Forget PPP or indeed IPOs; what you should really be focusing on is PPLI. That's professional and personal life integration, in case you didn't know. US law firm Kirkpatrick & Lockhart has come up with this handy acronym because they've just appointed Jeannine Rupp, who has a masters degree in organizational and social psychology from the London School of Economics, to be director of the firm's PPLI initiative. This, says Peter Kalis, chair of K&L's management committee, will make lawyers “happier, more productive and thus better able to serve our clients notwithstanding the challenges of life in the 21st century”.
It's a sad state of affairs when you have to hire someone to tell employees how to have a professional life and a home life. In fact, perhaps any firm where this is deemed necessary should be avoided like the plague. But it does seem that K&L employees are particularly in need. As Rupp points out: “It's increasingly difficult to separate the many identities – lawyer, wife, father, baseball coach, community volunteer – that we all attempt to maintain.”
No wonder K&L employees are having a hard time. Surely no-one can be expected to be a wife, father, lawyer, community volunteer and baseball coach simultaneously.