Retreating from the cliff edge

This book is about what can go wrong if the pressure is too much and the resultant burnout – and how to avoid it. Unsurprisingly, there are very high levels of stress and mental health problems throughout the professions. By some accounts, in the US three-quarters of lawyers are burnt out, and in the UK six in 10.  

The book analyses the slow build-up in crises and what it nicely refers to as the ‘Burnout Cliff’. The main thrust is how to avoid getting there in the first place. There is guidance on how to avoid negative coping strategies. The overuse of alcohol and illicit drugs is included, along with gambling, increasingly recognised as a growing problem. There are sections on when and how to get help and, equally important, how to support people and foster a healthy workplace. One issue is whether people in crisis should keep on working and go (back) to work when stressed. There could be more in the book on the importance of what I would term having a hinterland, referred to here as decompression. 

There is a section on PIES:

• Proximity – work-based trauma is often best dealt with by staying at or returning to work quickly;
• Immediacy – getting support straight away or as soon as possible;
• Expectancy – being told what we should expect in terms of the kind of experiences people with stress have; and
• Simplicity – simple acts of kindness by colleagues and others.

The term ‘burnout’ is well known. It was originally a US term for physical or emotional exhaustion, especially caused by stress at work. It can include depression and disillusionment. It is related to the description of a building ravaged by fire, which is destroyed internally while the exterior is ostensibly undamaged.  

There is a nice allusion to Coventry Cathedral and how the bombed-out shell was left standing adjacent to the modernist new structure. The book is illustrated by vignettes from real events and insights from other professionals.

David Pickup is a partner at Pickup & Scott Solicitors, Aylesbury