7.3 Focus on Burnout
Introduction
The cynicism, depression, and lethargy that are characteristic of burnout have become so ubiquitous in certain areas of practice that they seem to be simply a natural part of work. To the contrary, burnout is not inevitable in law. It can be identified and treated.
What is “burnout”?
Burnout is not simply a result of working long hours or juggling too many tasks, though those both play a role. Burnout is a common, colloquial term used in “helping professions”. Burnout “is a psychological syndrome in response to chronic interpersonal stressors on the job” (Ana Storey & Alisa Neary, Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles). Burnout is often accompanied by overwhelming physical and emotional exhaustion as well as a pessimistic attitude toward work, and a general feeling of lack of accomplishment.
Maslach and Leiter define burnout as follows:
“Burnout is a psychological syndrome emerging as a prolonged response to chronic interpersonal stressors on the job. The three key dimensions of this response are an overwhelming exhaustion, feelings of cynicism and detachment from the job, and a sense of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment. The significance of this three‐dimensional model is that it clearly places the individual stress experience within a social context and involves the person’s conception of both self and others.”
Closely related to burnout is compassion fatigue: “… the cumulative physical, emotional and psychological effects of being continually exposed to traumatic stories or events when working in a helping capacity. …[C]ompassion fatigue involves a cluster of symptoms such as, but not limited to, sleep disturbance, anxiety, intrusive thoughts, a sense of futility or pessimism about people, lethargy, isolation and irritability” (Linda Albert).
While burnout and compassion fatigue have similar symptoms, their treatment is somewhat different. Regardless, attention to both compassion fatigue and burnout is important to support a lifetime in the legal profession.
Women & Burnout in the Legal Profession
During my final meeting with my supervisor, she mentioned something that really bothered me, but it was intended to be a compliment. Throughout my time working with her, she would repeatedly assign me last-minute tasks and expect them to be done within a couple of days, not respecting that I had a very busy school schedule. It made me incredibly frustrated and annoyed. Despite this, the people-pleaser in me would finish all of those last-minute tasks on time and to my detriment – whether it be not sleeping enough to finish them, avoiding preparation for my lectures, or even saying no to social gatherings to complete them. She mentioned that she was so thankful for the flexibility in my schedule to complete tasks last minute. She was also thankful for my reliability and how she could “always count on me to finish the last-minute tasks she had.” At first, it made me feel great, but then I started to think about how my self-worth was tied to her “compliments” on my reliability and flexibility.
In Maika Eysselein’s article, “Beware of burnout! Why women need to have ‘me’ time,” they state that a lot of mental health issues among women are because of their people-pleasing tendencies (Maika Eysselein, “Beware of burnout! Why women need to have ‘me’ time,” (2012) 24:2 Sister Namibia at 14). Those who engage in people-pleasing behaviour typically tend to work a lot harder and dismiss their own needs, leading to high anxiety, depression, and most importantly, burnout. It is well-known that women in the legal field have to work much harder than their male co-workers and are typically underpaid compared to their male co-workers as well. All of the hard work women need to do to “prove themselves worthy,” and to show they are serious about their job is at the expense of their own needs and own mental health, a lot of which leads to these incredibly high rates of mental health issues and burnout specifically.
As a woman in the legal profession, I have already succumbed to these people-pleasing tendencies and chose to show my commitment to my work rather than allow myself a good work-life balance. The worst part is that I felt good about working myself to death because I was rewarded with praise. I understand wholeheartedly how it feels to be a woman in the legal profession and this idea of working too hard in order to receive recognition or show their worth and I haven’t even begun my true professional career yet. If I cannot break the habit of overworking in this way, it will be incredibly detrimental to myself in the future as I work in the legal field.
Burnout and recovery
Recovering from burnout takes more than a nap or a yoga class. It requires re-prioritizing and making decisions that allow you to take care of yourself.
The “Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers” blog recommends:
“To reevaluate burnout, write down a list everything you do currently and ask the following 5 questions:
- What should I stop doing?
- What should I work on later?
- What should I automate? Find more on automating here.
- What should I delegate? Find more on delegating here.
- What should I keep doing?”
Part of preventing and treating burnout is also through working in a job that brings satisfaction. We address this later in examining Professor Larry Kreiger’s work connecting career satisfaction and alignment with one’s goals and values.
