f/k/a archives . . . real opinions & real haiku

Yesterday, Robert Ambrogi pointed to yet another study — this time,

The City & Guilds Happiness Index from UK — showing how unhappy

lawyers are with their jobs.  In general, vocational workers seem happier

than professionals.  The factors that seem to create satisfaction are being

able to meet lots of different people and “feeling appreciated.”  According

to the Study:

“Top of the list of reasons for feeling unhappy in their jobs is

feeling stressed (55 per cent) and feeling underpaid (35 per cent).”

From f/k/a‘s perspective, lawyers in the USA and UK, seem to stress prestige

and income far too much — causing them to choose the most stressful jobs,

with the highest demands on their time — and far too often feel under-respected,

underappreciated and underpaid.

surprising the worker
in the field…
out-of-season blooms

growing old–
by the hearth’s light
piecework

Issa, translated by David G. Lanoue

As Evan Schaeffer suggests today, we do this to ourselves, by buying into

the Big Lie that Big Law is the only true source of success in our profession.

Partners make it worse by insisting on higher and higher PPP (profits per

partner) — see Adam Smith Esq for analysis, and MorePartnerIncome

for the pathology, in action.   However, as Prof. Patrick Schiltz, Steven Keeva,

and the f/k/a Gang (repeatedly) have pointed out, the greed of young lawyers

feeds into the process, making it virtually impossible to cure on a systemic

basis.

.

All is not lost. As we said in 2003:

.

In many ways, our profession is in such a sorry state because law

schools and firms have adopted and perpetuated [perpetrated?] lowest-

common-denominator values (mostly driven by greed and made worse

by pretension), and because individual attorneys have gladly or blindly

embraced those values.   Too many lawyers have then decided to live

with, and made excuses for, the intolerable consequences.   That’s the

bad news.  The good news is that individuals can choose better values

in order to give better career advice, change institutions, or make cor-

rections in their lives.

We each can, with courage and “sacrifice”, take charge of our own life and

happiness.  Wanting less money and needing less prestige will go a long way

toward nurturing healthy and happy attitudes.

.

p.s. The UK Happiness Index had a finding that might surprise a lot

of lawyers (and their significant others): They came in 6th, out of 28

careers for their Work/Life Balance rating.  Bankers came in last place.

That should remind us that finding a satisfactory balance is not a unique

curse for our profession. We made a related point last October, in con-

nection with Take Back Your Time Day:

Of course, lawyers love to see themselves as especially

overworked, over-stressed, and beset by life balance issues —

and far too many are.  I just want to point out that a very large

percentage of adults (and children) in our nation feels the same

pressures.

Not to (unduly) belabor the obvious, that balance could be shifted in the

right direction if our income goals (and quotas) were reduced.

visiting the dog’s grave

then away!

grasshopper

the baby mosquito

tries out

his nose

living dangerously

the kite skims

the river

dead by drowning

in the deep cup

gnat

David G. Lanoue

“visiting” & “baby mosquito” – the novel Dewdrop World (free download)

“living” & “dead” – from his novel The Laughing Buddha

In another update to our wordless Italian post, we wonder why a conser-

vative “American jurist” is citing a foreign source in a Letter to the Editor.  On the

merits, we ask:

Did Nino move those fingers slowly, or with the rapid,

single motion that is far more insulting (and one might

deem obscene)?

“KiteG”