By trainee solicitor Jennifer Davis
Achieving success during your training contract is about more than producing great legal work; it's also about looking after your health and wellbeing. Burges Salmon’s wellbeing strategy helps us to do just that.
Having overcome the academic hurdles to get to where you are today, you may already have an insight into how you react to stressful situations. Similarly, you may already know the best ways to manage both your physical and mental health. Even so, your employer can help.
Wellbeing at Burges Salmon
I have been attending Pilates throughout my time here as a trainee and have recently taken over the organisation of the classes, alongside another trainee. The classes are one example of the numerous initiatives throughout the firm that form part of Burges Salmon’s wellbeing programme.
Other wellbeing initiatives include sports clubs (such as netball, football, cricket and rugby), yoga classes, support for mental health, and the firm’s private medical insurance scheme.
The wellbeing programme is there to make sure that we are provided with a working environment in which we feel that our overall wellbeing and quality of life are maintained. This helps to make this firm a great place to work. It also makes business sense: happy and healthy people are more motivated and better at their jobs.
Your contribution as a trainee
While you may benefit personally from the wellbeing initiatives the firm has to offer, you can also increase your professional skills by getting involved at an organisational level.
As an organiser of the firm’s Pilates classes, which are run three times per week in one of the seminar rooms, my role involves managing the finances of the classes. I make sure that the teacher is paid and collect the subsidised payments from the employees who attend the classes.
Trainees are actively encouraged to get involved with the firm’s activities, outside of the usual day job. This requires organisational skills and some time commitment, but it is a great way to get yourself known around the firm and increase your internal network.
We all know that being a lawyer means that we occasionally have to work under pressure. It's nice to know that the firm is well placed to support us.
Burges Salmon was awarded excellent across all eight standards of the Bristol Workplace Wellbeing Charter and prioritises employee wellbeing.