Mental health issues rife in the law but support not there, research shows

Nearly half of senior decision-makers in the legal profession are aware that employees have mental health issues but just a fraction say they are given the support to help them.

A YouGov study surveyed senior decision-makers in the legal profession on mental health in the workplace. In total, 606 decision-makers were surveyed.

According to the figures, 40% of those asked said they were aware that some of their employees had mental health issues but just 6% said they were given enough support to help tackle the problem.

Despite high numbers of staff suffering, just 23% of those surveyed said they believed that their employees felt comfortable speaking about it with them. A further 27% said there is a greater ‘stigma’ towards mental health conditions than physical ones in the workplace.

Some employers now offer health and wellbeing services to staff.

Of those surveyed, the most prevalent service offered was flexible working hours, followed by the provision of quiet areas and staff surveys.

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Mental health issues rife in the law but support not there, research shows

Failure to switch off from work ‘killing’ professionals, research shows

Worrying about work at home or bringing the office home with you can be linked to heart disease, a study has claimed.

A study published in the Frontiers in Human Neuroscience journal used wrist monitors to measure heart rates in workers – primarily in the financial services industry in the City of London.

Researchers found ‘spikes’ in stress when people interrupt their time at home with work. Heart-rate variability was sampled between 8pm and 10pm over three workday evenings (Monday to Wednesday) while individuals carried out their normal evening routines.

In one part of the study, staff from BNP Paribas were found to have high stress levels until 8.30pm when children went to bed. Some stress levels remained high until 1am.

The study claims to be the first to pair wearable sensors with smartphones with examining the association between ‘work-related rumination’ and heart-rate variability. 

According to the study’s authors, the culture of ‘always-on’ working is literally killing people.

David Plans, chief executive of digital health business BioBeats, which helped co-author the study, said: ‘Everybody knew that always working was bad, but now we can measure when it is happening and exactly what damage it is doing. It is much worse than we thought. It is killing people.

‘Dealing with work while at home is pernicious to health and is directly linkable to cardiovascular disease. That is now measurable and before it was not,’ he added.

Earlier this month, the Gazette attended a wellbeing at work event hosted by a legal recruitment company.

During the event, Matthew Mitten of employee benefits adviser Secondsight cited research claiming that 70% of workers had been affected by financial worries in the past year.

Employers, Mitten said, should focus on four core elements – financial, social, physical and mental wellbeing.

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Failure to switch off from work ‘killing’ professionals, research shows

Failure to switch off from work ‘killing’, research shows

Worrying about work at home or bringing the office home with you can be linked to heart disease, a study has claimed.

A study published in the Frontiers in Human Neuroscience journal used wrist monitors to measure heart rates in workers – primarily in the financial services industry in the City of London.

Researchers found ‘spikes’ in stress when people interrupt their time at home with work. Heart-rate variability was sampled between 8pm and 10pm over three workday evenings (Monday to Wednesday) while individuals carried out their normal evening routines.

In one part of the study, staff from BNP Paribas were found to have high stress levels until 8.30pm when children went to bed. Some stress levels remained high until 1am.

The study claims to be the first to pair wearable sensors with smartphones with examining the association between ‘work-related rumination’ and heart-rate variability. 

According to the study’s authors, the culture of ‘always-on’ working is literally killing people.

David Plans, chief executive of digital health business BioBeats, which helped co-author the study, said: ‘Everybody knew that always working was bad, but now we can measure when it is happening and exactly what damage it is doing. It is much worse than we thought. It is killing people.

‘Dealing with work while at home is pernicious to health and is directly linkable to cardiovascular disease. That is now measurable and before it was not,’ he added.

Earlier this month, the Gazette attended a wellbeing at work event hosted by a legal recruitment company.

During the event, Matthew Mitten of employee benefits adviser Secondsight cited research claiming that 70% of workers had been affected by financial worries in the past year.

Employers, Mitten said, should focus on four core elements – financial, social, physical and mental wellbeing.

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Failure to switch off from work ‘killing’, research shows

Law firms among worst ‘nest-egg builders’, research shows

Law firms have less cash set aside in savings than almost all of their counterparts in the small and medium business sector, research for a bank reports today. 

According to the study, law firms have an average of £354,000 set aside in savings, amounting to 60% of their total funds.

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The figure is lower than that of accountancy firms, which have an average of £1,85,000 (63%) in funds tucked away.

Of the industries surveyed, which also included manufacturing and engineering companies and charities, only the construction industry saved less (£319,000).

The figures were published by Hampshire Trust Bank, which commissioned research agency Coleman Parkes to find the figures.

As part of the research, 500 SMEs, defined as businesses that have 250 employees or fewer, were surveyed.

Charities were the most active savers, investing 77% of their funds in savings.

According to the research, 27% of legal SMEs surveyed said they were increasing cash reserves due to concerns about the economic outlook in the wake of the vote to leave the EU.

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Law firms among worst ‘nest-egg builders’, research shows