A deep dive into burnout among lawyers: part 1

No one can deny that working in the field of law is extremely stressful and demanding. So what happens to people who are facing such stress on a daily basis? Leading consultant psychologist Dr Catherine Sykes discusses the impact of such stress among lawyers and how it can lead to burnout.

What are the leading causes and challenges of burnout among lawyers, and how do they differ from other high-stress professions?

Most lawyers experience some degree of burnout at one point in their career. The prevalence of burnout in lawyers is higher than in the medical profession. It is important for us to understand the unique factors that lawyers face, in order to support them through burnout prevention and recovery.

Below are some of the common individual and systemic workplace factors that have been found to contribute to the high prevalence of lawyers experiencing burnout:

Entrance into the Profession

Law school entails challenge after challenge. The competitive nature of law students, excessive workloads and time pressures tend to exert a huge amount of pressure.

Research from Australian psychologists has demonstrated high levels of psychological distress among law students, much more so than the levels found in the general population and in medical students. Thirty five percent of law students reported high or very high levels of psychological distress, while in the case of medical students, the figure was 18% and for general population, aged between 18-34 years, the figure was 13%.

Another study carried out by Sheldon and Krieger in Florida, discovered that law students demonstrated similar levels of intrinsic motivation and values and subjective well-being as other advanced undergraduates at the beginning of law school.

It also found that by the end of the first academic year, law students were more likely to be driven to achieve goals in order to impress others. i.e. extrinsic goals. This factor can really help us in is trying to understand burnout amongst lawyers.

Psychologists Deci and Ryan argue that it is the achievement of intrinsic goals that enhances well-being, as a means of satisfying the basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness.

Long, Unsociable Working Hours

Lawyers experience prolonged, unsociable working hours on a daily basis, meaning that they have little, if any, time for relaxation. These late nights result in a lack of time and struggle for lawyers to sustain a healthy social lifestyle outside the office.

Common Lawyer Traits

Research has focused on the possibility that some common traits among lawyers, make them susceptible to psychological distress. Some of these include:

Preference for rational thinking and perfectionism

Rational thinking involves deriving a conclusion from the situational variables, which often defines the day-to-day thinking processes of a lawyer.

Maladaptive perfectionism is often demonstrated by lawyers and is characterised by desire to be flawless and set very high, often unrealistic standards. As a result, many lawyers may feel chronically dissatisfied. Repeated chronic dissatisfaction can lead to burnout.

Acquired or inherent pessimism

Psychological distress is linked to pessimism. Those who are pessimistic often believe that the negative events are likely to be long lasting, their fault and  will affect everything in their lives.

All or nothing thinking style

An all or nothing thinking style relates to perfectionism.  It is a cognitive distortion which makes people view the world as binary. Prolonged thinking in this way can result in maladaptive perfectionism,  which leads to being switched on for long periods of the day. Consequently, this may result in sleep deprivation, skipping meals, and other maladaptive coping mechanisms, contributing to burnout in the long term.

Support and Mentoring

Research has demonstrated job dissatisfaction in lawyers who feel a lack of social support at work. Availability and quality of mentoring from supervisors and colleagues have been proven to contribute to job satisfaction among lawyers, aiding protection against psychological distress and burnout. However, a combination of a competitive work environment with a perfectionist thinking style may mean that mentoring and coaching can sometimes be perceived as a ‘weakness’ and are either not taken up when offered or not requested when needed.

Role Clarification Problems

Unclear work roles and responsibilities is a major cause of occupational stress. Role ambiguity can result in employees feeling unsure of how to behave or conduct themselves at work. The thin or blurred lines between what is right or wrong can, over time, become a psychological stressor, particularly for a perfectionist.

As a means of trying to handle such ambiguity, lawyers find themselves constantly overworking in addition to the baseline long hours, succumbing to burnout.

Work/Family Conflict

Due to working long working hours, it can be difficult for lawyers to undertake family commitments. As they advance, higher salaries mean that some of these practical duties can be ‘outsourced’, however, emotional and relationship building aspects of family life can suffer. This is particular important because positive emotional connections and relationships are protective factors against burnout.

Achieving satisfaction in both work and family life is a balance that requires strong communications skills, along with a mental agility to switch and be present in each role.

Anxiety Transference

Both working with clients and on cases can be also intense. Some lawyers find themselves suffering from anxiety transference, taking their clients' worries and anxieties home with them at the end of the day.

If you are a lawyer who feels that you are at risk of experiencing burnout and would like to book a consultation with Dr Sykes, do not hesitate to do so by visiting her Top Doctors profile today.