated. These skills can be the building blocks on which you can develop a career outside employment in a traditional law firm.

The skills that you have acquired also ensure that, should you wish to do so, you have the intellectual capacity for continual learning in other disciplines. A law degree is a very good springboard that can launch your chosen career by helping you to develop skills in mediation, negotiation, problem solving and analytical skills.

The choices that you may wish to explore will need to be undertaken in a way that will fulfil what you are passionate about and believe is worth your while in investing your skills. It will be necessary for you to be patient and resilient in the face of potential disappointments when a job application that you have made does not even elicit a response. However, it is not the end of the world if that happens – it is important for you to keep your spirits up by continuing your quest to work in a way, and in areas, that you wish to do so. Your persistence will pay off.

How To Use A Law Degree In Any Field

As a law graduate, it is important to remember that you are a chameleon of careers.

Like a chameleon, holding a law degree gives you the training and skills to adapt to any field or professional environment. Websites such as Beyond Law are now exploring this theme by providing graduates and legal professionals with a platform to explore different career pathways.

Common alternatives to traditional firms include working as:

• an in-house lawyer for a large corporation (including banking and finance); and
• a lawyer employed in a large government department or agency, or a non-government organisation.

Government Law

Several Commonwealth Government Departments have large legal areas providing specialist legal services to their respective departments. For example, the Australian Taxation Office and the Department of Immigration and Border Protection.

The Australian Government Solicitor and the Office of Parliamentary Counsel also provide excellent career prospects for those who wish to work within the Government sphere of legal work, as does the Attorney-General’s Department.

If you are interested in military and international law, the armed forces and the Department of Defence also have specialist legal areas.

Policy Development

However, in addition to jobs that are specifically legal in nature, within government departments and agencies there are many legally qualified people employed in areas of policy development and service delivery across a myriad of interesting roles and responsibilities that are of great importance to our national life.

These opportunities enable the skills of the lawyer to be utilised but within an environment that is not what you may have envisaged on your graduation.

Graduate Programs

In an era where there have been reductions in employment in the Australian Public Service, there are many departments who have their own Graduate Program. These are conducted on an individual departmental basis and, in addition, several Government Agencies conduct their own program.

It is well worth looking at the relevant websites for those opportunities which will be for the year commencing in early 2018. These applications will need to be completed in early 2017, and if you are interested it is worthwhile regularly checking websites in January 2017.

While I realise that is some time away, if this is a path that you wish to pursue, it could be worth your time to properly investigate. Various government agencies have continued to invest in young graduates even in times of reduction in employment in other areas of the Australian Public Service.

Non-Ongoing Or Contract Employment

In addition, there are various temporary (3-6 month contract) positions within many Public Service agencies and government departments that are advertised from time to time. Placing your details on government Temporary Employment Registers is an effective way to secure temporary work and to gain experience.

Once you establish a proven track record as a temporarily-engaged staff member it is often easier to secure extended, long-term contracts. You will also have a foot-in-the-door and be in a better position to apply for permanent positions through internal recruitment rounds.

It is worth looking for these opportunities that still do arise, particularly if you are interested in expanding your horizon to employment outside that of legal practice. Remember to check websites of the various State and Territory governments for job opportunities that arise in their respective agencies.

Mediation

An example of how diverse the range of choice available to you is that mediation is a rapidly expanding area of work that has resulted in the development of the National Mediation Standards and accreditation for mediators.

Mediation is a profession in its own right, but accreditation can be sought, by way of example, through the Law Institute of Victoria. The National Mediation Standards are expected to commence on 1 July 2015.

There are also registered family dispute resolution practitioners accreditation through the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department that may be of interest to you.

Overseas Opportunities

It could be that you are interested in pursuing work opportunities overseas.

Those opportunities will be informed by the geographic location that you have an interest in, as well as the areas of work that you wish to undertake. The main thing is to appropriately research all of the options that may be available to you and that will be of benefit to you in developing your skills for the rest of your career.

Conclusion

These days having the backing of a professional degree doesn’t tie you down in a tedious job. It opens doors that allow you to use your skills in unique and interesting ways.

You may decide to use your degree for good by pursuing a rewarding position in the non-profit sector. Or you may decide to build a career in the public sector, either in legal or policy fields.

