Feeling the squeeze

2022 has not been much of a feelgood year.

War in Ukraine, political turbulence in the UK, climate extremes almost everywhere, and now a downward economy and a cost of living crisis – it is not surprising that many business owners and leaders feel anxious for the future. How that is reflected in the Scottish legal profession is among the matters this year’s Journal Employment Survey attempted to find out.

Well paid, but…

With a succession of cost of living issues having hit the headlines, the 2022 survey asked readers which particular costs concerned them most. More than 92% of respondents to the survey helped build this picture:

While some recognise that they are relatively well off, or are more concerned for junior colleagues, others say that even on what should be a good salary they are finding things difficult. Salary increases are cancelled out (or exceeded) by inflation; some, especially in the public and third sectors, have already seen their earnings falling behind for years. Mortgage, childcare and/or student support costs are major concerns for some, while people working from home are trying to resist using the heating.

Comments include:

• “It is having a negative effect on my mental health. Within three days of being paid I have no money left and spend the rest of my month robbing Peter to pay Paul.”
• “It’s causing me anxiety – I live alone and feel very exposed to the additional costs, and if I were to lose my job.”
• “I’m waiting for pay day, putting routine spending onto my credit card and prioritising like never before… Home improvements are relegated to unaffordable. The thermostat is turned down as I experiment with how low is comfortable. I’m aware that loads of people can’t pay for basic essentials and we are still better off than very many.”
• “Causing high anxiety/depression for which I take medication and am seeing a counsellor.”
• “Coming from a working class background has put me at a disadvantage to my peers in terms of financial stability and savings. I feel sometimes that others in the legal sector don’t understand or appreciate this.”
• “In real terms I am earning far less now than when I was only a few years’ qualified. I truly despair about what I am going to do, or how I am going to cope.”
• “So who ever said there’s no such thing as a poor lawyer!”

Negative sentiment

Unsurprisingly, the business outlook has turned sharply downwards since this time last year. Then, 23.3% said the outlook had improved for their organisation over the previous 12 months, 1.6% higher than the “Got worse” response. Now, only 6.3% claim a recent improvement compared with 47.8% who have seen a decline; equally, for the coming year, the pessimists outweigh the optimists by 49.6% to 6.6% – last year the optimists (26%) had a nine point lead.

Notably, even those who claim to have had good times recently, worry for the future. “The firm has done well – concern is looking forward not back”, one such partner reports. Difficulties in recruiting are perhaps the most commonly cited issue. For example:

• “We are a small firm and struggling to compete with the salaries offered by larger firms, particularly now that hybrid/remote working means that people can look further afield for employment.”
• “We have had one of the busiest years ever but with the difficulty in recruiting qualified staff there are now fewer people trying to do greater amounts of work thus leading to ever increasing workloads, backlogs, stress and unhappy clients.” (Sole principal)
• More generally, “Our firm is doing really well at the moment but there is concern about what the coming years will bring in terms of instability.” (Partner, 2-5 principals)

As has been the pattern in previous surveys, those in the public sector (national or local, but especially local) look worse off, however. “The financial outlook for local authorities is grim”, one respondent comments. “Our local authority is reducing the budget across most services, including legal services, by 20%.”

Others report:

• “We are now hearing on the news that there is no more money for public sector rises; also I am at the top of my pay scale, so I anticipate no pay rise in this time of huge inflation. Terrifying.”
• “Basically all are trying to dodge cuts, but the mantra of ‘doing more with less’ is quite insulting when we are already flat out.”
• “Long term staff sickness linked to stress, ever increasing workload, salary remains same or increase well below inflation for last 10 years.”
• “Lawyers in local government are very much falling behind in terms of salary levels in private practice, which is accepted up to a point, but the gap is widening and that can cause doubt and concern about vocation. It doesn’t always feel like anyone champions local government solicitors or is fully aware of the professional pay gap that exists in many places.”
• “I feel this is a call centre model at times if I’m honest! I think there is a trend to de-professionalise the legal sector, as is happening in some other professions too.”

… and the stress

We may be seeing these issues reflected in people’s stress levels. Asked how these have changed over the past 12 months, 43% reported increased stress (that follows a figure of 50% last year), with 46% saying their stress has stayed about the same (last year 38%) and only 11% (unchanged) that their stress has decreased. Nearly 49% report stress at problem levels, with about one in five either choosing not to discuss it with anyone or not knowing who to turn to.

