Stress Rolls Downhill: Surviving an Unhealthy Workplace, 0519 COBJ, Vol. 48, No. 5 Pg. 16
Author | By Sarah Myers |
Position | Vol. 48, 5 [Page 16] |
WELLNESS
By Sarah Myers
"Primates
are super smart and organized just enough to devote their
free time to being miserable to each other and stressing each
other out."
Dr. Robert Sapolsky
Dr.
Robert Sapolsky is a neuroendocrinologist and Stanford
professor who has spent almost four decades studying the
physiological effects of stress on health in baboons and
humans.
The
Whitehall Study, a longitudinal research project in England
that commenced in 1967 and continues to the present, has
traced a similar phenomenon in humans in their work
environment.
Stress and the Law
What do these research projects have to do with lawyers? The practice of law is about helping others, yet is based on a hierarchical, adversarial process. The adversarial process is often used as an excuse for belligerent and even unprofessional behavior among many attorneys that leads to a type of institutional bullying. In fact, research suggests that "lawyers ... [are] more likely than other professionals to be exposed to toxic behavior in the workplace including verbal abuse, mistreatment, bullying, competition and destabilization from colleagues as well as...
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