Why historic working practices are no longer fit for purpose

Last September, the Times reported on a survey by the charity Rethink Mental Illness which found that mental health is a higher priority than climate for the under-40s. In March, a different study by the Centre for Mental Health showed that mental illness costs England around £300bn a year – equivalent to nearly double NHS England’s annual budget.

As a society, it feels as though we have some serious learning to do around prioritising mental health and wellbeing.

These issues not only affect every single person, business and organisation but impact absolutely everything we do – including our ability to tackle challenges like climate change. Happy, healthy people lead to happier, healthier organisations – which in turn lead to happier, healthier societies.

Yet the uncomfortable truth, particularly in the legal profession, is that overwork, stress, burn out, anxiety and depression remain a reality for many. It’s time to acknowledge that, in the face of diverse pressures in our personal and professional lives, the accepted working practices and ways of being are no longer fit for purpose. We need a new approach.

Achieving a ‘life-life balance’

I’ve always found the term ‘work-life’ balance to be singularly unhelpful. By separating work from life, we create a dangerous distinction which – unintentionally, perhaps – sets up life as ‘good’ and work as ‘bad’, a notion that feels outdated and Victorian. Work can – and should be – an enriching part of life, rather than something we dread.

Davitt Jones Bould has long adopted an approach we call the ‘life-life balance’, which recognises that our home and professional lives are as important as each other.

We aim to optimise both and strike the right balance for all people, while accepting that each person has their own balance to achieve.

In practice, this means stripping out the tasks in our people’s professional lives that do not play to their strengths and better belong with others in the team, and allowing lawyers to have more control of the types of legal work they undertake and even the clients they want (or don’t want) to act for.

By supporting people to focus on the areas in which they have expertise and can thrive, we enhance enjoyment, effectiveness and contribution.

This approach isn’t just the right and sensible thing to do, there’s a strong business case too. Because our people are happy, well, motivated and engaged, we’re able to deliver excellence as standard and continually delight our clients.

Creating healthy working cultures

Wellbeing is not just about having HR policies that look good on paper or more plants in the office – important as these things are. It’s a way of seeing people as human beings rather than cogs in the legal machine.

Providing emergency mental health support, while a useful part of the solution, isn’t sufficient alone and often arrives too late in the process when people are already broken and burnt out.

Instead, we need to find ways to make the workplace and industry a more human space to work in, supporting people with their home life so they can give their best at work.

Davitt Jones Bould strives to create a culture in which people look forward to Mondays just as much as Fridays, because they’re doing work they enjoy, with people they like, and are serving the very best clients.

As a result, many of our lawyers extend their professional lives beyond the normal retirement age as they enjoy their working life so much.

Reimagining work and the workplace

I believe humans need to have creative purpose and the ability to progress and achieve and that careers provide the perfect conditions for these things. Yet it’s important to remember that professional fulfilment, and what this looks like, is different for everyone.

While pressure brings out the best in some, it burns others out. While some love working evenings and weekends to advance professionally, others prefer a stable and steady nine-to-five working day.

The point is not about making either of these choices wrong but creating structures for people to decide for themselves.

For me, this is what diversity and inclusion is all about, and by adopting a new mindset and approach that prioritises wellbeing and embraces difference, we can create a healthier workplace and industry in which everyone can find their place, their pace and thrive both in their home and professional lives.