Earlier this year on our blog page we addressed growing concern about employee health and wellness in the legal industry, including in the September post, Making Mental Health a Priority in the World of eDiscovery. Since then, our attention on mental health has only been reaffirmed as it continues to be an important part of the conversations that we have every day with both candidates and their prospective employers.  This month we look more closely at burnout, which was the topic of two conference sessions I recently attended. 

Among the interesting sessions presented at Relativity Fest this year was one I was grateful to be a part of. I was joined by an impressive panel of eDiscovery experts including Danny Frank, eDiscovery sales engineer, Relativity; Lauren Roso, engagement director, ProSearch; and Sue-Deelia Tang, client solutions director, CDS. Garima Gupta, senior director, Global HR Partnerships & Inclusion, Relativity, moderated our open and honest discussion on the topic of burnout. 

Burnout has been defined as, “the feeling of being overwhelmed and exhausted by everything you have to do, while still worrying that you are not doing enough” – something that resonated with the panel. At Celeritas, we’re seeing increasing rates of burnout among eDiscovery professionals, so it’s a topic we pay attention to. 

The Rel Fest panel discussed how we identify burnout, how we manage it and how to prevent it, because the costs of employee burnout to individuals and businesses alike are significant. One important point made was that self-care alone cannot prevent burnout; rather, there are systemic changes needed in many workplaces to keep teams from experiencing it. We also talked about how we recharge, the “7 types of rest” and some effective strategies – short of quitting – to effectively manage stress and burnout. 

Validating our observations about the prevalence of burnout in our industry, the topic was also the focus of a session at the recent Everlaw conference. Panelists in that session presented the topic with some rather alarming context, commenting that in law firms today mental health and substance abuse are at what has been described as a crisis level. They discussed the impact of toxic work environments, as well as community and individual factors that cause burnout among lawyers and others in the legal profession, and offered tips both for recognizing burnout in employees and fostering a positive microclimate that better prevents it from happening. 

The panel also shared tips for individuals to monitor their own well-being by regularly evaluating four different dimensions of our self: physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual. 

•    Physically, are we getting the rest, movement and nourishment required to remain healthy? 
•    Emotionally, do we have healthy, positive connections with others – be it personal relationships or even with our pets? 
•    Intellectually, are we nurturing our continuous need to learn and be challenged? 
•    Spiritually, do we feel purposeful or like we’re a part of something bigger than ourselves? 

This was an excellent discussion with useful takeaways on a critically important topic today. 

With the job market starting to swing back to one with more layoffs and fewer new job opportunities, it will be interesting to see whether things like burnout will continue to be priority issues, or if companies will be less sensitive to the mental health needs of their employees and prospective job candidates.  We’ll certainly be watching this closely.  

If you’re interested in learning more or discussing the topic with me, I’d love to hear from you. Contact me at chris.egan@celeritasinc.com.