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GAZETTE
JULY 1995
Stress Management and the
Legal Profession
by Professor Ciaran A. O'Boyle*
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'.
What is stress?
Stress occurs when there is a
mismatch between our interpretation
o f the demands being placed on us and
our ability to cope with those
demands. Stress is not tied to a
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 causes of stress?
The causes o f stress can broadly be
divided into four categories: traumatic
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.
\
Professor
Ciaran
O'Boyle
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.
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.
Stress management
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,
for example through exercise,
relaxation or developing good
support networks.
Altering Demands: Circle of
Concern/Circle of Influence
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.
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