Hypercritical practices, poor management, money and status over people and wellbeing, aggressive competition, excessive work hours, bullying, harassment, and discrimination – sound familiar? Sadly, these represent some of the legal profession’s most prevalent beliefs, attitudes, and practices. And while the average, reasonable person wouldn’t find any of this conducive to career and personal fulfilment, toxic resilience reigns supreme.
Looking back to look forward
The first article in our Ethics and wellbeing series demonstrated ethical foundations from Ancient Greece through to the present day … for some professions. We posited the legal profession’s regulatory codes include new provisions for wellbeing as an indicator of professional competency to protect the safety of practitioners and clients, and the integrity of the profession. Part two explores the systemic feedback loop of toxic cultural norms and their impacts on wellbeing and ethical behaviour.
Toxic workplace culture and the legal profession
A toxic workplace is defined as an organisational environment that causes harm, and is painful for, and cruel towards, employees (Meidav, 2021). Such an environment results in low morale, decreased motivation, and diminished productivity. It impacts employees’ sense of agency and connection to both their work and workplace.
Kasalak (2019) highlighted four elements of a toxic work environment: rigidity, narcissism, aggression, and unethical behaviour. This study of workplace culture within tertiary educational institutions indicated these elements manifest within organisations as poor internal communication and cooperation, high levels of competition amongst employees, expectations of working beyond the terms of employees’ job descriptions, unfair rises in workload, and contravening organisational, professional, and legal requirements. Again, sound familiar?
Extensive global research confirms legal practitioners operate within highly-pressured, stubbornly rigid, and aggressively competitive environments (International Bar Association (ABA), 2021). Reports overwhelmingly show negative impacts on legal workers’ wellbeing as a result, and reaffirm an acculturated pressure to shut up and toughen up.
Toxic culture and wellbeing
Toxic workplace environments, by definition, are detrimental to employee health, wellbeing, and safety. Research shows that environments of increasing pressure due to tighter deadlines and expectations of overwork become increasingly more detrimental (Omari & Paull, 2013). This is especially problematic when there’s an unspoken agreement to simply tolerate the intolerable – because a problem ignored is a problem that festers.
Stress has been shown to increase as toxicity rises in the workplace and employees have been shown to experience insomnia, anxiety, and depression as a consequence (Rasool et al., 2021). In addition, workplace toxicity is linked with employee disengagement (Rasool et al., 2021) and reduced productivity (Wang et al., 2020). Thus, toxic workplaces are major barriers to optimal employee functioning and organisational efficiency.
The literature has consistently reported very high rates of mental health issues within the Australian legal profession and highlights the pressured environment as a key systemic contributor (Brady, 2019). Many legal organisations exhibit toxic cultural norms, such as aggressive billing targets, excessive workloads and work hours, hypercritical practices, incivility, and adversarial relationships that place workers under extreme pressure and undermine wellbeing. The most insidious threat, though, is toxic resilience. In an industry that valorises stoicism and quietly burning out, the burden of responsibility for wellbeing sits firmly with individuals. But they can’t talk about it, or they’ll be stigmatised as weak and unable to cope.
Toxic culture, decision making, and unethical behaviour
When people are under pressure, decision making is challenged. Situational and cultural biases have more power here, and the quality of decisions is often compromised.
Unethical behaviour in the workplace undermines core psychological needs, such as autonomy and relatedness, and violates employees’ assumptions they will be treated respectfully and professionally (Foley et al., 2016). Baron (2015) suggests that toxic characteristics of the Australian legal profession’s workplace culture, such as high work pressure, competition, intolerance of diversity, and abuse of power and position can lead to unethical behaviour, such as bullying, harassment, and discrimination. Poor wellbeing amongst victims, perpetrators, and third parties has been associated with unethical behaviour (Foley et al., 2016). Thus, the organisational repercussions of may be widespread and difficult to recover from.
Even more concerning is the self-perpetuating cycle born from highly-pressured workplaces. As noted, increasing pressure encourages toxic attitudes and actions that negatively impact health and wellbeing (International Bar Association, 2021). Compounded by the inability to discuss one’s issues nor seek help for fear of judgement and career repercussions, the toxic cycle continues.
Whilst industry-level discussion now suggests a broader acknowledgement that toxic environments, attitudes, behaviours, and practises are unacceptable, these cultural norms prevail. Without tangible, structural change, the discussion on wellbeing remains lip service. We need to break the cycle to ensure the profession can effectively and ethically serve its community.
References
- Baron, P. (2015). The elephant in the room? Lawyer wellbeing and the impact of unethical behaviour. Australian Feminist Law Journal, 41(1), 87–119. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13200968.2015.1035209
- Brady, M. (2019). VLSB+C lawyer wellbeing project: Report on legal professionals’ reflections on wellbeing in the legal profession and suggestions for future reform. Victorian Legal Services Board and Commission. https://lsbc.vic.gov.au/resources/lawyer-wellbeing-report
- Braithwaite, J., Herkes, J., Ludlow, K., Testa, L., & Lamprell, G. (2017). Association between organisational and workplace cultures and patient outcomes: Systematic review. BMJ Open, 7(11), Article e017708. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2017-017708
- Foley, T., Hickie, I., Holmes, V., James, C., Rowe, M., & Tang, S. (2016). Being well in the law: A guide for lawyers. Law Society of New South Wales. https://www.lawsociety.com.au/sites/default/files/2018-08/Being%20Well%20in%20the%20Law%20Guide.pdf
- International Bar Association. (2021). Mental wellbeing in the legal profession: A global study. https://www.ibanet.org/Mental-wellbeing-in-the-legal-profession
- Kasalak, G. (2019). Toxic behaviours in workplace: Examining the effects of the demographic factors on faculty members’ perceptions of organisational toxicity. International Journal of Research in Education and Science, 5(1), 272–282. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1198186.pdf
- Meidav, N. (2021). Ethical behaviour is the antidote to toxic culture. Strategic HR Review, 20(2), 47–50. https://www.emerald.com/shr/article-abstract/20/2/47/344846/Ethical-behavior-is-the-antidote-to-toxic-culture?redirectedFrom=fulltext
- Omari, M., & Paull, M. (2013). “Shut up and bill”: Workplace bullying challenges for the legal profession. International Journal of the Legal Profession, 20(2), 141–160. https://doi.org/10.1080/09695958.2013.874350
- Rasool, S. F., Wang, M., Tang, M., Saeed, A., & Iqbal, J. (2021). How toxic workplace environment effects the employee engagement: The mediating role of organisational support and employee wellbeing. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(5), Article 2294. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18052294
- Wang, Z., Zaman, S., Rasool, S. F., uz Zaman, Q., & Amin, A. (2020). Exploring the relationships between a toxic workplace environment, workplace stress and project success with the moderating effect of organisational support: Empirical evidence from Pakistan. Risk Management and Healthcare Policy, 13, 1055–1067. https://doi.org/10.2147/RMHP.S256155
