The science behind endemic bullying and harassment

I have been working as a consultant, executive coach and speaker at law leaders’ conferences, as well as a strategic advisor to lawyers and law firms for almost 30 years. During that time, I have observed considerable adverse changes to the state of mental health in the legal profession. I have noticed the rates of burnout, depression, anxiety, harassment and bullying increase at an alarming rate. Last month the International Bar Association (IBA), of which I’m a member, published a report which found that bullying and sexual harassment were rife among lawyers worldwide and that Britain was above average in the worst ways. As a clinical psychologist and behavioral neurogeneticist I am interested in trying to explain why this should be so. First, it’s worthwhile pointing out that the legal profession is not alone in this.

The medical and caring professions have higher rates of depression. The suicide rate among lawyers is high – well above average – but well below doctors, dentists, farmers, firemen, forestry workers and policemen. And these are below white, middle-age blue collar workers generally. Sexual (and other) harassment and bullying are also rife in medicine and, perhaps, in most workplaces. Second, bullying and harassment have an array of causes. These can include a genetic propensity to be a bully or a harasser. Being bullied by parents, siblings or fellow pupils at school can lead a child to become a bully in adulthood. Observing that bullies or harassers get attention and followers in school or at work is a powerful spur to becoming one. However, none of this explains why lawyers should become bullies more than architects, accountants, journalists or musicians. What is it about the business of law that creates workplaces so toxic that several large firms over the last month have been declared “unsafe” by government workplace safety agencies? No study has ever shown that the law attracts an unusual share of bullies, therefore to a greater extent than other professions it must create them. Why? The answer lies in recent scientific research. At present the majority of senior partners in law firms are male and most bullies and sexual harassers are men – though women can certainly be bullies. It used to be thought that testosterone was the culprit because high levels of the hormone were found in both bullies and harassers.

The hormone is more prevalent in men (though female bullies, compulsive gamblers and white-collar criminals also have elevated levels of the stuff). However recent studies have thrown doubt on the testosterone/bully theory. In fact, we now know that men are more likely to have an affair, bully subordinates, and sexually harass their PA during their andropause (the so-called male menopause) when their testosterone levels are going down. Something else is going on. One of the things that we know from recent research is that anger and aggression in men are often symptoms of depression. In the twentieth century most studies of depression focused on female depression. It was assumed that the symptoms of depression that women displayed – sadness, guilt, loss of interest in sex, feeling worthless, hopelessness and pessimism – would hold true for men as well. Unsurprisingly studies carried out before the turn of the new millennium tended to show that women were more liable to depression than men. We now know that that “ain’t necessarily so” in the words from the song from Porgy and Bess. More recent studies have shown that the depression rates of both sexes are more or less the same. Men just display symptoms of the illness differently.