Increasingly, lawyers and recent graduates are adopting a radical approach to their careers and leaving traditional law firms to start online businesses or private firms. Others are gaining relevant experience before uprooting to chase exciting opportunities overseas or to work their way around the world by offering freelance legal services. 

The possibilities available to you are only limited by the breadth of your imagination.

What ways do you envisage using your law degree? Will you pursue a traditional private firm or forge an alternative pathway of your choosing? 

Further Information

• For information on Australian Government Graduate Programs visit: australia.gov.au
• For information on current Graduate Programs visit: APS Jobs.
• To search current Australian Public Service Jobs listings visit: APS Jobs.
• To search alternative legal pathways visit: Beyond Law.
• To search vacancies in the non-profit sector visit: Pro Bono Australia.
• To search jobs in the community and non-profit sector visit: Ethical Jobs.

This is partly due to an ongoing cycle of denial that I am, in fact, a workaholic and partly because I love what I do. If you find a career you love then you will never work a day in your life, right?

Wrong.

The negative impacts of an imbalanced lifestyle can be far-reaching with subtle warning signs that are often difficult to identify. Here are some main ways you can determine if you are working too hard and some easy strategies you can use to achieve a better work-life balance.

The big leagues

Working in corporate finance for a Big Four (one of the four largest international professional services networks) means that the stakes are high, the pace is frenetic and the hours are long. While this is anathema to some, I love my job and enjoy being good at it. This is not to say that I neglect myself: I exercise regularly, eat a clean diet, drink moderately and do not smoke. I like to think I am a fit and healthy 29-year-old.

Which is why it came as a shock when my health suddenly deteriorated.

We want more

Like most people my age, I thrive on a breakneck daily routine. Early morning exercise, a full day of work, after work exercise, and a short break for socialising and dinner before opening the laptop to start on more work.

These days increased work pressure in the form of tight deadlines, high profile projects and understaffing across several industries has led many of us to develop unhealthy lifestyle habits. If a deadline looms, we find extra time to complete a project outside work hours.

For me, working weekends became the norm – an average of 7 hours overtime on Saturday and Sunday. Even then I would still have mountains of work waiting on Monday morning. Waking up tired was common (and to be expected with an average of 5-6 hours sleep per night) but this tiredness usually only lasted until after my first coffee.

Then something changed. Fatigue began lasting past the first coffee until lunch.

Unshakeable exhaustion is a shot across the bow as far as your body is concerned – and it should have been the first major warning sign that I was doing too much.

But, like most driven people my age, I brushed it all off as an anomaly and kept up the pace, using excuses to justify my position.

Promotion season is coming. I’ll just stick it out a little while longer.”

The next warning sign was not so subtle.

A deep ache in my lower back. It initially seemed like a pulled muscle, or byproduct of awful plane seats from regular work travel.  After a hot shower failed to ease it, I noticed a raised and inflamed patch (about the size of a fist) on my skin.

With a painful rash spreading in a uniform line around my back, the doctor took 10 seconds to diagnose the cause as shingles.

9 of those 10 seconds comprised surprise and incredulity on the part of my doctor as shingles are most commonly found in people aged over 50. The cause of shingles in younger people is prolonged periods of stress, illness or a where a person has become immunocompromised.

Proof is in the pudding

Even though I love my job and frenetic lifestyle I, quite literally, had overworked my body to the point where my immune system resembled a stressed out 50-year-old. A far cry from the relatively fit and healthy male I thought I was.

The truth is that we all work too hard. Whether this is in a job we hate, for work experience, career development, for a position we genuinely love or any number of justifications we use to prioritise work over other areas of life. The negative emotional, psychological and physiological impacts of working more than living are uniform and immense.

The first step is to admit that you have a problem

In my case, I am addicted to work because I enjoy it. However, as we’ve explored, workaholics come in all shapes and sizes. So long as you feel compelled to continue working beyond normal business hours, you may have a problem.

