Moving for your mood

Legal firms ignore the wellbeing of staff at their peril

Last month, Mental Health Awareness Week focused on the theme of ‘movement’ and the benefits of moving more for our mental health.

It has long been established that physical illness and injury can impact someone’s mental wellbeing. That link has only become clearer for me over the 13 years I have been representing cyclists who have been injured on Scotland’s roads.

Navigating wellbeing

For so many of our clients, leading an active life has multiple benefits. I have encountered many who manage their mental wellbeing by cycling. When that is suddenly taken away from them because of physical injury, the consequences are frequently far-reaching.

There can be a sudden loss of control and feeling of helplessness. The psychological toll a physical injury takes on someone may not be evident within the first few days, weeks or even months.

It is readily accepted that if you have a physical injury, you seek medical attention and support, whether that means attending A&E, visiting your GP or seeing a physiotherapist. However, the same cannot be said for society’s view when seeking assistance for a psychological injury. While the physical injury can usually be seen, the psychological impact can go undetected and is often ignored.

As a firm, we strive to ensure our solicitors are equipped with the tools to be able to help our clients seek the right assistance at the right time. For an injured cyclist, that can be both physiotherapy and counselling. Physical and mental health are inexorably intertwined.

However, law firms cannot ignore the wellbeing of their staff who are entrusted to deliver a holistic approach to the provision of a personal injury service. In an industry with a reputation for prioritising productivity over wellbeing, the importance of an active lifestyle for mental health must be recognised and encouraged.

Moving in the right direction

When we introduced a four-day working week for all full-time members of staff in 2021, we had a vision that if you give staff the freedom to spend that extra day ‘moving’, their productivity would increase while they are at work. In turn, the shorter working week coupled with an active day would boost mental health.

Three years on, we have staff who spend their free time training for events such as the UCI World Championships, marathons and HYROX fitness races, and volunteering for impaired vision tandem cycling club, VIE Velo, to name just a few of their activities. We are immensely proud of our staff’s achievements, and of the success of what began as an experiment to reduce the working week and introduce a voluntary active day.

Even when our staff are at work, we actively encourage them to find the small moments in the day to get moving, to step away from their desks and enjoy the outdoors during breaks – and even suggest they bring their dogs to work to aid in this. Not only does this improve physical health, it also nurtures emotional wellbeing.

It’s so important to be aware of the benefits of movement to mental health, both for clients and those who deliver the legal service. Happy lawyers will always make a more positive difference to their clients.

Written by Jodi Gordon, Partner at Cycle Law Scotland