We also seek to improve DRA’s culture to improve retention. In 2021 and 2022, DRA lost 50% of its staff. Additionally, a July 2023 poll of staff showed that:
- 77.8% agree with the statement: “I am actively looking at job postings or reaching out to my network for other job opportunities.”
More needs to be done to recognize the work that we do and make every one of us feel valued.
Better Leave Policies
Sick Leave: DRA offers only 5 sick days per year. As a result, people frequently work while sick, and workers–especially people with disabilities–ration their sick days.
Vacation Time: Vacation accrual is slow and difficult, especially for new employees. We seek more generous vacation time so we can work AND play.
Disability Leave: Despite being a disability rights organization, DRA offers no paid disability leave beyond our short- and long-term disability insurance (which covers only part of an employee’s salary). We seek disability leave commensurate with paid family/parental leave to ensure that people with disabilities are treated as well as people who need other forms of leave.
Family/Parental Leave: DRA currently offers only the legal minimum of 8 weeks paid parental leave, while the vast majority of peer organizations offer a minimum of 12 weeks paid, with many offering 20-24 paid weeks.
Sabbatical: Long-term DRA staff need sabbaticals so that they can return to this work refreshed and able to continue.
Work Flexibility
No Billable Hours: Management is insisting on a billable hour requirement–like that at a big law firm, instead of the non-profit that we are–to make us work more and longer. We came to DRA because we rejected firm culture and wanted to put our talents to work for our communities. Firm culture, like billable hours, would be devastating for our work culture, morale, employee wellbeing, and equity. It would:
- Seriously impair our ability to recruit and retain skilled staff.
- Harm workplace equity. People do not take the same amount of time to do things, particularly attorneys with disabilities.
- Lead to overworking and burning out.
- Make no sense for DRA, which does not have paying clients and does not pay attorneys based on any kind of bonus structure.
- Lead to inefficiencies in billing and pressure to invent work.
- Be impossible to comply with when employees have no control over their workloads.
Longer Lunch: Non-exempt employees currently receive only a 30-minute, unpaid lunch break. We seek a longer paid lunch for these employees so that they can actually take a break during their workday without losing pay.
Alternate Work Schedules: Many DRA workers came from other organizations that allowed flexible and alternate work schedules. We seek the same at DRA to benefit parents, people with disabilities, people caring for relatives, and anyone else so that we can use our time more productively and efficiently while still having a life at home.
Compensatory Time: Right now DRA offers no compensatory time. Even if exempt employees–who receive no overtime–work extremely long hours for trials or other intense case pressures, they get no time off in lieu. We seek compensatory time to make sure that employees who are working hard don’t lose out.