In pursuit of happiness

"Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” - probably one of the best-known lines from the United States’ Declaration of Independence. It refers to ‘unalienable’ rights, which all humans are entitled to. In these modern times, it’s this pursuit of happiness that is probably the easiest right to forget – the fast pace and pressures of the day-to-day can mean that people are left feeling stressed and unfulfilled.

In the legal profession, stress is an epidemic. For newly qualified and younger lawyers, the problem is particularly common. Recent statistics from mental health charity LawCare show that its helpline dealt with a record number of calls last year, with 27% of callers suffering with workplace stress and almost half of all callers (45%) trainees or lawyers qualified for less than five years. The Law Society’s Junior Lawyers Division also launched its resilience and wellbeing survey in January, after last year’s results showed that a shocking 90% of respondents had experienced stress, with 26% experiencing “severe or extreme” levels of stress.

So why has stress become such an issue in the profession? And what can be done to tackle this problem?

Firstly, there’s no denying that while the evolution of technology has provided a helping hand for many and created numerous benefits, such as being able to work remotely and on-the-move, it also means everything is much more immediate – clients often expect answers straight away (and at all times of the day). According to Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked, 70% of office emails are read within six seconds of their arriving. This is an almost unbelievable statistic - it’s no wonder that people are feeling pressured and stressed when they’re trying to work and process information so quickly.

Recognising where the stresses come from is one important step. The next is to tackle the problem.

Don’t forget happiness

Returning to the premise of this article, the pursuit of happiness is an important point to remember. An intangible concept, it’s easy to forget to focus on our own happiness as we go about our daily working lives.

At Vario we value happiness so highly that in 2017 we hired an external training company to come and talk to our contract lawyers about it. There were many take-aways from the session and popular ideas such as altruism, gratitude and mindfulness were discussed as ways to help us feel happier.

A study from Harvard University has found – through its app Track your Happiness – that being engaged with the here and now, and not getting distracted or letting the mind wander too much, leaves people feeling much happier.

Practicing mindfulness is growing in popularity and there are a few simple ways the methods can be integrated into everyday working lives.

• Notice your breathing – just taking a few moments to recognise your breathing pattern and taking some deep breaths can help calm the body and mind.
• Look up! Commuting, especially in a busy city like London can be the definition of a rat race, with many people getting from A to B with their heads in their phones and not paying much attention to their surroundings. Taking time to focus the mind and paying attention to your journey can make it much less stressful and also gives the brain some much-needed rest time.
• Focus your senses – scanning through your body and paying attention to each sense can also act as a powerful meditative tool. It only takes a couple of minutes but can prove very calming.
• Take a lunch break – ensuring you get out of the office and eat your sandwich away from your desk is another simple way to take an all-important break and can mean you’re more productive in the afternoon.
• Ask what your firm can do for you – at Pinsent Masons we offer our lawyers a wellbeing programme, which encompasses an array of offerings, including compensation and benefits, an employee assistance programme (providing the means for employees to raise concerns), an employee-led disability and wellbeing group, private health insurance, yoga/pilates, massages, running clubs and so on. It’s a good idea to ask your firm what they offer in terms of supporting wellbeing.

When you’re starting out in your career it’s very easy to let it take over – the workload can be high and understandably you want to make a good impression. However, the focus on work/life balance is shifting, with more lawyers recognising the need for a healthy and fulfilled private life, which then helps improve their day-to-day work life. Our Vario lawyers have chosen contract lawyering often as a way to improve their own work/life balance – whether it is due to family commitments, a desire to travel or to run a passion project on the side, the flexibility of contract lawyering appeals to more and more professionals as another step towards ‘having it all.’

Stress and pressure in the legal profession are never going to be eliminated – it’s a fast-paced career which inevitably has stressful elements (and indeed fast pace and high pressure are part of the appeal for many lawyers), but helpfully for many – and especially those entering the profession now – the issues around stress are being recognised, discussed and dealt with better than ever before.  

Matthew Kay is the director at Vario, a hub of Pinsent Masons.