Breaking the laws of human well-being: why lawyers are depressed 
Posted By Mirko Bagaric on May 1st, 2007
Working eleven hours a day, having the level of responsibility that comes with charging out $300 per hour and yet earning only $40 per hour and never being sure that your advice is correct is no fun.
Hence it’s not surprising that the Beyond Blue survey released last week shows that status-rich, time-poor lawyers are the most depressed workers in the country. But it’s not all bad news. The miserable lot of many lawyers provides valuable insights into the working aspirations that the rest of the community should be pursuing.
Lawyers are the grumpiest workers in town because they break most of the known laws stemming from recent advances in the science of human well-being. The first law is that money ceases to have a significant effect on our sense of well-being once we derive an average level of income. The extra hours people work to derive income in excess of this tipping point are wasted.
So why do lawyers keep working like automaton troopers? The answer seems to rest in their misguided quest for status. Many lawyers are slaves to it. They’re among the worst victims of the brain-washing that comes from being bombarded every day by thousands of images of fast cars, new technological gadgets, pearly white smiles, bursting cleavages and designer clothes. The cumulative impact of these images is to inspire people to pursue materialist goals.
Many lawyers think that if they attain these goals the rest of the community will accord them recognition and treat them better. In the end, it’s misconceived. They don’t enjoy the grind and others are rarely impressed by the attainment of conformist goals.
Paradoxically, the best way to obtain acceptance and recogntion is not by conforming with the mob and aspiring to achieve what others seem to want most. People respect most those who have the courage and commitment to pursue their own passions and goals, even (and in fact especially) if this means bucking contemporary social and economic norms.
So if money doesn’t make us tick, what should we be aspiring to? There is a growing body of empirical data that shows that the things that are most conducive to happiness are fit and healthy bodies, self-esteem, optimism, good relationships, active leisure activities a faith that entails communal support and acceptance. None of these require an inflated bank balance or a job with a title.
Now, if lawyers decided to start working reasonable hours, there is no reason that they couldn’t have much of this. Yet, many of them would still likely be more than a tad grumpy because the studies also show that central to well-being is a sense of control over one’s activities.
The practice of law rarely accommodates this. The law is complex and changes rapidly. The factual scenarios which are presented to lawyers are often unclear. That is why lawyers never talk of certainties; it is always in the language of possibilities and probabilities. Their world is always grey – there is no black and white.
Moreover, most of the law is about getting money for your client. This nearly always comes at the expense of trying to divest someone else of their money which they are hungrily trying to keep. Hence, lawyers typically find themselves in the middle of disputes. Even though it is someone else’s fight, arguing constantly takes its toll on robust and deluded psyches alike.
In no other industry does getting a positive outcome for your client involve making another person worse off. For doctors to cure their patients, it’s not as if they have to make another person unhealthy, engineers and builders can build houses without demolishing existing homes and clothes manufacturers can set new fashions without stripping us of the clothes we are already wearing.
Still there is even scope for lawyers to crank up a smile. The key rests with working shorter hours, not personalising uncertainties brought about by the actions of their clients and working in areas of law which cohere with their intrinsic interests and provide them with a sense of civic fulfilment.
And for the rest of the community, the path to work happiness is even simpler. Try to make a buck out of an activity you would do even if you weren’t being paid for it. That is why so many of us envy sports people, musicians and successful actors.
To this end, the nature of the project doesn’t seem to be that important. Doctors and teachers obtain similar levels of fulfilment and satisfaction as carpenters, police and cleaners.
Find a job that aligns with your personal interest and which challenges you but does not defeat you. Thereafter all (work) things are likely to care of themselves. People do best at what they are passionate about and if you do things well, the money side tends to take of itself. In the process you will also impress others – if you must!
Oh, and always treat your lawyer nicely and pay the bills on time. Remember, no matter how much they’ve charged you, it’s probably not enough for the sacrifices they’ve made.
A version of this was in the Daily Telegraph (Sydney) on 30 April 2007.