RETIREMENT AND PRE-RETIREMENT DEPRESSION

Here is a letter I wrote in response to Sue Shellenbarger's December 13, 2007 Work & Family column in the Wall Street Journal. The issues need to be out for public discussion and not kept in the closeet.

Dear Sue:

Your article today (December 13, 2007), “Even Lawyers Get the Blues: Opening Up About Depression,” is very important, and I commend you for writing it. The statistics are disturbing.

As a long-time consultant and coach to many law firms now focusing on transitioning planning for Baby Boomer senior partners and the younger partners who will eventually step into their shoes (www.nextgeneration-nextdestination.com ), I can tell you we hear about depression on the other end as well. For example, doctors tell us that successful lawyers who have stopped practicing or had to leave their firms because of mandatory retirement age policies or related pressures on older lawyers often suffer depression. This is frequently attributed to the loss of professional identity, especially if they have made their practice the dominant component of their life. (This deterioration of mental – and sometimes physical – health has been reported in the Traditionalist generation, not just the achievement-oriented Baby Boomers.)

It is interesting that the pressures of both practicing and not practicing can have a serious impact, and it is important for lawyers  - and other professionals who have similar pressures – not to be in denial and to try to prevent the consequences. Firms and other organizations, for the sake of productivity as well as compassion, need to devote more attention to creating supportive environments.

Phyllis Weiss Haserot   www.pdcounsel.com