Dear Advy,
My firm rolled out a wellness app and a meditation room. Don’t get me wrong, this is great and better than nothing, but the real issue is that nothing about our actual workloads or deadlines changed. What good are these resources if there is no time to use them. How do I raise this issue, without sounding ungrateful, that these initiatives feel like a substitute for real change rather than the thing itself?
No Time for Wellness
Dear No Time for Wellness,
Consider the humble band-aid. The adhesive bandage was invented in 1920 by Earle Dickson as a treatment for minor cuts and abrasions. Dickson was inspired by his wife's penchant for cutting herself when she was baking or cooking, when he realized none of the bandages available on the market could be applied one-handed (i.e. a person applying the bandage to her own cut hand). These simple devices were patented in 1926 and have not changed much since then. While there are no statistics readily available, by preventing small wounds from developing infections or sepsis, band-aids or "plasters" as the Brits call them, have likely saved many lives in the century since they were patented.
Yes, by the way, I am aware that "Band-Aid" is a trademarked product, but it is one of many trademarks whose names have become genericized over the years, so I am deliberately referring to the product generically. Geez, you'd think I was writing for a bunch of lawyers or something!
If the disposable adhesive bandage is so great, why then do we have the expression “band-aid solution"? A band-aid solution implies the use of an inappropriately small and superficial solution to a significant and complex problem. There's nothing wrong with the band-aid itself. It’s a great invention. It becomes a problem when people misuse that small superficial solution and tell themselves that all is well.
So, is a meditation room or an app on your phone a bad thing? No, not at all. They become insidious when they are used as substitutes for more substantive interventions in workplace problems and an excuse for not paying attention to the continuing damage that some aspects of employment - and in our case, legal work - inflict on the people performing the work.
It's a sign of an unhealthy workplace if the boss is able to say there's nothing more that needs to be done for the well-being of the people working there because....yoga!
The 2022 National Study on the Health and Wellness Determinants of Legal Professionals in Canada found that, while workplace supports can help mitigate the distress caused by factors such as excessive hours, high emotional demands, and job insecurity, these mitigating resources (or "protective factors” to use the language of the study) only offset stressors to a very limited degree. See Page 73 and forward of the study for further details. To seriously tackle issues leading to burnout, depression and more serious consequences, legal workplaces will have to address the causes of those problems rather than applying a band-aid to the injuries that the work causes.
You ask - I suspect rhetorically - what good these workplace supports do when you don't have time to use them. I would venture to guess that it’s not only time but also the stigma associated with making use of mental health support that prevents you and others in your firm from using what is theoretically available to you. A teacher of mine used to flip the old expression "Don't just sit there. Do something!" on its head. She would tell us "Don't just do something. Sit there!" Sometimes it’s wise to not just “do something”, but to really spend the energy and time to consider what purpose your actions are supposed to support and how best to engage in action to mitigate the problem. Many legal workplaces want to be seen to be doing something about mental health problems in the office. That sense of urgency was heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic, but it continues today. The concern is about being seen to have done something, not so much about actually helping the underlying problem. Unfortunately, when the goal is to have a nice shiny website showing all the great resources you have available, then that becomes the output rather than actually making change in the lives of the people affected by it.
I'm not forgetting that I haven't answered your question yet. You asked how you can talk to your firm management about this without appearing to be ungrateful for the band-aids that the firm has provided.
Whoever put together the package of resources you have available to you right now (and can't find time to use) is probably:
- still there at the firm; and
- at least somewhat proud of the effort.
As you say, these are very nice things to have available. The best way to build on them to make something more useful for the people who really need help is to build bridges with that person or people who put the current package together. While they might resist the idea that what they did is not good enough, they are people who already are aware that mental health challenges are real, and that something about the work puts the firm's people in harm's way. Your comment that you never have time to use the resources available to you may be a good starting point. The resources, you say, are great. The problem is the many invisible and maybe not-so-invisible barriers to actually using them. You can bring those to the attention of the well-meaning people in your firm who came up with what’s already there.
The other group to appeal to is your peers in the firm. Yes, in most firms you are set up to be competitive with one another. It can feel risky and uncomfortably vulnerable to share with them that you might even need some help once in a while. Odds are your peers are more supportive of you than you think. Talk to them, as much in person as possible about how you could make your workplace a happier place to be. They may well be finding the same problems you are encountering. Having a support network not only helps you in advocating for change, but it also gives you someone to talk to when – not if – you experience setbacks and frustrations.
As much as possible, keep your discussion with the firm positive. This is about effecting long-term change in your organization, not a quick "win". Indeed, as discussed above, it's probably that same desire for a quick and easy solution to the problem of lawyer distress that led to the firm putting your existing suite of resources together, and look what that got you. It got you a nice-looking but unusable basket of supports. Making this kind of change is, as they say, a long game. Be patient and persistent.
You may be saying to yourself "Why isn't Advy telling me any specific things we should be doing?" That's because the best solution for one workplace can be a terrible one for another one. The best approach is to explore what is possible and what could work in the specific context of your own firm. If you want some ideas or examples of workplace solutions that have worked elsewhere, consider watching the recording of the CBA Well-Being conference that took place in November 2023 where speakers and even members of the audience provided a wide range of ideas they had observed making real and lasting change in real workplaces. You may find some ideas that work well for your own firm. There are too many to list here.
The other reason why the best solution will likely come out of a conversation with your firm rather than by a prescription from an advice columnist is that people generally prefer ideas and programs they themselves came up with. This is called the Ikea Effect, so-called because of the tendency of buyers of a certain brand of some-assembly-required furniture to place a greater value on the furniture they had assembled themselves than they do for furniture assembled by someone else. We value what we create ourselves.
To be sustainable in the long run, your firm management needs to value the solutions you come up with. If you want firm management to value it, give them an opportunity to help create it. It's also likely that a solution to the problem that develops organically from within your own firm will take into account unique qualities of your workplace and even of the personalities of the people working there than a solution imposed from outside.
You may find some useful suggestions for negotiating positive change in your workplace in a previous letter to this column. I would also be remiss if I didn’t add that on top of what is available through your employer, your local lawyer assistance program has other supports available to you. Those are worth checking out.
The profession, and your own firm, needs people like you who notice that what's been put in place in the workplace isn't helping. Thank you for noticing that, and best of luck in making real change.
Be well,
Advy