Ask yourself the following questions to determine if you are headed towards an unhealthy lifestyle:

1. Do you consistently work longer than others in a similar role in your workplace?
2. Are you the kind of person who has trouble ‘switching off’ after work?
3. Are your personal relationships strained? Particularly those with loved ones.
4. Do you become stressed if you’re stopped from working in some way?
5. Do you plan the rest of your life around work?
6. Do you spend more time on tasks than you had originally planned?
7. Have you been told by others to ease up on the amount of work you do – and have you ignored them? (Pay special attention to this sign, particularly if it comes from colleagues).

If you answered yes to more than three of the above, you may wish to re-think your current lifestyle choices.

How to reclaim your life

• Start small

If you are constantly working from home, start keeping a journal of how many extra hours you log each day. Then try to reduce this on a weekly basis. No need to go cold-turkey! Slowly ease back on your number of work hours by working one less hour per week and try to increase this steadily.

• Work smart, not hard

If you start to feel less productive as a result of your reduced hours, there are ways that you can optimise your time.

Software such as Rescue Time runs quietly in the background on your computer, delivering a report on which applications you spend your time on and how long you spend on them each day. It even helps you set and achieve goals in terms of your daily work efficiency.

Apps such as 30/30 also help your efficiency by keeping you on a task for a specific period, while Freedom disconnects you from the internet altogether – allowing you to work distraction-free.

• Learn to switch off

Set some work/life boundaries. If you maintain an almost 24/7 connection to work then you may need to disconnect work email from your phone or laptop. If this is hard to achieve then set yourself a goal of not checking email between certain hours or use an app such as EnforcedVacation that will automatically switch your emails off for you.

• Leave when everybody else does

If you are the first person into work and last person to leave, start keeping regular hours like the rest of your colleagues. Set yourself a drop dead time to leave by and do not deviate from it. If you easily lose track of time at the office then set an alarm 20 minutes before you wish to leave on your phone or set a vibrating alert on your wearable fitness tracker or have a friend or colleague send you menacing emails, texts or hover over your desk until you step away from the computer.

• Focus on your passions

Take up some hobbies that you have always wanted to try and spend more time with your family and friends. By incrementally reprioritising where you spend your leisure time, you will eventually get into the habit of passing over extra work hours and learning to switch off.

At the end of the day

The work will always be there but your health will not.

It is important not to feel guilty about taking time for yourself. Give yourself permission to relax and take some time away from the office to recharge. It will serve to strengthen your abilities, creative energy and problem-solving skills so that you will be more productive once you are back in the office.

What strategies do you use to cope with work-related stress? Think we’ve missed anything? Let us know in the comments section below!

Further Information

• To manage fatigue at work visit Safe Work Australia.
• For help achieving a sound work/life balance visit Managing Worklife Balance International.

Expectations and reality are two very different things.

For many employees, working for a start up company can seem like a dream: complete creative freedom, constant brainstorming sessions, flexible work hours and a dynamic, out-of-the-box team environment.

While the possibilities of a start up role are virtually limitless – so are the perils.

Here we dispel 6 common corporate myths perpetuated by small businesses to retain dream employees in nightmare conditions.

Myth 1: There is no such thing as job security in start up companies

Positions in startups are emotionally, psychologically and financially demanding.

A common strategy used by inexperienced entrepreneurs is to shift much of this burden from the shoulders of company directors to employees. Placing staff on short-term contracts with zero job security allows unethical businesses to influence behavior and motivate employees through a performance-based cycle of negative reinforcement. In some cases real or perceived failure to generate sufficient income to justify your role is used in connection with a threat of termination of employment.

This predator-prey strategy is a potent form of corporate manipulation that generates higher employee output through longer hours and less leave.

Escaping the web

Don’t operate in a vacuum.

Understand your rights and entitlements and communicate these to your employer. Threat of termination of employment (whether overt or implied), coercion and false or misleading representations about workplace rights are hallmarks of an organisation openly exploiting staff.

Myth 2: We are all doing it tough financially but if you work hard we will reward you!

Beware of employers who use notions of transparency as emotional leverage to tip the salary bargaining scales against you.

Startups that project complete openness with staff while withholding important financial statistics, timelines for company growth and long-term plans for employees are often masking a hidden agenda. Broad future-based promises about the creation of permanent work generates a powerful culture of indoctrination, particularly in companies contracting a young and dynamic workforce.

Promises of long term employment after an initial and unspecified period of ‘start up hardship’ are rarely kept.

