Leave the Burnout Behind: Reignite Your Legal Career in 2022.

Productivity

| 11 Jan 2022 | 12:44 pm

By Kwan Cheung

Close Outlook, minimise any browser tabs you have in the background and set your status to ‘Away’. Now, take two minutes and ask yourself the following questions. Be as honest as you can with yourself!

Do you feel mentally or spiritually drained from last year?
Did you hope that you would feel different starting work in January 2022, but it didn’t happen?
Do you feel as though your work is negatively affecting your health or your mood?
Do you feel you are no longer in control of your career direction or trajectory?

What is Burnout?

If you answered yes to a few of the above questions, it might be that you are stressed and heading towards burnout. According to Mental Health UK, Burnout is defined as “a state of physical and emotional exhaustion. It can occur when you experience long-term stress in your job, or when you have worked in a physically or emotionally draining role for a long time.”

Here are the most common signs of burnout:

Feeling overwhelmed by your workload
You feel more tired than usual for most of the day
You feel detached/alone or distant from others
You have become more cynical or negative in your outlook

You have begun doubting your own abilities or lower self-confidence
You regularly procrastinate

It’s perhaps unsurprising to learn that 1 in 5 UK workers felt unable to manage pressure and stress levels at work in Mental Health UK’s March 2021 survey. Lawyers already had a reputation for being a high-pressure job prior to Covid-19 but enforced working from home policies have only intensified workloads and the blurring of lines between work and leisure have piled onto a feeling of not being able to completely shut off from work.

For some, the high-pressure nature of the traditional lawyer role can be a great motivator as it usually goes hand-in-hand with rewards such as remuneration or reputation or simply the ‘thrill of the chase’ in completing a high-end deal. However, in most cases, there is a delicate balance to be struck between our high-pressure jobs and our life outside of work; family time, holidays, hobbies etc. Over the last two years though, it’s become more and more difficult to make a clear distinction where work life and home life starts and ends, particularly if you’ve been forced to do both within the confines of your home for extended periods of the year.

Is 2022 a Year for Change?

Although we all hope that our restrictions and pandemic situation improves in the very near future, if you are truly unhappy with your current job or employer, then a return to the office may not be the panacea you are hoping for. It’s possible that forced hybrid working has just exacerbated feelings you had towards your current work pre-pandemic.

In order to bring about meaningful, permanent change, you need to once again review the questions listed at the start of this article and really ask whether your answers satisfy your needs for a fulfilling legal career.

You’re not alone. Our community of freelance lawyers at Pinsent Masons Vario has been growing rapidly over the last year and a large catalyst for that has been working conditions for full-time employees within private practice or in-house during various pandemic lockdowns.

Tom Pogmore, Account Director for Vario Flexible Services explains his theory for why so many lawyers are now joining Vario’s hub of freelance lawyers; “I think many lawyers have had a lot of time to reflect on their relationship with work over the last year and really assess whether they want to continue working this way or look at alternative working arrangements which would better suit their needs, lifestyles and career goals. For some, the pandemic has really forced people to take a step back and examine what exactly they want from a career.”

Geraldine Kelm, Head of Account Management in UK for Pinsent Masons Vario Flexible Services notes: “Throughout the pandemic we’ve seen greater acceptance of remote working: this is opening up both the candidate bench for clients, and the range of opportunities for our Vario lawyers, irrespective of their location. Market demand is exceeding supply and therefore it is an excellent time for lawyers at all levels to explore freelancing, whether that’s to achieve more flexibility or a better work/life balance, or to gain some top-quality relevant experience to further develop their legal careers.”

Vario freelancer, Geer Epton, explains why her decision to become a consultant lawyer has improved her work-life balance: “The challenge of following a traditional career in law can be the long working hours and the expectation that you always have to be on call and available. Freelancing has dramatically improved my work-life balance because I’m able to choose when I work. I’ve been able to spend more time with my family, earn great money, worked upon interesting projects with household name clients and it’s really increased my breadth of experience.”

Working as a freelance lawyer through Vario doesn’t only offer more variety, flexibility and access to high quality work (although these are benefits our Vario consultants do enjoy), we provide assurance and support through our dedicated account management team and the wider Pinsent Masons firm resources to ensure your journey into legal freelancing is as stress-free and simple as possible, allowing you to focus on the legal project at hand when on assignment and enjoying your life outside of work when you choose not to be working.

If you’d like to find out more about becoming a freelance legal professional, email the Vario Flexible Services Team today and see whether it could be right career move for you this year.