Eight days a week: a job description not a song
Lawyers and other legal professionals put in the equivalent of eight working days a week, a survey has revealed. And two-fifths of them feel more stressed by work than they did a year ago.
In a survey of more than 2,000 British employees, international recruiter Randstad found that legal professionals each do the job of 1.6 people, or the equivalent of three extra working days a week. In contrast, British workers across all professions said that they currently cover the work of 1.3 people, the equivalent of a six-and-a-half day week.
Two in five legal professionals told researchers that they feel more stressed than they did six months ago, and a broadly similar number said that it now takes them longer to switch off at weekends. One in eight employees said they consistently sleep poorly because of work worries or stress.
Less than half of legal professionals have been able to take more than a week off work this year for their main holiday, and nearly one in five of those said they took calls or checked emails while on holiday. One in eight worry about what is happening at work during their time off.
Randstad Financial & Professional managing director Tara Ricks said: ‘While keeping legal workforces as lean as possible may help many law firms navigate the choppy economic waters the UK is currently experiencing, it isn’t a sustainable model. Making fewer people work harder can improve the bottom line initially, but spreading the workforce too thin leads to burnout, lower productivity and mistakes in the long-run – not an end result law firms can afford.’
The survey of 2,001 people, which included 127 legal professionals, was carried out between 23-30 July 2012.
Comments
Its All Too Much...
You might also take note of what George said.. "it's all too much for me to take..."
The survey has only asked 127
The survey has only asked 127 solicitors! So does this really reflect the legal profession as a whole? The profession has always been a demanding beast.
The article states that solicitors are more stressed than they were six months ago.....what happend six months ago and how has it affected stress levels?
Stress affects people in different ways and a certain level of stress can keep us keen and on the ball...so when do we decide that it is a negative rather than a positive and allow it to limit us?
It would be interesting to just do a survey on the legal profession and see what the feedback is when taking a different approach to how we perceive and manage stress. Ask questions of yourself to see what your personal view and perception of stress is....and if its a problem, take action and do something about it.
Someone may want to point
Someone may want to point this out to the Tory MPs who have recently decided to solidify their nasty little opinion that British workers are idle in a book http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-19300051
This really sums up what the Tories think of 85% of the working population of this country. The irony is that they are saying it as MPs who work about half the hours we do and according to all available evidence have about a third of the intelligence. Parasites.
Of course one of those five
Of course one of those five was a former lawyer at Linklaters. I reckon that's as far from lazy as you can get.
stress
And the increasing burdens of regulation tend to increase the worry factor, certainly for the smaller practices. The firms may have been going on for years, but now we have to worry about recording and reporting everything whether it matters or not. Unlike the regulators view, one size really does not fit all.
How do they define working day?
This article does not explain how they define a "working day", which is a flaw in my opinion. If they mean 7.5 hours, then 8 x 7.5 = 60 hours a week, which I think many lawyers have been doing for years.
I am certainly not aware of anyone in our firm taking only one week off in a year (although that is of course just an anecdotal point), and ever since I started in the early nineties, I have (probably foolishly) worried about what is happening during time off.
I am therefore not clear what is really new here.
When I qualified in the 70s
When I qualified in the 70s the prospect was of well-paid work, agreeable and alcohol-festooned lunches, golfing Fridays and the occasional languid contemplation of more abstruse legal issues while wreathed in tobacco-smoke. Now, however, for anyone daft enough to embark on a legal career, the advent of desktop technology, a tsunami of bonkers regulation from all directions, alcohol-free lunches and no-smoking offices has turned the job into a relentless nightmare: the law as aversion therapy..
When I qualified in the 70s
When I qualified in the 70s the prospect was of well-paid work, agreeable and alcohol-festooned lunches, golfing Fridays and the occasional languid contemplation of more abstruse legal issues while wreathed in tobacco-smoke. Now, however, for anyone daft enough to embark on a legal career, the advent of desktop technology, a tsunami of bonkers regulation from all directions, alcohol-free lunches and no-smoking offices has turned the job into a relentless nightmare: the law as aversion therapy..
the 70's
Regarding the comments of 'Codger'. Sounds like the way forward. From my window I can often see a lawyer from another firm having a sneaky fag outside pacing up and down and looking very guilty. It is a sorry sight. At my next networking lunch I will not be having orange juice and lemonade. I am going to have a nice beer. maybe two. how unprofessional.
Same old news, same old views...
"Stress affects people in different ways and a certain level of stress can keep us keen and on the ball...so when do we decide that it is a negative rather than a positive and allow it to limit us...if its a problem, take action and do something about it."
I think Ms Thomas should get off her high horse.
I attempted to "do something about it". No reasonable adjustments were offered or made. I found having a mental breakdown at work both negative and limiting.
Not working long enough
Clearly the Government does not think that we are working hard enough. From this September we are to have Sunday Courts running as a pilot in a number of centre's including Birmingham. The idea we are told is to enable working people to have their trials on the weekend and so not interrupt their working week. Of course in first instance it will simply be a Court dealing with people who have been remanded in custody by the police. I am not sure why the Court Staff, prosecutors, probation and YOT officers, custodial staff and of course defence solicitors all of whom will attend Court to save alleged criminals a day in custody. The majority of my clients over the years are a)guilty and b) out of work so i am sure they will appreciate the chance to be back on the streets one day earlier. How much money this will cost the Government i am not sure. I know CPS and Court Legal Advisers are to be paid. Presumably the Legal Services Commission will appoint a Sunday Duty Solicitor at the same rate as a Saturday DS about £63 an hour + we can claim travel, mileage & parking),
What may actually, save the Government some money is teaching the Police what the Act's or their predecessors have passed mean. For example, keeping people charged with summary only offences who do not meet the exceptions to the grant of bail in the Act. Or indeed people who do not fall foul of the Bail Act itself.
What is odd to is that most cases that appear on a Saturday do not progress as speedily as a weekday case.
I am really looking forward to the one day of a week that presently i can say to my family i am around (other than when i am duty) to saying i don't know what we will do tomorrow till Court's conclude !Thanks for that Government.
8 days a week
Why's no-one mentioned the old joke?
Solicitor dies and, at Heaven's gate, complains to the Angel, "But I'm only 51 years old!"
The Angel checks and tells him, "No- according to your time sheets, you're 120."