All the anecdotal evidence has been confirmed.  As Private Fraser says in Dad's Army "We're all doomed!"

However, like all cataclysmic events in nature, business or otherwise, the Darwinian "survival of the fittest" kicks in and those deemed ready to adapt and change to meet the new world will survive.

Anyway, take a look at the full article here:
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/business/Legal-firms39-39year-of-turmoil39.6091530.jp

Much of our lives are spent in groups with other people: we form groups to socialise, earn money, practice the law, play sport, make music, even to change the world. But although groups are diverse, many of the psychological processes involved are remarkably similar.

Here are 10 insightful studies that give a flavour of what has been discovered about the dynamics of group psychology.



1. Groups can arise from almost nothing The desire to form and join social groups is extremely powerful and built into our nature. Amongst other things groups give us a most valuable gift, our social identity, which contribute to our sense of who we are.



2. Initiation rites improve group evaluations Existing groups don't let others join for free: the cost is sometimes monetary, sometimes intellectual, sometimes physical—but usually there is an initiation rite, even if it's well disguised.



3. Groups breed conformity After joining a group and being initiated, we have to get a feel for the group norms, the rules of behaviour in that group. Group norms can be extremely powerful, bending our behaviours in ways we would never expect.

For the remaining 7 traits (including a statistic on how accurate the "Grapevine" is...)  Go here for the full article:
http://www.spring.org.uk/2009/07/10-rules-that-govern-groups.php

 

Do you have difficulty finding balance in your life? Do you neglect your own needs in the service of your work? Do your personal relationships take a back seat to obligations of the job? Do friends and family complain that conversations with you feel more like cross examination?

Lawyers, as a profession, are at a high risk for depression, suicide and substance abuse.

The behaviours required for success in the law can be contrary to those that contribute to mental health, a sense of well-being and satisfying interpersonal relationships.

In broad terms, legal work often calls for suppressing your emotions, involvement in relationships imbued with conflict; unrealistic self-expectations and a lack of balance between work and interpersonal relationships and leisure which are all behaviours that tend to contribute to depression, isolation, stress and anxiety.

If this is you, or someone you know, then something is clearly not right.

There is a way to get balance into legal work and life. But for now, more on the
Black Dog in the link below.

For more information, go here: http://www.lawyerswithdepression.com/TheLawPractice.asp

You’re stressed, overworked, and tired. You feel like you’re dropping the ball on so many things. You find yourself lying awake in the early hours, thinking about those items still on your to-do list, those emails not yet cleared...and you forgot to leave a pen and paper beside your bed again! 

One day, some little incident makes you blow up. For me, it was my printer running out of ink at a crucial time and the spare printer ink box was empty and the local shop had none so I had to order online and wait 24hrs.

Have you ever heard the phrase “don’t sweat the small stuff”? There are so many things that we waste huge amounts of energy on (and worry is always wasted energy), which just won’t matter in a week, let alone ten years.

Here are ten examples of things you might be stressing about today that will not matter a hoot in ten years’ time:

1. That embarrassing misspelling in the email you just sent
2. The idiot who cut you up on your way into work
3. How clean your car is
4. One of your children acting up
5.. A nasty email from a stranger
6. Missing a deadline
7. Losing out on a job interview to a better candidate
8. Not getting any grocery shopping and offering your family a choice of cereal or sandwiches for dinner, one night
9. Making a small mistake in a report – and being called up on it by a client
10. The state of the garage and all the items you should be selling on ebay

So what are you going to pour your energy into instead?

There are a number of things you might want to concentrate on, including your family, your health and your dreams for the future.

So these are ten things which will matter in ten years’ time. Some of them need to be done on a consistent, daily basis for you to really see effects:

1. Writing down your goals
2. Working at the times of day when you’re most productive and energetic
3. Telling your children and partner that you love them
4. Eating plenty of fruit and veg
5. Going for a half-hour walk – sunshine, fresh air and exercise!
6. Getting up early to work on something that really matters to you
7. Painting a watercolour, writing a poem, or knitting a jumper
8. Doing something unexpected (but that you know will be welcomed) for your partner
9. Spending time learning and practising a new skill
10. Taking time for yourself, to think, pray or meditate

The things on this second list are the ones that will really matter, long term.

Instead of worrying over some little mistake at work or in your home life, think about your actions that build up to a bigger picture.

Did you get any exercise today? Did you take the time to prepare healthy, tasty meals? Did you work on anything that you felt truly fired-up and inspired about?
 
Focus your attention on the things that will matter in ten years – not the tiny ups and downs of your day that you’ll have forgotten about in a week or two.