Burnout & Social Justice Work
Burnout also occurs in social justice law settings, even when a lawyer feels their work is meaningful. Burnout in social justice law is a serious and often under-examined topic. Despite mounting evidence regarding the deleterious impact activist burnout is having on activists and, as a result, movements, a culture of silencing still pervades much of this work. In Weixia Chen and Gorski’s study, for example, activist interview participants
“…grappled with the deterioration of their physical and emotional health and with hopelessness, seeing these as symptoms of their burnout. They associated these symptoms with the lack of attention to burnout and self-care in their activist communities, their deep sensitivities to the injustices they were battling in their activism, and infighting and tense relationships among SJHR activists. They recognized that their burnout had significant implications, both for their effectiveness as activists and for their abilities to remain involved in their activism. Together, these findings indicate the desperate need for greater attention to burnout and self-care across SJHR movements and activist organizations, not just for the sustainability of activists, but for the sustainability and success of movements for a more equitable and just world.”
Cher Weixia Chen & Paul C. Gorski, “Burnout in Social Justice and Human Rights Activists: Symptoms, Causes and Implications” (2015) 7:3 J of Human Rights Practice 366 at 37.
Burnout in social justice work can also be a result of the political and economic contexts in which this work is taking place.
One student’s views on
“More and more, I see non-profits fulfilling the responsibilities that I believe the government should be providing. Arguments are continually being made to expand the capacities of non-profits to enable them to take on more roles in our communities, even in the legal realm. Some advocates have argued for expansion of community legal support from social service non-profits as a partial solution in alleviating the access to justice crisis, especially in the wake of cuts to legal aid. While I agree that the more wraparound services available to more vulnerable populations is good in the short term, by downloading even more tasks onto stretched and underfunded non-profits, I see a further abdication of the government’s responsibilities in what we consider to be a social welfare state.”
Reflection Questions
- Identify three ways signs of burnout manifest for you.
- Based on your work in a social justice law setting, what are the unique characteristics of these settings that makes burnout a particular challenge?
- What are ways you can think of to prevent burnout in the profession? Consider both individual and systems-level interventions.
Burnout & COVID-19
The Covid-19 pandemic has added layers of additional challenge for lawyers, clients and workplaces. For many lawyers, mental health was seriously impacted during the pandemic both individually and collectively.
As Justice Myers wrote in 713959 Ontario Limited v Hudson’s Bay Company 2021 ONSC 621,
“The court takes very seriously issues of health and wellness of practitioners, members of the judiciary, and court staff during the pandemic in particular. While lawyers and the courts are in a service business, there has to be a brake applied to service providers’ willingness to compete themselves (or their juniors) into unhealthy states in the ordinary course of business. Recognizing that young counsel and staff may have other responsibilities or just need down time does not impair access to justice provided that everyone understands the need to make personal sacrifices when truly urgent circumstances arise.”
The CLIO video below focuses on “Lawyer Wellness and Mental Health”. It is an edited set of interviews with a variety of guests with useful expertise and insight into mental health in law, particularly during Covid. The guests talk about uncertainty, collective grief, economic losses, and recovery.
“Daily Matters”, Episode 73: Lawyer Wellness and Mental Health, online: https://share.transistor.fm/s/0e148651.
COVID-19 also exposed particular harms – and also possibilities – for lawyers with various types of disabilities. Remote work opened up new possibilities for some lawyers with disabilities. As one professor, Britney Wilson, who has cerebral palsy, noted, “[w]e’re hearing a lot about the ‘return to normal,’ and I think the entire disability community has critiqued that notion because normal has never been accessible,” says Wilson, who has cerebral palsy. “I don’t want to see the lessons we’ve learned from this pandemic just be ignored. I hope that we can incorporate them into our return to normal.” (Amanda Robert, “Has COVID-19 made the workplace more accessible for lawyers with disabilities” (ABA Journal, October 26, 2021). The presumed “back to normal” also has particular impacts on lawyers, clients and justice system actors who are immunocompromised. What the future of legal work looks like remains an open question.
Reflection Questions
- In your view, how did courts, tribunals, and other legal systems adapt to COVID-19?
- Although we still do not know the full impact of COVID-19, what aspects of the “great pivot” in law do you think are worth keeping? Which might compromise access to justice for certain communities? Are there ways to keep “the best” of the COVID-19 justice adaptations while ensuring in person services remain available?