Respondents who provided comments mention contributing factors including short staffing/recruitment difficulties, unsympathetic management and an expectation that long hours will be worked. For example:

• “The problem is that we are struggling to recruit additional staff so trying to get help to spread the workload is difficult.”
• “Other than working even longer hours to get through the work there is little that can be done without changing careers.”
• “Most stress is taken home and managed without issue, but current affairs and cost of living are adding new stress on top of existing stress.”
• “I left my role this year at a large international law firm due to the stress and working hours.”

One respondent suggested that people working remotely more than one or two days a week results in detachment from colleagues, causing stress when they fail to ask questions or seek help.

Lawyers behaving badly

Were there any brighter spots in the survey? The responses to “Have you experienced or witnessed discrimination or harassment at work in the past 12 months?” may be regarded as containing both good and bad news. While seven out of eight (87.4%) answered “no”, there remains an element of poor behaviour that allows no room for complacency. Sex or gender discrimination was much the most common form, accounting for 35 out of 79 positive responses, but most other protected characteristics also featured, including age.

A number of people mentioned general bullying or harassing behaviour not based on protected characteristics, which in some cases was directed at a particular individual; or negative remarks about others as opposed to overt behaviour. Some also have to take such behaviour from clients: “It’s a regular feature of a criminal defence agent’s life”, was one comment.

And when we say no room for complacency, what steps is your organisation taking to avoid this label being applied to it: “My firm is generally a horrendous place to work, despite public facing presentation to the contrary”?

Legal aid pressures

Sadly, but predictably, the generally negative responses are magnified in the case of those who work wholly or partly in legal aid. Of these solicitors, 61.4% report increased stress levels over the past 12 months (compared with 43.3% across the whole survey), and 33.3% no change (whole survey: 45.8%). For 58.9% the business outlook has got worse in the past 12 months, while 39.3% say it is unchanged (whole survey: 47.8% and 46.0% respectively). Precisely no one expects an improvement in the next 12 months, while 64.9% predict things getting worse again. And although 51.7% have more than 20 years’ PQE, and a further 32.8% have 10-20 years, almost 60% are earning less than £50,000 a year, and more than 70% less than £60,000 – with more than two thirds (68.4%) having seen no change or a decrease since last year.

Across the career spectrum

On the other hand, stage of career seems less of a factor in some respects than might be supposed. Of those qualified less than 10 years, 53% claim that work-related stress is not at problem level, almost the same as the 54% of those qualified 20 years or more. (It’s the group in between, 10-20 years qualified, that scores lower, at 44%.) The senior group however are more likely to work very long hours, with three in every eight saying they put in at least 10 hours every week more than they are contracted for, compared to 17.4% of those less than 10 years qualified – though about three quarters of each group work extra hours to some extent.

As might be expected, the younger group scores higher on cost of living concerns, including 89.7% worried about energy bills and 67.6% about food bills, compared with 79.7% and 56.6% respectively for the older group. However there is a notably flatter salary spread among the older group, 26% of who earn more than £100,000 but an equal number less than £50,000, so there will be many there who are just as anxious about their means. They also return a higher score of those unsatisfied or very unsatisfied with their pay (35.5%), compared with 26.5% of the younger group.

Final thoughts

What seems undeniable across the board is the pressure of trying to recruit sufficient suitable staff. Clearly, many firms will never be able to match the salaries now being offered by some large practices; at the same time, firm culture, and how staff are treated, should not be underestimated as impacting on motivation and loyalty. Could the figures recently released by the Society, showing a record number of trainees being taken on during the last practice year, indicate that firms are trying to “grow their own” when it comes to additional lawyers? For some, it may be the best bet.

Note: 57% of men who responded, compared with 32.4% of women, had more than 20 years’ PQE; 21.3% of men, and 35.7% of women, had 10-20 years.

Thank you to all 555 respondents who took part in the survey. They break down as 37% male and 61% female, with a few answering otherwise or choosing not to say, and somewhat weighted towards those with more years’ PQE. More than one third (36%) work in-house, above the figure for the profession as a whole, while 11% do at least some legal aid work (a further 7% find it no longer viable).

Comparing the responses of men and women, we have picked out some illustrations in the “Gender divide” table. The employment and earning patterns as well as the experiences of stress may all be of interest.

The table covering the most common employee benefits in the profession shows a similar pattern to last year, with the figures for holiday entitlement and pension provision perhaps reflecting the proportion of in-house lawyers taking part.

For the most recent comparable reports, see Journal, December 2021, 12 and Journal, December 2020, 12.