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Chasing happiness at work

Shutterstock

Shutterstock

One of the common misunderstandings about journalism is that you meet a lot of celebrities, and how that must be fantastic.

Yet the really fascinating thing about journalism is ranging from the top of society (prime ministers, governors-general, billionaires) to the lower rungs (the homeless, petty criminals, the hardscrabble working poor).

Such contact is often fleeting but you can snoop around for a while, provided you get a foot in the door. Most of the time, of course, you’re dealing with people in the middle.

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On country newspapers, I spoke to a lot of farmers and salesmen trying to hitch a ride on their back. But also timber cutters, a professional shooter of feral cats, plus fishermen, sailors and ship captains.

In the city, the night police round involved dropping off free copies of the still-warm newspaper at police headquarters, the traffic police, the central fire station, the main hospital emergency department and the St John’s Ambulance.

Sometimes these emergency workers were flat out. But often they were keen to chat. The lesson was that journalists should talk – and listen – to everybody. Everybody had many stories to tell and a lot of people wanted to talk about their work.

In the course of all this hanging about, I’ve chatted a lot with two occupations which are often held in low public regard – lawyers and politicians. Indeed, they have a symbiotic relationship with another professional group with image problems – journalists, like the writer of this column.

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Happiness: a delicate balance for legal professionals. Photo: Shutterstock

On the subject of lawyers, I’ve often wondered how many of them are happy, particularly when I worked in the middle of Melbourne’s legal precinct and saw them in the street. I have no evidence that lawyers are less happy than any other occupation and they can certainly make a living.

But is the adversarial legal life a barrel of laughs? Corporate lawyers bill their clients by the minute, while barristers are like actors out on loan, always looking for a case to argue, a bone to chew on, as a hired hand.

One lawyer I know, Josh Bornstein, the head of employment law at Maurice Blackburn, said in an interesting speech that most people he consulted with were suffering some form of distress, anxiety or other mental health issue.

“People invest enormously in their work. For many, work is inextricably tied up with their identity and their sense of self-worth. When the employment relationship starts to fracture or come to an end, the experience is invariably traumatic.

“The clients I work with may not have slept properly for some time. A man that I recently saw had not slept for nine days. Others can present as deeply anxious, tearful, depressed and/or very angry. In extreme cases, my clients are suicidal.”

Mr Bornstein spoke of how lawyers dealing with bushfire victims and sufferers of asbestos-related diseases can end up with “vicarious stress” where empathy can see some emotional trauma transferred to the listener.

I also have sympathy for politicians and recommend an excellent article by Fairfax journalist Matthew Knott about sightings of the black dog of depression in the corridors of Federal parliament.

Finally, I commend a brave and wise piece by ABC journalist Sally Sara, who suffered post-traumatic stress disorder after returning from years of covering trauma in the Middle East and Africa.

For most of us, work and life are much less dramatic. But every occupation is human. You should keep an eye out for others at work, and an eye out for yourself.

FOOTNOTE: Employers can read here how happy workplaces are more productive workplaces.

Mark Skulley is a freelance journalist who is based in Melbourne. He was a reporter for The Australian Financial Review for almost 19 years, which included a decade covering national industrial relations and the world of work. He has since written for The New Daily and other outlets.

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