Earlier this year the Junior Lawyers Division undertook a Resilience and Wellbeing survey of its membership and produced a report from the results which was presented at its annual conference in April. Out of a membership of 70,000 members, 214 people responded to the survey.
The key findings showed:
- Over 93% of respondents had suffered with stress in the month before completing the survey with 26% of those individuals being severely/extremely stressed.
- 73% of respondents said that their firm could do more to support stress at work.
- Over 25% of respondents said that they had suffered with a mental health problem in the month before completing the survey and under 24% of those individuals had made their employer aware of it. Over 74%t of thse suffering with a mental health problem said that they had considered taking time off work but did not, with over 67% stating that it caused them to experience problems in their family life and relationships.
- Over 73% of respondents stated that their employer did not provide any help, guidance or support to employees in relation to mental health in the workplace or that they did not know whether their employer did. Over 50% felt that their organisation could do more to provide help, guidance and support in relation to mental health in the workplace.
The cause of Stress in the Workplace was mainly attributed to high workload.
Other key causes of stress included:
- Ineffective Management
- Lack of Control
- Client Expectations / Demands
- Lack of Support
Other reasons put forward by respondents included: office politics, business development expectations, covering other people’s work, urgent deadlines, lack of time for studying, repayment of LPC loan, feeling that you are being taken advantage of, team changes (seat moves and support staff leaving) dealing with complicated issues beyond experience level, own expectations.
Read the full report on their website.
Prompt: What makes you stressed? How can you get back in control?