Lawyer burnout: Well-being Starter Kit for employers
Lawyer working environment: Beware of burnout
The lawyer work environment looks very glamorous, at least from a TV-show perspective.
A report from the US National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being paints a different picture.
Turns out between 21 and 36 percent have an alcohol problem in lawyer working environments.
And many experience some level of depression, anxiety, and chronic stress.
The perhaps scariest part is that the younger lawyers in the first 10 years of their work-life experience the highest rates of problem drinking and depression.
Those working in private firms too.
How are they going to last until retirement?
Sounds like a recipe for lawyer burnout to me.
How to create a better lawyer working environment
In order to improve lawyer working environments, individual solutions like courses to handle stress better isn’t enough.
Let’s look at the whole picture.
Where is the stress coming from in the first place?
What in your company culture generates stress, depression and anxiety? How can you prevent these symptoms from happening in the first place?
The Florida Bar Journal put together a Lawyer Well-Being Starter Kit.
They listed 10 Tools and Strategies for Legal Employers.
One of the strategies to prevent lawyer burnout and increase well-being is to use tech tools.
Among their solutions is our Celpax device, designed to measure and boost employee engagement.
How to create a better lawyer working environment
Aaron Hall, owner at JUX Law Firm in Minneapolis saw how changes in his workplace affected employee morale.
This was also shown on the Celpax:
“We have had a lot of changes over the past few years. We decided to identify our core values, one of which is teammate satisfaction. Some of our employees disagreed with the changes and thus decided to leave,” Aaron explains.
“Law firms are notorious for being bad places to work with unhappy people. Part of the problem is attorneys are not trained to manage businesses, they are trained in law.“
“Another part of the problem is law firms focus on being great at law, but not great at business.“
“As a result, many law firms are stressful and unhappy. We have decided to face this challenge head-on. Your tool closes the feedback loop, letting us know how we are doing.”
10 tips to create Associate engagement and avoid lawyer burnout
The Florida Bar Journal states that too many lawyers neglect their own needs.
This harms not only their health but also their ability to be their best for their clients, colleagues, and families.
Their strategies to avoid Lawyer burnout and create a better lawyer working environment are:
1) Launch a Lawyer Well-Being Committee (look into fun activities too, like a Mystery Lunch)
2) Define Well-Being, Set Goals, and Create a Plan
3) Measure Indicators of Well-Being
4) Provide Tools for Lawyers to Individually Track Their Own Well-Being
5) Provide Education on Well-Being
6) Ask Lawyers to Include Well-Being Topics in Their Goal-Setting Practices
7) Embed Well-Being into Meetings
8) Include Well-Being Topics in Organizational Transitions
9) Leverage Technology
10) Develop Effective Leaders
Read more about each point here at the Florida Bar Journal.
The South Carolina bar also included the Celpax here in their 8th Annual “Everything you Need to Know About Ethics”.
How to be a good lawyer: To be a good lawyer, one has to be a healthy lawyer
The Florida Bar Journal’s conclusion regarding associate engagement is:
“Legal employers that want to build and keep high-performing, healthy lawyers and teams should take seriously their responsibility for contributing to an environment in which lawyers can thrive.”
“The tools in this Well-Being Starter Kit provide a good start toward building energized organizations.”
“Filled with lawyers able to be their best for their clients, their organization, and themselves.”
At Celpax we simply couldn’t agree more 
How to be a good lawyer starts with looking at your workplace happiness and stress levels.
The work environment of a lawyer often involves working way more than 40 hours per week.
Would you press green or red leaving work today?
Interested in creating a better lawyer working environment? Check out our device:
Hej! I’m Rebecca, co-owner at Celpax. We use simple tech tools to measure and boost morale at work so you can keep your talent. And build a better society while at it! Join me on Twitter to talk about how to avoid lawyer burnout.
