The Gazette 1995

GAZETTE

JULY 1995

Stress Management and the Legal Profession

by Professor Ciaran A. O'Boyle*

Stress management

events such as muggings, rapes and accidents; life events such as marriage, bereavement and changing j o b; daily hassles such as loosing on e 's keys, driving in heavy traffic, relationships and finally work.

A few years ago, motorists caught in a tail-back on the M4 motorway would complete their journey into London by filing slowly past a greeting, daubed on the struts of a fly-over. Three huge words were splashed in white, one on each arch. The message read simply: ' GOOD . . . MORN I NG. . . L EMM I NG S! Many of us fail to take control of our lives. We allow ourselves to be pushed along at a frenetic pace to a sad end. As the graffiti says: 'Death is nature's way of telling us to slow down'.

If your work is creating a lot o f stress, you have three options: quit and do something else; don't do anything and suffer; try to manage the stress. There are a number of approaches to j the prevention and management of I stress. You can concentrate on altering demands, you can increase j your ability to cope, you can ; reinterpret the demands and your | ability to cope or you can try dealing directly with the symptoms of stress,

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for example through exercise, relaxation or developing good support networks.

What is stress?

Altering Demands: Circle of Concern/Circle of Influence

Stress occurs when there is a mismatch between our interpretation o f the demands being placed on us and

Stephen Covey in his excellent book " T he Seven Habits o f Highly Effective People" provides a useful technique for distinguishing between the things over which you have influence and those which are outside your control. Start by drawing a circle I and within its boundaries write all of the things with which you are concerned, that is with which you have a mental or emotional I involvement. These might include your clients, your practice, your | health, children, spouse, problems at j work, the level of unemployment, the war in Bosnia, the political situation and so on. As you look at your Circle of Concerns, it becomes clear that there are some things over which you have no control and there are others that 1 you can do something about. These latter concerns can be represented by circumscribing them within a smaller circle; the Circle of Influence. By determining which of these circles is the focus of most of your time, you can discover whether you spend your life worrying about things over which you have no control or whether you deal with the concerns over which you have influence. 201

Professor

Ciaran

O'Boyle

our ability to cope with those demands. Stress is not tied to a

High workload, the need to work long hours, relationships with clients, colleagues and superiors, time pressures, financial worries, administrative duties and not having enough free time are common stressors in the legal profession. Change features prominently as a source of stress generally. The solicitor increasingly works as part of a team and is often called upon to fulfil a managerial role for which little training has been provided.

situation but to our interpretation of the situation. We judge situations as challenging or taxing and make the required adjustments in our emotions, thinking or behaviour to cope. When our coping resources are sufficient to meet the challenge we feel exhilarated by the successful achievement of a difficult task. Most of us, however, think of stress as something which is harmful and unfortunately this is often the case. When the pressures of life and work exceed our ability to cope we suffer from negative stress or "distress". Conversely, just as an excess of demands can lead to stress, so can an absence of stimulation and challenge. This is the problem for people doing piece-work or for those who are under-promoted, who retire too early, or who find the boring nature of their j o b s and the lack of personal fulfilment stressful.

What are the effects of stress?

Stress may have emotional, psychological, physical and

behavioural consequences and the symptoms differ from person to person. Chronic stress can result in burnout, a state o f physical mental and/or emotional exhaustion which frequently occurs in the professions. The burned-out individual may b e c ome cynical, detached from clients and turn to destructive coping mechanisms such as alcohol and minor tranquillisers.

What are the causes of stress?

The causes o f stress can broadly be divided into four categories: traumatic