As much as it pains my middle class heart to admit it, we have a cleaner.
And she does stuff like this (see the picture)
And it makes me SO happy
Cos it’s the little things, isn’t it? That make all the difference.
What’s this got to do with my work training law firms and supporting lawyers?
Just bear with me… (I know – I’m hilarious)
A lot of my work these days focuses on helping firms to create psychologically safe working environments.
But it’s not about turning grizzly bear partners into teddy bears.
It’s not about infantilising teams or giving young people joining the profession the impression that it’s all cuddly, fluffy ‘we’re going on a bear hunt’ type stuff.
No. The truth is this…
While a lot of press about law firms focuses on the looooooooong hours and the intensity of work….
…and yes, these can create problems…
… you CAN have a sense of psychological safety (and, dare I say it, wellbeing) in such conditions.
And what I notice time and time again is that it’s the little things that make the difference.
That even where there are long hours, intense work and demanding clients, if certain simple fundamentals are in place, people can still experience a level of wellbeing.
For the managers reading this, it’s the following:
Sticking your head round the door if your teams are working late to check if they’re ok.
Saying thank you.
Turning up to your junior/secretary’s leaving do.
Saying hi in the coffee room/lift.
If someone has had a bereavement, saying how sorry you are when they come back to work instead of ignoring it cos you feel awkward.
If you’re a junior, you might be reading this thinking “I can’t believe that bosses don’t do this stuff – they are monsters”.
Perhaps there are a small amount of sociopaths in the industry….
But actually in most cases I think this stuff demonstrates our historic failure to tend to the wellbeing of those who have now become seniors.
Why do I say that?
Because these omissions are indicative of people who have been so overwhelmed by the work and the working environment that, over the years, the only way they’ve found to cope, is to dissociate from emotions. From the messy stuff of life.
I talk in my training about one of the most common precursors to mental health difficulties in lawyers, which is starting to live a ‘split’ existence.
The tsunami of work takes over your life. You start to struggle with social interactions & the smallest of social niceties so decide not to bother at all.
Occasionally I see it in people’s faces when I deliver training at firms – that they’re so overwhelmed that they simply cannot take in anything I’m saying (or that’s my excuse anyway).
Or when people say Londoners on the tube are unfriendly. I think, no they’re not – they’re just whizzing around with a million things on their mind.
The message? It’s no teddy bear’s picnic in law but nor does it need to be un-bear-able…