Canadian Lawyer

16 J U L Y 2 0 1 7 w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m It's a point of pride for a legal profes- sional. To be in demand is to be success- ful. Never mind that some of the work is busy-work or complete junk and that your accounts receivable are in sorry shape, and that more than likely a lot of those receivables will have to be written off. Never mind that maybe it just isn't true that you're busy. Whatever happens, you can't admit to anyone that you are idle. To have time on your hands is an admis- sion of failure. Maybe, you muse, with your office door shut, your head in your hands, nobody loves you — not potential clients, not your partners, not anyone. That thought, particularly the bit about potential clients, makes you feel as if a cold hand is gripping your innards. And it's not just that nobody loves you. Since, in the legal profession, time spent turns into cash coming down the pike, you'll likely suffer economic hardship (it's all relative) if you're not busy. The prospect of buying that BMW 7 series, maybe even the BMW i8, the car you really want, is receding well into the distance. Not being busy is a disaster not just to your pride but also to your wallet. And, finally, the biggest point of all: If you admit you're not busy, you're letting your side down big time, existentially speaking. The admission of underem- ployment puts a dent in the Master of the Universe image that lawyers like to por- tray, the image of the heroic warrior who never sleeps, the jurisprudential goliath who stands astride the world. Maybe you're just an ordinary, frail, nervous person after all . . . But let's say you're not faking it, you really are "very busy," you are working 60 or 70 hours a week, week after week and it's good work, serious work, for real cli- ents who will pay the crazy huge bill that results. Isn't that a good thing? Isn't that what you should be doing? No, it's not. Working hard is bad for you. Really bad. The literature is clear: Overwork, gen- erally defined as consistently working more than 40 hours a week, leads to chron- ic stress and anxiety, substance abuse, sleep disorders, a weakened immune system, depression, weight gain, hypertension, heart disease, chronic fatigue and dia- betes. Also — a consequence not to be overlooked — working too hard can kill you. The Japanese have a word for it — "karoshi." A recent study found that in 2012 more than 800 Japanese families were compensated by insurance companies for "karoshi deaths." Finally, of course, overwork is coun- ter-productive. As a 2015 article in the I'm very busy!" Ask a lawyer how they're doing, what they're up to these days, some sort of vague question like that, and they'll almost certainly say "I'm very busy" or something similar, maybe even something more dramatic, such as "I'm going out of my mind with all the work, it just keeps pouring in" accompanied by a nervous shake of the head and possibly a wringing of hands. L E G A L E T H I C S O P I N I O N @philipslayton SCOTT PAGE Too busy to work Lawyers pride themselves on how busy they are, but real leaders carve out unproductive time By Philip Slayton " THE ADMISSION OF UNDEREMPLOYMENT PUTS A DENT IN THE MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE IMAGE THAT LAWYERS LIKE TO PORTRAY, THE IMAGE OF THE HEROIC WARRIOR WHO NEVER SLEEPS, THE JURISPRUDENTIAL GOLIATH …

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