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BURNOUT IN LAWYERS
by
Dr. Ian M. Chung
SUBJECT: Health and Medicine, Law Profession
Malaysia
Also found at [1995]4 CLJ cxiii (Dec)
Who would have thought it could happen to lawyers? You went into law with high hopes. You were entering a noble profession. You had the respect of the community. You had prospects of a good income. So you thought.
What is the reality today? The reality of course is that change is inevitable, but the change for lawyers is accelerating in a negative direction.
Burnout
Burnout was a trendy diagnosis for a condition suffered by health care professionals in the social and welfare fields. Nowadays anyone can burnout butchers, bakers, candlestick makers and even lawyers. The condition is characterised by frustration accompanied by a sense of hopelessness related to the professional life of the sufferer. In part, the condition is related to the expectation of the professional exceeding the possible outcome of the work. This is often in the context of a range of competing demands and expectations from the client, the philosophy of the professional body they belong to, consumer expectations, the rules and structure of the employing body, society's attitudes, and the resources available. Does this sound familiar?
Burnout and the law
The law is part boredom and part sheer stress. Under-stimulation or tedium is a stress itself and leaves as prone to distraction, avoidance and unnecessary omission and errors.
Then there are the constant interruptions - the incessant phone, the 'emergencies', the staff.
How many of us have developed a phone phobia? The very ring of the phone triggers a negative Pavlovian response of annoyance and frustration because it has come to mean another problem, another interruption, another emergency or complication.
As for the clients, they are at the same time a source of income and of annoyance. Someone we want to attract and avoid at the same time. How often do they expect the world but expect to pay nothing? How often do they expect to take no responsibility themselves, have no idea what they want, have unrealistic expectations, change their mind at the last moment? The matter gets delayed for a variety of reasons but who is blamed? How often the client appears to think that they are our only client and their case is the most urgent. Prioritising becomes determined by the perceived level of the crisis.
Then there are those areas of law where a high percentage of clients are litigious, where there is utter frustration due to the system and where remuneration is poor. How many of you dread the family law case? How many of you have decided not to do certain types of work?
Even your colleagues can become the source of stress due to their delays, the adversarial system, the deliberate game playing, the style of their professional competition.
The law course did not prepare you for dealing with these realities - consumer expectation, lawyer bashing by the media, communication with difficult clients, time management, financial and cost control, staff administration and technological changes.
Meanwhile practising certificate fees, LawCover, insurance, wages, rents, taxes, superannuation and the mortgage all have to be paid.
"There has to be an easier way to earn a living some of you begin to think."
Law as we knew is dead! In some respects this is a good thing but in others it is disastrous. What can we do about it? Many feel quite hopeless. Some burnout! Some smoulder along. Some dropout. Some survive.
What are the symptoms of burnout?
It feels like 'Mondayitis', seven days a week; there is moodiness and irritability, there is loss of interest, not only in work but more generally; sometimes there is an attempt to escape into sleep, food, drugs, alcohol, sex or some other diversion; anxiety or even panic disorders may appear; depression is more liable to occur. The sufferer feels trapped, they feel unable to find a solution to
their situation, they feel angered and they gradually decline into a sense of hopelessness and eventually helplessness. It seems to them no one understands, no one cares and everyone and everything is conspiring against them. Communications, personal and professional, deteriorate; as a result relationships deteriorate, quality of life deteriorates, professional performance deteriorates and risk of negligence claims increases.
Some readers would say "I'm not that bad!' I would certainly hope not because I have described the full clinical course of the condition of burnout, but I wonder how many of us are at the prodromal phase (or in the early stages) of the condition? The symptoms of the early stages are Mondayitis occurring on Sunday night, general ennui, impatience when things do not go exactly as you'd like, loss of interest in work, developing pre-occupations. You start to wish you were somewhere else and you look longingly at Amway or a McDonalds franchise, at an antique shop or coffee bar.
A spontaneous remission is usually the result of accidental discovery of meaning in one's work or in life, discovering a compelling interest or a purpose in life.
Do not wait for an accidental remission, take action. Early intervention is the only alternative to progression of the condition to dropout.
Surviving burnout
1. Care about what you do but not so much that you cannot detach when appropriate.
2. Develop a sense of mastery, by getting good at something that you like to do inside the profession and outside.
3. Concentrate on doing well what you like to do and let the rest take care of itself.
4. Live a balanced life and develop living skills – get fit physically, emotionally and spiritually (NOT necessarily religiously).
5. Develop supportive relationships and networks professionally and personally.
6. Come to know and appreciate your strengths, come to accept and guard against your weaknesses.
7.Be aware of the early warning signs of burnout and intervene early - just take a step, make a start.
8. Be prepared to accept help if you sense danger signals.
9.Beware of maladaptive stress release e.g. bingeing on food, alcohol or drugs; compulsive gambling or sex.
10. Learn and practice stress management yourself.
11. Life by the serenity prayer. For those who are not familiar with this prayer, it goes like this:
a) God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
b) The courage to change the things that I can;
c) And the wisdom to know the difference;
Remember, God helps those who help themselves.
It took me some 30 years of professional life to begin to live by these philosophies but, take heart, burnout is not inevitable. I have survived - so can you. Indeed, I do enjoy my work, psychotherapy; I have vicariously lived 1000 lives, and I acknowledge the lesson of these lives that I have just shared with you.
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