Employees who empathise with what they are led to believe are the shared financial struggles of their employer are less likely to request salary increases, assert rights to leave entitlements and superannuation or even permanent roles. Staff become conditioned to work towards company goals with little or no remuneration.

Escaping the web

Don’t allow yourself to be strung along by a corporate illusion. Identify employers that are more interested in their bottom line than the welfare of employees.

Key indicators are companies who focus on vanity metrics such as number of staff, number of social media followers and email subscribers as evidence of rapid expansion and success. A disproportionate emphasis on artificial growth indicators often conceals deeper systemic issues.

With no clear business model and hard evidence to support claims of explosive growth, unethical employers are free to exploit employee loyalty and garner an ‘above-and-beyond’ attitude with zero accountability to follow through with the promise of career progression, promotion or increased pay.

Understand your rights and keep abreast of changes to standard wages in your industry.

Myth 3: As a contractor you do not have the same entitlements as an employee

A common strategy used by unethical businesses is to engage staff in sham contracting arrangements.

This involves deliberately disguising an employment relationship as an independent contracting relationship to avoid employer obligations – for example, computers and basic equipment, paid leave entitlements, superannuation, workers compensation, compliance with OH&S and tax laws and consistent work hours.

The result is the mirage of a thriving organisation; the reality is a company operating on a shoestring to the overall detriment of employees.

Escaping the web

Sham contracting is illegal.

Insist on an employment contract before accepting any new job.

Read the contract thoroughly to determine your conditions of employment. Make a conscious note of anything that may detrimentally impact you and raise it with your employer before signing.

Even if your contracting arrangement seems legitimate you may be entitled to full employee benefits and protections.

Early indicators of a sham arrangement are where your employer has:

• asked you to register an ABN before being hired (especially where your current work is your primary source of income);
• told you that for tax purposes it is more beneficial to you to work as a contractor;
• held off or seemed reluctant to provide you with an employment contract;
• made assurances that the contractual engagement you accept is temporary with ‘near future’ steps towards a streamlined HR system and full employee entitlements.

Unethical employers are highly practiced in the art of subtle manipulation. This behaviour points to someone seeking to evade employer obligations under the guise of a contractual relationship. Your employer cannot use the above unfair tactics or any other mechanism (whether overt or implied) to induce you to accept unsatisfactory work arrangements.

If you suspect that you have been hired under a sham contracting scheme, check your employment arrangements against the below checklist:

Reproduced from Fair Work Australia

Myth 4: Internships are about working, not about learning ….right?

Wrong.

Beware of startups running bogus unpaid internship programs.

Unethical employers have been known to make false or misleading statements to induce unpaid work that is used to better everyday operations and expansion of the company without complying with the Fair Work Act 2009. 

Job seekers in the entertainment, media, marketing and non-profit industries are particularly susceptible to exploitation. With an endless supply of recent graduates willing to do whatever it takes to get a foot in the door, inexperienced staff looking to further their career are easily manipulated into supplying a continuous free work force. Hopeful interns are often promised future paid work that fails to materialise.

Escaping the web

If you wish to undertake an internship first ensure that the program is legitimate.

You can do this by seeking information on program:

• Duration – generally speaking, the longer your internship program runs, the greater the likelihood it constitutes an employment relationship.

• Content and structure – is your program intended to be a learning and professional development experience or will you be undertaking work that goes towards normal business operations of the company? Do you come into work at a specified time? Work to specific tasks and deadlines? If so, it’s likely you are engaged in more than just observational learning and that an employment relationship has formed.

• Significance to business operations – will you complete work that directly benefits or goes towards normal business operations? If you were not undertaking this work would it ordinarily be completed by a paid employee? The higher the calibre of work you are completing the more likely you have entered an employment relationship.

• Benefits – who is benefiting more from the program? The main rewards should pass to you in the form of skills acquisition and experience. If the balance of benefits is skewed in favour of the company there is a good chance you are in an employment relationship and are entitled to fair pay.

An unpaid internship program that amounts to an employment relationship means you are entitled to protections such as a minimum wage, compliance with National Employment Standards and the terms of any relevant award or enterprise agreement.

