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Combating Attorney Burnout What is Burnout? The
first element of burnout is pervasive individual exhaustion.2 While
most of us work long hours at least some of the time and we all have
stretches when we feel exhausted, for most of us those stretches are
temporary. Some aspects of our work may even be energizing.
Preparing for trial or completing work on a large transaction can
produce a rush, even as it taxes our energies. While short-term physical
fatigue is likely part of the picture, it’s not the same as mental
or emotional fatigue that lasts for weeks at a time. Such complete
and prolonged exhaustion is what distinguishes burnout from the rigors
of enduring a tough stretch at work. Cynicism
about work and depersonalization of those one must deal with at work
are a second set of symptoms.3 Initially these may emerge as a coping
mechanism in response to a heavy workload or unrealistic job demands,
but unrelieved may harden into a fixed element of the burned out attorney’s
outlook.4 Despite occasional cynicism, most of us enjoy our work and
strive to give our best effort. In contrast, the burned out attorney
finds it challenging to do the bare minimum, often rationalizing that
no one cares about the difference in performance anyway. The deeper
he sinks into burnout, the more his work decreases in both quantity
and quality; and his attitude toward both supervisors and clients
becomes increasingly hostile, contemptuous, and impersonal. The
combination of exhaustion and cynicism leads naturally to the third
symptom of burnout, which is a complete sense of impending failure.5
The burned out attorney believes that each assignment will end in
failure, a psychological starting point that becomes a self-fulfilling
prophecy. Beginning each project anticipating failure, the burned
out attorney finds it virtually impossible to invest more than minimal
effort. Minimal effort leads to marginal quality work, which elicits
critical feedback. For one who begins the task anticipating failure,
such criticism—no matter how well-intentioned—simply confirms the
sense that the task was doomed from the beginning. The Cost of Burnout It
pays employers to address burnout as soon as they see it because burnout
has tremendous economic cost for legal employers through its impact
on the health of burned out associates. Burnout can cause an individual
to experience physical symptoms such as breathing difficulties, skin
problems, recurrent flu, and even heart attack.6 Burnout can result
in absenteeism, job turnover, low productivity, decreased job satisfaction,
and reduced commitment to the job.7 Burned out attorneys work at a
suboptimal pace and produce work product inferior to their capabilities.
A burned out attorney is not going to provide great client service
or be marketable. Ultimately the lawyer will quit the work environment,
leaving for another firm or leaving the practice altogether. The cost
of recruiting lawyers and training replacement attorneys is well documented. Burnout
can also spread like a virus to other lawyers in the office. Burned
out attorneys constantly complain and demoralize their colleagues
with their cynical views of clients and coworkers. Burnout contributes
to a perception that legal practice is cold and uncaring. Combating
burnout helps create a healthy work atmosphere for all. Putting Out the Fire Psychologists
believe that burnout is generally on the rise in all work settings8
and its signature causes are consistent across professions.
The causes of burnout can generally be divided into two categories:
those related to the work environment and those related to the individual.
It is important to understand both contributing factors in order
to fight the blaze. Individuals with certain personality characteristics
may be more susceptible to burnout, for example:
Among
factors relating to the work environment, increased competition (both
local and global), downsizing, and the subordination of personal values
to economic values in the job setting have led to a documented increase
in burnout across the professions.12 Those same factors permeate the
legal profession. Firms are increasingly forced to compete with one
another both locally and globally for clients.13 Larger clients have
increasing leverage to press for reduction of hourly rates.14 Those
factors and the explosion in associates’ salaries have more and more
firms feeling economically squeezed.15 Firms need more hours and more
productivity from their associates just to maintain the economic status
they previously enjoyed, to say nothing of any desire they may have
to grow. Firms are quicker to terminate lawyers who are not economically
productive, and those lawyers who do have a lucrative book of business
are more willing than ever to jump ship is search of more dollars.
The result for many firms is a constant tension between the personal
values and culture they want to embrace and the economic realities
that they face.16 Controlling Workplace Factors While
employers cannot control the personalities of their attorneys, they
can minimize the risks of attorney burnout by controlling the environmental
factors that contribute to burnout. Even personalities predisposed
to burnout can avoid it in a healthy work environment. What can an
employer do to minimize its risk? How can an employer prevent burnout
and keep its best attorneys with the firm, happier, more productive,
and producing better work product? Here are six workplace factors
employers can control to improve their employees’ attitudes and decrease
burnout. 1. Workload\Demands Any
attorney has faced a stretch with a crushing workload. It may be the
weeks leading up to a big trial or having multiple trials scheduled
in successive weeks. It might be completing a merger or acquisition
on a short timeline. We have all had the emergency situations inherent
to the practice of law, such as obtaining a temporary restraining
order or handling a client phone call late in the day. Emergencies
happen and lawyers must respond. We have all probably also endured
a stretch where our firm was understaffed for the workload, either
needing more attorneys or more support staff. In short, each of us
has wished there were more hours in the day to accomplish everything
we need to accomplish. Each
of us has an amazing psychological capacity to endure and even thrive
in those times, provided that the periods of stress are short-lived
and followed by a chance to recover.17 Attorneys slide into burnout
if every day provides more work then they can ever accomplish or every
day presents stressful and unrealistic deadlines. Conditions that
over a short term may produce psychological benefits will over a long
term produce burnout. To
fight this problem each employer should evaluate if they have enough
support staff. Do attorneys know what support staff resources are
available to them? Can they ask a librarian to cite check their work?
