Background: The Law Center recognizes that a shorter work week has many positive impacts on the economy, planet, and human well-being. We believe that when people have time to pursue activities outside of their paid work, they are more likely to invest time in activities such as cooking, caring for family and community members, and taking public transportation. Moreover, we believe that unpaid radical activism, organizing, and mutual aid work in the community should be done on Law Center hours—countering the dynamic of nonprofit professionals getting so consumed by project work plans and funder deliverables that they’re unable to show up for poor people’s emergent organizing and community support efforts. Since the majority of the Law Center staff are or will be lawyers, making them members of the fifth highest earning profession in the U.S., staff may be able to supplement their Law Center incomes by taking outside clients. Staff will self-manage their own work schedules, while inviting and reasonably integrating feedback from coworkers, and while making transparent (usually through Google calendar or any other means reasonably designed to give relevant coworkers a heads up) any schedule changes that make them unavailable during normal business hours Monday through Friday. Normal business hours is usually interpreted to mean 10am - 4pm Pacific Coast time.

Policy: Therefore, in light of the above principles, the Law Center will strive to enable Core Staff members to work no more than 30 hours per week, which comprises a full work week, but staff may work fewer hours some weeks to offset more hours worked in other weeks. The Law Center staff trust each other to discern what work and activities count towards their 30 hour work week—in general, staff are encouraged to include not just explicitly Circle-related activities, but activities where they are connecting with communities that furthers the Law Center’s mission, whether that looks like organizing, protests, land work, or mutual aid.  For work with other organizations that staff members routinely count towards their SELC hours and that is not explicitly connected to a Circle or SELC program, staff should invite accountability and share learnings with a relevant Circle or with the entire team—such as by updating coworkers through Weekly Tasks updates, marking their Google calendar, or sharing in a related Slack channel or team meeting. In addition to taking a lunch break, the Law center staff are encouraged to take as many breaks as needed during their work days to take care of their bodies, and nourish and re-center themselves between meetings—which count towards our hours. The Law Center will not expect any staff to work more than 30 hours per week, and staff will collaborate to manage workloads to make this possible.

Updated July 25, 2023 and April 23, 2024 per "PROPOSAL: Updating 30 hour work week policy"