I have a lot of thoughts about the legal profession but I went to this because Erandathie's one of the co-organisers (Meribah and Ruwani also there). Hampel went about half and half between talking about the experience of County Court judges and staff and vicarious trauma, and challenging the assumptions around the well-known higher than average incidence of mental health disorders and challenges in the legal profession - pretty good.
She cited a study which found that a sense of meaning, autonomy and social relations were the top factors correlating with happiness in the workplace; that of course made me think of Dan Pink and his fourth factor, mastery (and/or competence and the ability to improve), and the role that it plays in the lawyer's make-up and the profession more generally. I also liked the long stream of questions that she asked at the end - posed for us to think about, and intended to provoke reflection on purpose, the place of work within our lives, and what we might do about it, and most of which I've confronted myself over the past few years (ironically, or maybe not so much, after leaving the law behind myself).
(TJMF)
She cited a study which found that a sense of meaning, autonomy and social relations were the top factors correlating with happiness in the workplace; that of course made me think of Dan Pink and his fourth factor, mastery (and/or competence and the ability to improve), and the role that it plays in the lawyer's make-up and the profession more generally. I also liked the long stream of questions that she asked at the end - posed for us to think about, and intended to provoke reflection on purpose, the place of work within our lives, and what we might do about it, and most of which I've confronted myself over the past few years (ironically, or maybe not so much, after leaving the law behind myself).
(TJMF)