Is there a paralegal they can ask to format their brief? Do they share
an administrative assistant and, if so, whose work gets priority?
Is there overflow dictation support? Employers may have attorneys—especially
newer attorneys—who are taking on extra work that could easily be
given to someone else, making the attorney happier and also more productive.
If an employer is consistently short on resources it may be time to
assess hiring needs. Every
employer should have a structured way to control workflow that goes
beyond simply asking the attorney how busy he or she may be. The supervising
lawyer should understand each assignment the associate is tasked with
completing and the deadlines the associate is facing. Further, the
supervising lawyer has to work to establish a trust relationship with
the attorney being supervised so that the attorney is willing to be
honest about feeling overwhelmed. Supervising lawyers often tell the
new lawyer she can come for help if she is overwhelmed; but when the
new lawyer does so, many senior lawyers tell her, “Get used to it,”
or “We are all busy,” etc. Those comments, even if made by only one
supervising lawyer, spread like wild fire among attorneys and discourage
everyone from reporting being over-worked. The
supervising lawyer’s comments may be accurate. Everyone may be enduring
a difficult stretch on a case and lawyers do need to learn how to
handle busy stretches. What is missing and key to effective supervision,
though, is giving reassurance that the busy stretch will pass and
that the associate will have recovery time. How many supervising lawyers
encourage subordinates to get out of the office if they have completed
a particularly overwhelming stretch? How many lawyers are encouraged
to take all their vacation time? The key to minimizing burnout is
not just to control the workflow but also to teach and encourage good
recuperative habits. These recuperative habits have the added benefit
of getting the attorney ready to take on new demands with a positive
perspective, ensuring her best effort on the next case as well! 2. Control Over Work Few
situations produce as much stress as knowing that you will be judged
on the outcome of your work on a case but having little control over
how the case is going to be handled. This is the world in which many
lawyers live. They are told to draft the motion but then told what
they should or should not argue. They may be the scrivener on the
appellate brief but have no input on what will be argued. In essence,
they are asked to share in the consequences of each decision with
no opportunity to disagree with it. In truth, nearly every lawyer
has second-guessed a decision from the supervising lawyer assigning
him the work. It takes time
for lawyers to learn how to make the key strategic decisions in cases,
especially complex legal matters. Employers should strive, though,
to enable all lawyers to exercise control over cases and be decision
makers. Are there pro bono cases or cases with smaller monetary values
on which a new lawyer can take the lead? These can be great opportunities
not only to help the lawyers sharpen their legal skills but also to
give them a chance to make the decisions. Encourage attorneys to mix
in these types of cases with their higher value cases. A senior lawyer
can “second chair” these cases so that the lawyers are still well-supervised.
The key is for the attorney to feel empowered to make decisions on
the file. Supervising lawyers can also empower lawyers
to feel control over their work simply by asking the supervised lawyers
for input on difficult problems. A fresh perspective may lead to a
good solution. Even if the supervising lawyer does not take the suggestions,
simply having considered the other attorney’s input goes a long way
to helping him avoid burnout. Once the decision is made, explaining
your thought process to the other attorney and explaining how you
considered his suggestion provides the added benefit of training him
for a future of being the decision maker on cases. 3. Rewards Money
alone is seldom the type of reward that motivates people.18 If money
were the only answer, then the explosion of associate salaries at
larger firms should have reduced burnout. To
truly motivate people and to help them escape burnout, you need to
reward people with praise and acknowledgment of their work. Many firms
circulate hours billed each month. How many also circulate each month
a list of attorney accomplishments? Lawyers are notoriously bad at
providing feedback, and the feedback they do give is usually critique.
Give
new lawyers positive feedback for a job well-done. If the new lawyer
wrote the brief that won the case, make sure senior lawyers let their
colleagues and clients know of her role. This is a simple concept
but psychologically powerful. Most lawyers work hard for their employers.
Do they know their work is appreciated? Money and bonus programs alone
seldom do the trick. 4. Community/Culture Successful
employers create team environments. The best employers have a unity
of purpose and a sense of what they want to work together to accomplish.
At its core, mutual benefit is what leads people to work or partner
together. Why
then do so many legal employers create environments built on competition
among attorneys working together? Burnout most often occurs in environments
with destructive competition, unresolved conflicts, and lack of support.19
Publishing hours billed can be a very effective motivational tool,
but it also breeds amongst lawyers the sense that they are competing
with others on the list. If partnership slots are limited, there is
little incentive for one lawyer to help another. If a lawyer is stressed
or having trouble, is there a support network for him to tap into?
