How we plan to deal with "burn-out" and passing the paper sift for pupillage

On 16th January 2021, the Budding Bar met for another fortnightly session, to ‘checkin’ with the group sharing, how we’re doing, and to discuss how to secure a pupillage.

While checking in as a group, an overwhelming feeling of ‘burn-out’ came to light across almost all of our members — which is defined as ‘a syndrome conceptualised as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed… characterised by three dimensions: feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion; increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one's job; and reduced professional efficacy’, by the World Health Organisation. As a mixture of undergraduate/postgraduate students and entry-level professionals, it’s alarming that we were all feeling collectively drained, especially at the start of a new year. This sparked an interesting and thought-provoking discussion around links between burnout and mental health, and how we can overcome this sensation going forward.

Zita reminded us that burn-out is a normal phenomenon and that we need to let it happen. But we also need to ensure we listen to ourselves well enough to avoid it the next time.

As highlighted by the WHO’s definition of burn-out, it is a combination of exhaustion, negativism and reduced efficacy, usually related to a job or studies. As students and professionals, especially as budding barristers, we naturally set the bar incredibly high for ourselves and can try to exceed our own expectations, without realising this can affect our mental health. If a task is due to take four hours, it’s better to take the full time to complete it, instead of pushing ourselves to finish it in two hours and then punishing ourselves for potentially missing this exceedingly unrealistic goal. A large component of burn-out is punishing ourselves for not meeting expectations — when in reality, we’re all human, and we can’t function like a well-oiled machine when balancing priorities, sleep and our mental health. It’s imperative to provide ourselves with the resources needed to complete tasks, specifically the physical and mental resources needed (e.g. time, attitude towards the task… etc.). If we don’t bring the correct version of ourselves to the task, we will not be able to complete it properly and well, thus leading to more self-deprecating and disappointing thoughts.

To avoid burn-out going forwards:

1. Don’t be afraid to listen to your body: if you’re feeling tired, sleep; if you’re hungry, eat! You don’t need to meet every ridiculously high expectation you set yourself — cut yourself some slack, as you would with others if they were in your position.

   • Also, never underestimate the importance of rest and self-care. Zita raised a key point about being depressed — it sounds a lot like ‘deep rest’. Give yourself time to cry/ scream/ react however you see fit, and then rest. Listen to your body.

2. Learn and extract the necessary resources from down periods and dark places — look inside, be introspective to ensure you’re bringing the best version of yourself to tasks.

3. Reflect on what could have ‘gone wrong’ to lead you to feel burnt out… This relies again on being introspective and reflecting on the mistakes you may have made, which could have simply been not giving yourself a break, every now and then. Life doesn’t have to move at 100mph every day.

4. Remember that every challenge we face is an opportunity to learn — reframe burn-out from being a setback, into a great lesson. It’s imperative to accept what you are and learn to fail better.

5. Finally, never underestimate the power of rest! If you were a training athlete, you’d consider rest to be as essential as physical training. We are so focused on our output, that it’s easy to neglect the thing that is responsible for the product of our work: ourselves.

   • When you write an essay in a time-pressured situation, you may sacrifice sleep to meet the deadline. But, if you sacrifice sleep, you may begin to make careless errors, which will affect the final product you’re creating. If you prepare well enough — and look after yourself adequately — these mistakes will be avoided and you won’t miss out on sleep. Self-care is important during trying and demanding periods, as well as during down-time.

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The rest of the session was dedicated to how to secure a pupillage — a notoriously difficult and competitive feat for budding Barristers. As the pupillage gateway has opened, this is a key focus for our members who are on, or have completed, the Bar Practice Course. Our mentors, James and Zita, shared their perspectives of how to successfully pass the written stage of the pupillage application, exploring key questions covered in many pupillage application forms.

‘Why do you want to be a barrister?’

We initially covered the hardest question of all. A daunting question to answer, sparking thoughts of ‘how much do we leverage our studies’?, ‘how much experience is ‘enough’?’, and, crucially, ‘how much do we really know about the Bar and what it takes to become a successful barrister?’. We discussed a 4-step guide on how to tackle this huge question:

1. Be informed about the profession:

As we all know, barristers are self-employed, so they typically have the freedom to pursue their interests. This means they are responsible for themselves, they’re unequivocally independent — so these are elements you may want to highlight when referring to your skills/ experience/ passions. Furthermore, it’s important to reflect on the values, mindsets and rapport that barristers may have.

1. Explore the ‘observation, realisation and conclusion’ model:

Story-telling is a powerful tool to use when structuring your answer to why you would like to become a barrister. If you start with an observation, you can explore the inspiration that sparked your interest in the bar; realisation relates your answer to you personally; and, the conclusion provides an opportunity to evaluate what you have learnt from the experience, and what you aim to get out of the experience, too.

1. Don’t forget to ‘be human’!

Talk about your passion, the spark, your vision — that will make your response more personal and human, so will stand out among other candidates’ responses.

‘Name a case decision you disagree with, or believe was ‘wrongly decided’

Tackling this question is tricky — how can we (students/ graduates/ BPC-students) argue with judgements from accomplished members of our legal system, particularly highlighting that these decisions were ‘wrongly decided’. James was quick to remind us that we mustn’t believe we don’t have the authority to dispute a case decision, as that is what the question is asking. In a real-life situation, a client may come to you stating they feel something has been wrongly decided, and as their barrister, it is your job to advocate for them and persuade others/ the court that it was wrongly decided. You will have to represent your client to the best of your ability. Within the law, the concept of ‘right vs wrong’ is relative to specific situations.

To answer this question, you should consider the following:

• Do you agree with the technical legal reasoning?

• What were the values within the reasoning — values of the words in the statute, for example? Did you think the outcome was fair? What were the broader implications of the judgement? And, the human perspective?

Remember, tackling this question well will show the chambers you have the right skills and virtues to have a successful career at the Bar.

Why do you think you will be a good barrister?

Yikes, what a question! Think of the skills that would make a good barrister, and relate them to your lived experience and skill set, whether you want to highlight your:

• Humility,

• Awareness,

• Work ethic,

• Polite nature?

In this question, you need to bring out the kind of barrister you want to be — think about what you personally can bring to the Bar.

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There is one key common point between burn-out and addressing pupillage application questions — you [and your well-being]. You need to be introspective, reflect on what’s inside and what you truly believe in, ultimately looking after yourself and your interests. That’s how you can bring the best version of yourself to everything you do. Remember, as Zita highlighted, the problems we face are the challenges we learn the most from.

As ever, I’m incredibly grateful for the support Zita, James and the other members of the Budding Bar provide when we meet. Every member has a great story and I’m proud to be part of their journeys to becoming successful barristers.

- Elizabeth Godfrey-Gush

*cover image from google: (The Range) <https://www.range.co/blog/how-to-prevent-workplace-burnout-on-your-team> accessed 4 February 2021