There’s no law against taking the odd break

Rob Aberdein is Chief Commercial Officer, Progeny​

In Gallup’s latest State of the Global Workplace report, 41% of employees report experiencing high levels of stress, with the way people are managed at an organisational level being a major contributor.

In a profession renowned for its long hours and high pressure, stress and burnout are sadly ongoing challenges that the legal industry is all too familiar with and there were several things that stood out to me within this report.

Having the right tools in place

The first issue identified as a major cause of workplace stress is not having the materials and equipment you need to do your job effectively, with the report suggesting organisation-level improvements in areas such as scheduling change, management practices, staff resources and job design. Especially in small to medium-sized legal firms, I think there is still a huge issue with legacy ways of working - and embracing complementary workflow technology and AI will be key to tackling unsustainable working hours.

The second point was that strong and resilient cultures put a high priority on manager hiring and development, with Gallup noting that 70% of the variance in team engagement can be attributed to the manager. As a lawyer myself, I think I can say that lawyers are not always the best managers and that our industry has a lot of very smart people that don’t necessarily have great coaching and people management skills. So, investing in formal management development is also key for increasing wellbeing and employee engagement.

Both of these issues collide within the traditional ‘always on’ way of working that is still endemic in the legal sector. This is both cultural, as in a product of senior management, and related to inefficient working practices. I remember as a young trainee being told to leave my jacket on the back of my chair at the end of the working day, so the partners thought you had just popped out for a coffee and not gone home. Unfortunately, I think that this attitude is far from being a thing of the past.

Investing in your intellectual capital

If we look at the essence of the legal profession, then what we are selling is intellectual capital. As well as a firm’s duty of care, if it is not nurturing its core asset then it is not optimised and at risk of burnout. Wellbeing needs to move from being seen as a ‘nice to have’ therefore to being a business priority with true investment in our intellectual capital.

Fit for purpose tech stacks, the automation of repetitive tasks and greater integration of non-legal systems can then streamline working practices and help to free up legal professionals to focus on high value, stimulating work that can be completed within reasonable hours.

To be clear, I’m not preaching here and we have work to do, but we’re embracing technology and are on a path of positive change. As an industry, we need to stop seeing viewing ‘always on’ as a badge of honour but instead see it for what it is – a sign of inefficient working practices and poor people management. I think it’s only then that we will make more meaningful progress.