After all, what would you rather look back on in 2020 – ten years of a stressing over a clear email inbox and a tidy house, or ten years when you made huge strides towards accomplishing something

? If you’ve got any of your own “won’t matter” and “will matter” tasks to add to the lists, let us know them in the comments

Having spent a bit of time over lunch writing about
vaguely serious matters - I found this on the net and
thought you might enjoy it, if you have not seen it
before.


A SQUIRRELS TALE

REST OF THE WORLD VERSION:
The squirrel works hard in the withering heat all
summer long, building and improving his house and
laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks he’s a fool, and laughs and
dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the squirrel is warm and well fed.

The shivering grasshopper has no food or shelter, so
he dies out in the cold.

THE END


------------------------------------------------------

THE U.K. VERSION:
The squirrel works hard in the withering heat all
summer long, building his house and laying up supplies
for the winter.The grasshopper thinks he’s a fool, and
laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the squirrel is warm and well fed.

A social worker finds the shivering grasshopper, calls
a press conference and demands to know why the
squirrel should be allowed to be warm and well fed
while others less fortunate, like the grasshopper, are
cold and starving.

The BBC shows up to provide live coverage of the
shivering grasshopper; with cuts to a video of the
squirrel in his comfortable warm home with a table
laden with food.

The British press inform people that they should be
ashamed that in a country of such wealth, this poor
grasshopper is allowed to suffer so, while others have
plenty.

The Labour Party, Greenpeace, Animal Rights and The
Grasshopper Council of GB demonstrate in front of the
squirrel’s house.

The BBC, interrupting a cultural festival special from
Notting Hill with breaking news, broadcasts a multi
cultural choir singing “We Shall Overcome”.

Harriet Harman rants in an interview with Jeremy Paxman
that the squirrel got rich off the backs of
grasshoppers, and calls for an immediate tax hike on
the squirrel to make him pay his “fair share” and calls on
Boris Johnstone to increase the charge for squirrels to enter inner
London.

In response to pressure from the media, the Government
drafts the Economic Equity and Grasshopper Anti
Discrimination Act, retroactive to the beginning of
the summer.

The squirrel’s taxes are reassessed.

He is taken to court and fined for failing to hire
grasshoppers as builders for the work he was doing on
his home and an additional fine for contempt when he
told the court the grasshopper did not want to work.

The grasshopper is provided with a council house,
financial aid to furnish it and an account with a
local taxi firm to ensure he can be socially mobile.

The squirrel’s food is seized and re distributed to
the more needy members of society, in this case the
grasshopper.

Without enough money to buy more food, to pay the fine
and his newly imposed retroactive taxes, the squirrel
has to downsize and start building a new home.

The local authority takes over his old home and
utilises it as a temporary home for asylum seeking
cats who had hijacked a plane to get to Britain as
they had to share their country of origin with mice.
On arrival they tried to blow up the airport because
of Britain’s apparent love of dogs.

The cats had been arrested for the international
offence of hijacking and attempted bombing but were
immediately released because the police fed them
pilchards instead of salmon whilst in custody.

Initial moves to then return them to their own country
were abandoned because it was feared they would face
death by the mice. The cats devise and start a scam to
obtain money from people’s credit cards.

A Panorama special shows the grasshopper finishing up
the last of the squirrel’s food, though spring is
still months away, while the council house he is in,
crumbles around him because he hasn’t bothered to
maintain the house.

He is shown to be taking drugs. Inadequate government
funding is blamed for the grasshopper’s drug
‘illness’.

The cats seek recompense in the British courts for
their treatment since arrival in UK.

The grasshopper gets arrested for stabbing an old dog
during a burglary to get money for his drugs habit. He
is imprisoned but released immediately because he has
been in custody for a few weeks.

He is placed in the care of the probation service to
monitor and supervise him. Within a few weeks he has
killed a guinea pig in a botched robbery.

A commission of enquiry, that will eventually cost
£10,000,000 and state the obvious, is set up.

Additional money is put into funding a drug
rehabilitation scheme for grasshoppers and legal aid
for lawyers representing asylum seekers is increased.

The asylum-seeking cats are praised by the government
for enriching Britain’s multicultural diversity and
dogs are criticised by the government for failing to
befriend the cats.

The grasshopper dies of a drug overdose. The usual
sections of the press blame it on the obvious failure
of government to address the root causes of despair
arising from social inequity and his traumatic
experience of prison.

They call for the resignation of a minister.

The cats are paid a million pounds each because their
rights were infringed when the government failed to
inform them there were mice in the United Kingdom.

The squirrel, the dogs and the victims of the
hijacking, the bombing, the burglaries and robberies
have to pay an additional percentage on their credit
cards to cover losses, their taxes are increased to
pay for law and order and they are told that they will
have to work beyond 65 because of a shortfall in
government funds.

THE END