Burnout can be the bane of professional longevity – here, one firm owner reflects on how taking sufficient holidays, mentally clocking off after work, and having the right support system when you are at work, are essential to creating needed balance.
In a recent episode of The Boutique Lawyer Show, Christina Yi, legal practitioner director at Allegra Family Lawyers (pictured), talked about her experience navigating the consuming world of lawyering.
She said: “Burnout happens all the time in our field and I think people are not understanding how that will really negatively affect your longevity in this field.”
“Becoming a lawyer, I think that’s all I’ve ever done,” Yi stated.
Recently, the practitioner made an online post on the question, does lawyering consume your identity?
She recounted: “This post came about [when] I turned 40 this year. I hadn’t had a holiday for a long time, let alone a solo holiday.”
Yi recalled her inability to pick up a book for the last 10 years because, “all [I had been] doing is reading cases and affidavits”.
This year, Yi went on a surf trip after turning down many opportunities to take a holiday as she said, “I want[ed] to do something for me. I [did] need a break.”
“I felt like I actually had a break. Not just a weekend away, not just a week with family, but just time for myself,” she said.
She noted: “Since coming back, I’ve not been too stressed about the little things and what I’ve been constantly telling myself … [is] ... It is what it is. All we can do is the best for our clients.”
“Just being open with your clients, with your team, saying that you do need this break so that you can come back, you know, [be] fresher and with better ideas and a better way to manage your caseload. Your clients do understand, so a lot of my clients do understand,” she said.
She emphasised that, for junior lawyers: “It’s very important that you’re getting the experience that you need, but also managing that with your mental health, and your life outside [is important] because [if you] just [be] a lawyer and doing nothing else with your personal life, you’re not going to survive.”
“You do need to make space for yourself because you can’t do what we do without making space for ourselves,” she concluded.
