My heart sank when I read Viv Williams's top tips for remaining competitive (see [2008] Gazette, 1 May, 16).


Keeping up in Viv's world will have my previous day's billable hours on the senior partner's desk by 10am the following morning. He says: 'This practice allows the managing partner to identify problem areas at an early stage and ensure that issues are dealt with. There is no point in waiting until the end of the month to ask what happened with a particular department - by then the damage is done.'



Daily checking sounds a bit obsessive-compulsive. What a mind-numbing activity for the checker and the checked upon! I hope managers of professional people will find a more enlightened way to manage staff. Solicitors are professional people, not worker drones.



Viv Williams creates an image of a dispiriting environment where performance is driven by pay. His top tips ignore what solicitors want. Research published last year showed that solicitors wanted managers they could communicate with, clients they spoke to and career development - they were less concerned with the basis of their remuneration.



There is a lot of work in the average working life and if we are to avoid rather depressing lives we need to find more ways to make it enjoyable. The 'cutting edge' in an increasingly competitive marketplace will be available to firms with a happy, well-motivated workforce which takes pride in a job well done and a challenge met.



My top tip for firms is to create a culture that enables all to thrive as human beings. It may be more difficult to create and maintain than monitoring billable hours print-outs, but ultimately it offers more reward for all concerned. A happy work force can't be calibrated and it won't show up on a print-out at 10am or, indeed, at any other time.



Sue Nelson, Law Society council member, City of Westminster