Is there anything in the employer’s structure to reward great teamwork
or sacrifices made in the best interests of the client? Do firms reward
attorneys for their non-billable efforts, whether pro bono service,
bar association activities, or intra-firm activities like mentoring
and associate development? If
attorneys believe that everyone is on the same team and that they
will be rewarded for the success of the team, they will have higher
job satisfaction and lower risk of burnout. 5. Fairness The
greatest workplace hostility (eventually leading to burnout) is caused
by the sense that the system has been rigged to benefit others.20
If an attorney feels there is nothing she can do to make things fair,
then she begins to find other ways to get even, often by decreasing
effort or leaving work early. She justifies these actions with the
belief that the firm “owes her” since the rules were rigged against
her to begin with. This
happens to lawyers when they are assigned to a bad supervising attorney
or practice group while their friends end up with
great mentors and successful work assignments. At a macro level, employers
should evaluate whether all attorneys have an equal chance to perform.
Is each lawyer getting a chance to work for key senior lawyers? Are
all attorneys getting quality work to handle or are some of your lawyers
spending half their time writing CLEs for someone? If the employer
has a minimum billing requirement, does each lawyer have enough work
to meet it? Employers will have happier and more productive lawyers
if each feels judged on his own merit rather than upon factors beyond
his control. 6. Firm Values People
slide towards burnout if they feel their employer’s values cannot
be reconciled with their own.21 Employers should, however, try to
hire around common values and help to harmonize their attorneys’ values
with the employer’s values. Does
the employer have a mission statement? In the mission statement does
the employer tell its attorneys and clients about the firm’s core
values? Every law firm is a business and all businesses want to make
money. However, there are generally other key values that play into
why the lawyers in a firm choose to associate with one another. Does
the employer value advocating for a given cause even if there is more
lucrative work to be found elsewhere? Is maintaining work/life balance
a key principle? Perhaps the employer values practicing at the highest
aspirational levels of professionalism more than simply making a buck.
Whatever
the key employer values are, they need to be clearly communicated.
If attorneys do not share the employer’s values they are best served
by identifying that early so both sides can end (or not enter into)
the work arrangement. Further, understanding the firm’s core values
helps attorneys set priorities among competing work interests with
confidence. If an employer truly values pro bono work, its attorneys
are empowered to choose to work on those cases without worrying that
they will later be penalized for billing ten hours fewer in a given
month. Having a clear hierarchy of values lessens the risk of attorneys
tearing themselves up by internally agonizing over how to choose among
competing interests. Eliminating those conflicts reduces the chances
of losing attorneys to burnout. Conclusion Burnout
can impair the emotional well-being of individual lawyers and harm
their employer’s bottom line. Employers should take the lead in addressing
burnout by managing the work environment.22 By addressing the six
key workplace factors in the ways we’ve discussed above, employers
can not only do something beneficial for their attorneys on an individual
level, but can also take steps towards significant cultural and financial
improvement for themselves. s Notes 2 Christina Maslach & Michael P. Leiter, The Truth About Burnout (Jossey-Bass 1997),
p. 17. 3 Id. at 18. 4 Id. 5 Id. 6 John Angerer, “Job Burnout,” 40 Journal of Employment Counseling 3 (September
2003), p. 98 ff. 7 Id. 8 Maslach & Leiter, The Truth About Burnout at 1. 9 Id. 10 Dan Kirschenbaum, “Burnout,” 7 CBA Rec. 11 (November, 1993), p. 20 ff. 11 Id. 12 Id. at 2-3. 13 See Peter
J. Gardner, “A Role for the Business Attorney in the Twenty-First
Century: Adding Value to the Client’s Enterprise in the Knowledge
Economy,” 7 Marq. Intell. Prop. L. Rev. (2003), p.
17 ff. 14 See Patrick
J. Schiltz, “On Being a Healthy, Happy, and Ethical Member of an Unhealthy,
Unhappy, and Unethical Profession,” 52 Vand. L. Rev. (May, 1999), p.900. 15 See Stephanie
Francis Ward, “Who Will Pay For Associates’ Raises: Partners or Clients?”
6 A.B.A. J. E-Report 5 (02/02/07),
p. 1 16 Schiltz, On
Being a Healthy, Happy, and Ethical Member of an Unhealthy, Unhappy,
and Unethical Profession, at 911-912. 17 See Jim
Loehr & Tony Schwartz, “The Making of a Corporate Athlete,” 79
Harvard Business Review 1 (January 2001),
p. 122. 18 Maslach & Leiter, The Truth About Burnout, at
47. 19 Id. at 48-52.
20 Id. at 52-54. 21 Id. at 55. 22 Maslach & Leiter, The Truth About Burnout, at
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