Burnout prevention is a complex matter for all organizations and industries, and the legal profession throws a few extra curveballs. So, what will it take to end lawyer burnout? Before we look at solutions, let’s first unpack burnout and its root causes, then zoom in on the specific causes for lawyers and why so little seems to change in the legal profession. Finally, we’ll look at how senior leaders can start to create a burnout-free law firm culture.

Trust is the heartbeat of all meaningful relationships. When we feel trusted and trust others, it creates a sense of safety and belonging that drives connection, innovation, and collaboration.

Emotions are essential biological states. They are healthy and can be wise guides on our life path. But emotions have a bad reputation. Especially at work. For a long time, emotions were frowned upon as a sign of weakness, fragility or hysteria. They were viewed as embarrassing or shameful — the antithesis of science and reason. In fact, successful leadership and general personal happiness both hinge on us seeing emotions as normal and helpful, and tapping into them to our ad

Human connection is as essential to our survival as food and water. We are deeply social beings. And yet, we are often so focused on work that we allow our relationships and sense of community to slip down our to-do list, leaving us feeling isolated, unsupported, and even unsafe. Preventing burnout means resisting the temptation to let your important relationships go untended, and making a conscious effort to foster and maintain your own community — whatever that looks like.

It prompted a question that’s been lurking at the back of my mind since I started researching burnout. Why are we ashamed of burnout? When I asked Google, no clear answer emerged. Which was annoying because it meant I had to actually think rather than just, like, be told. The thing is, this question is incredibly important. Shame and stigma are more than unpleasant. In conjunction with burnout, shame can be outright dangerous because it compounds the stress we are

As part of the research for my book about burnout, I interviewed people who have been through burnout and come out the other side. My list of questions is long: I find this topic ridiculously fascinating. When I ask what advice they would give to a friend who was on the brink of burning out, one of the recurring answers is take time away from work. Now.

When I did this interview, I’d never actually met Tris Thorp. Yet from the moment I set eyes on her during our Zoom working calls, I was blown away — smart, funny, beautiful, accomplished, and deeply inspiring. Am I gushing? She also drops F-bombs on the regular, which put the Australian in me at ease right away. Writing my book on burnout, I’ve thought of Tris often. Not only because she went through a burnout herself, but because she took the lessons of burnout to next-l

This might sound counter-intuitive, but burnout can be a gift. Burnout creates space for bold decisions and positive change — and as grittily painful as burning out is, it comes with some upsides. Let me explain.

When I was writing my first book about burnout, I reached out to one of the world’s leading experts to see if he would share his thoughts. I was almost shocked when Dr. Michael P. Leiter responded to my email. Dr. Leiter has published numerous highly regarded articles and books on the topic. The dimensions of burnout he identified together with his colleague Dr. Christine Maslach now form part of the new World Health Organization definition of burnout. Which is about as ex

Appreciating that I could actually leave the law firm after my burnout caused pure freedom to suddenly course through my veins. It was as if I’d been having an out of body experience, and now I could feel my own heartbeat and see through my own eyes. I left those offices a changed woman.

It is all too easy to assume we are alone in our struggles, and when I was burning out no one else at the firm seemed to be missing a beat. Later I realized that many of people mask despair, hide misgivings and present a face of ‘I’ve got this’. ‘I want this’.

Not everyone who goes through a burnout has a snap moment. Many simmer at a low heat, burning out slowly for years, unable to determine even in retrospect when burnout started or peaked. There are millions of people around the world right now to whom this applies,.

Burnout has been described as a global epidemic. Even prior to COVID-19, symptoms were rife. Today, with high unemployment numbers and enormous uncertainty as to what the future holds, burnout is everywhere.

What wellbeing means, how it relates to happiness and burnout – and why it matters.