On the other hand, if you are completing work experience as part of an authorised educational training program (such as school or university coursework requirement) and your role is purely observational then your employer is legally not required to pay you.

Myth 5: Your dream job exists, you just need to create it

Company owners who give with one hand by promising your dream job but take with the other by failing to provide support, resources and training play a dangerous game of psychological abuse.

Identifying features of these employers are those who have an unreasonable expectation of the time, mental & emotional energy and financial investment you should be making for the greater good of the company.

Intra-office dialogue and meetings are used to establish unrealistic expectations of staff work level commitment. Failure to work overtime and weekends with no pay is equated with lack of commitment and often results in veiled threats about your future with the company. Often this is less a product of your efficiency and more a product of work pressure being inversely directed to you through unachievable work targets.

Escaping the web

Beware of companies selling a dream.

This can quickly evaporate to reveal a nightmare.

If something seems wrong don’t ignore it. Minor tell tale signs are usually the first indicators that something nefarious is happening on a much larger scale.

It is unlawful for your employer to:

• do something that adversely affects you in certain circumstances;
• coerce you into doing something through fear, intimidation of threats;
• use extreme pressure or influence to make you alter your employment conditions;
• make a knowingly false representation that you will rely on.

Do your research, trust your instincts and learn to identify the early warning signs.

Myth 6: This is just what start up life is like!

Perhaps the most pervasive myth hatched by unethical businesses is that control over company culture is absolute.

Either you fit in, or you leave.

Some employers go so far as to manufacture their own corporate folklore to divert attention away from all manner of evil. Office chatter such as “this is just start up life!” is used as a calculated blanket excuse to justify much of what we discuss in Myths 1-5.

At their worst, company directors actually start to believe their own mythology.

This type of corporate Stockholm Syndrome can ensnare hopeful employees in a web of lies and deceit. Staff who don’t know any better are at risk of ongoing emotional/psychological abuse from employers who understand the system and how to manipulate it.

The impact on employees can result in the unwitting acceptance of:

• second rate office conditions and facilities;
• a toxic company culture (for example, one that fosters gender inequality, sexual harassment, offensive language or bullying and harassment);
• no pay increases or other entitlements;
• ever-changing employment conditions;
• flagrant disregard for staff safety and wellbeing.

Escaping the web

Be wary of employers who make you doubt yourself, your judgement and your abilities.

Identifying unfair pressure and emotional or psychological abuse is not easy.

Skilled manipulators are successful at exercising power and control because their tactics can almost never be traced to an aggressive act. An important warning sign is an employer who uses subtle emotional manipulation by way of critical analysis on aspects of your personality, character or personal life.

For example, you may justifiably express concerns about accepting a job without signing an employment contract. In this case, an experienced emotional manipulator responds by redirecting the question to you and away from his/her unlawful activity:

“Some people need employment contracts in order to feel secure. But the rest of our staff are happy to take risks and live week-to-week”.

Don’t be fooled. This statement is carefully crafted strategy designed to stop you asking the right questions.

If you’re questioning yourself, you’re not questioning the company or the decisions being made about it or your future. 

Still unsure about whether any of this applies to you? Consider the following scenarios:

Your health is often the best point of reference. Chronic stress, headaches, increased blood pressure, heart palpitations, exhaustion, insomnia, weight loss and brittle hair are some of the main signs you are compromising yourself in the interests of the company.

Ongoing and extreme cases can lead to Battered Worker Syndrome.

Un-spinning the lies – when to call it quits

If something sounds too good to be true ….it probably is.

Take your cue from the tale of the spider and the fly and learn how to separate myth from reality.

Analyse your situation and make an informed decision about the best time to cut your losses and move on.

These days success in start up life is less about persevering in the face of an impossible situation as knowing the best time to leave.

Identifying corporate propaganda is an important first step to minimise the time you waste in the wrong start up and safeguard your future.

Looking for further information and resources?

For more information contact the Independent Contractors Hotline: 1300 667 850

To complain about a sham contacting arrangement contact:

• Fair Work Ombudsman: 131 394
• Australian Building and Construction Commission: 1800 003 338
• Your local union.

The Fair Work Ombudsman and Building and Construction Commission have powers to prosecute employers who contravene these laws.

Do you have anything to add to this story? Tell us about it in the comments section below.