LawCare: Building workplaces fit for law
Wellbeing is increasingly recognised as a key issue within the legal sector. This has led to evolving debates about how best to support workplace wellbeing. A new free online course from the mental health charity, LawCare, addresses this issue by empowering practical change. This article considers who is responsible for workplace wellbeing and how best to address the challenges experienced across legal practice. In doing so, it highlights and dispels some common misconceptions around workplace wellbeing.
Who is responsible for workplace wellbeing?
Consider the following scenario:
Hiya is a junior solicitor at a large law firm. She is consistently praised by clients and colleagues for her hard work and dedication. She eats and sleeps well, exercises three times per week and sees family and friends regularly. However, she is beginning to feel overwhelmed at work and struggling to prioritise her workload.
What would your advice be to Hiya?
- Develop better resilience.
- Speak to her line manager.
- See a counsellor.
Pause for a moment and reflect on which option you chose and why. None of the options are necessarily ‘wrong’ but they each demonstrate differing commonly held perceptions on workplace wellbeing in the legal sector.
‘She’s well-paid, she needs to up her game’
Option (a) focuses solely upon Hiya as an individual: It assumes the ‘problem’ lies with her and requires her to in some way ‘fix’ or ‘improve’ herself. In fact, the information the scenario gives us suggests that she already practises good self-care and generally handles her work appropriately.
‘But that’s what the Employee Assistance Plan is for’
Option (c) again requires Hiya to ‘fix’ herself in some way. This time, however, it suggests the possibility of her being helped to do this. Of course, the provision of counselling and other services through an EAP can be incredibly valuable, but they only go so far. However much counselling someone has, if they remain working in a difficult environment, this alone will not solve the issue.
‘Legal workplaces need to step up and make changes’
Option (b) suggests a role for Hiya’s workplace in supporting her, positioning wellbeing as more of a collective responsibility. It acknowledges that legal work can be demanding, fast-paced and challenging and that legal workplaces have an active role to play in supporting their staff.
In fact, there is now a large body of evidence supporting this approach, from the ‘business case’ of boosting productivity and reducing attrition rates amongst staff, to the growing professional and ethical requirements to promote a healthy workplace culture. While Hiya may benefit from counselling and developing her resilience, all this evidence suggests that in fact option (b) will be most beneficial both for her and for her workplace.
So, how can legal workplaces better support wellbeing?
Let’s develop the earlier scenario a little further:
Hiya asks to speak with her line manager, David, a partner in the firm. He is busy on a large transaction but fits 30 minutes in his diary. Hiya explains the issues she is experiencing. What can David do?
- Refer Hiya to Human Resources because he is not a therapist.
- Do his best to be kind and encourage Hiya to keep going.
- Discuss Hiya’s concerns and go through her workload with her to see what can be delegated and advise her on priorities.
Once again, none of the options are necessarily ‘wrong’ but they all reflect differing workplace approaches that can be found within the legal sector.
‘I do my best to support my staff, but I have my own workload and no real training’
Options (a) and (b) reflect the pressures line managers and others engaged in wellbeing work can often experience in law firms, if the onus is on them to continually ‘fix’ others. With limited time, resources and training, trying to support staff effectively and appropriately can be extremely difficult, limiting relationship-building and personal connection. While referring Hiya to Human Resources could provide her with further support, they may also lack resources and training.
‘My workplace has guidance and training in place to help me deal with this’.
Option (c) suggests that David has the support and resources from his firm available to tackle the root causes of Hiya’s current challenges and put in place proactive solutions. Where workplaces commit to integrating wellbeing across policy, process, procedure and culture, evidence demonstrates that this can be beneficial to everyone involved.
This approach requires workplaces to develop clear goals and strategies, commit time and resources, build in opportunities for evaluation and reflection and demonstrate commitment to wellbeing at all levels (particularly leadership). However, the rewards can be significant.
Take the next step
LawCare’s new course (Fit for Law 3: Supporting legal workplace wellbeing) offers a simple but effective way to empower legal workplaces to make changes. It’s aimed at managers, team leaders, wellbeing leads and champions, as well as people working in HR, learning and development and other support roles, and is free to complete online at your own pace.
Find out more about the new course and the other free Fit for Law courses: www.lawcare.org.uk/fitforlaw
Article by Dr Emma Jones, Senior Lecturer at the University of Sheffield and LawCare Trustee