Judicial Stress & Quality of Life

1. Judicial Stress & Quality of Life Isaiah M. Zimmerman, PhD

2. Stress!! • The word is • Over-used • Over-extended • Over-generalized • It can be cited as • A Cause • An Effect • A Specific Stressor

3. Levels of Stress • Normal: • Positive, Motivating, Challenging with full recovery • Borderline Harmful: • Partial and uneven recovery • Harmful: • Little recovery • Signs of depression

5. Research on Decision Making Under Heavy Time Pressure Under continual time pressure of high volume production, decision makers… • Lump issues and types of cases into fewer categories • Skip research • Skim documents and numbers • Isolate themselves

6. Research on Decision Making Under Heavy Time Pressure cont’d • Increase blaming and excuses • Lose feeling for others • Tend to give more weight to the source, less to evidence • Have high inclination to agree

7. Progressive Signs of Danger • Fatigue not relieved by rest • Irritability and impatience • Blaming others • Denial of any problem • Emotional distance • Excess in food, drink, medication

8. Progressive Signs of Dangercont’d • Social withdrawal • Loss of priorities • Drop in hygiene & self-care • Clinical depression • Paralysis and inability to function

9. Basic, Irreducible, DailyLifelong Self-Care • Exercise of: • Large Muscle • Small Muscle • Heart and Lung • Agility and Stretch • Nutrition Balance, Reduce intake of saturated fats, salt and sugar • Adequate sleep and emotional discharge

10. A Daily Balance Between INNER and OUTER Judge Requires • Professional Talk • to get work done • Private and Family Talk to promote home life • Personal Reaction Talk to promote collegiality

11. Common Signs of Job Stress • 32% work and eat lunch at same time • 32% never leave building all day • 19% feel tired, low energy • 19% come to work when sick • 18% delay vacation due to work • 17% chronically sleep deprived

12. Common Signs of Job Stresscont’d • 14% work late & weekends • 8% fear falling behind if sick

13. Sleep • Sleep provides: • Emotional rebalance • Energy restoration • Metabolic rebalance • Preps waste removal • Resets hormone cycles • Allots memory storage

14. Sleep cont’d • Sleep deficiency leads to: • Memory impairment • Rise in stress hormones • Reduced concentration • Shorter attention span • Lowered vigilance • Reduced muscle mass • Weight gain

15. Biology of Timing • Learn your sleep cycle • Stay on schedule • Stabilize workplace • Alcohol disrupts sleep • Learn your best times for • Thinking • Alertness

16. Biology of Timing cont’d • Light meal at night • Weekend naps • Best workout time • Best sex arousal cycle

17. Anger • Anger is a hard-wired, built-in reaction to a perceived threat to control and dignity • Train yourself to work to restore control and dignity in the situation for yourself and other parties

18. The Anger Process is Set Off By… • Any perception of loss of control  • Any perception of loss of dignity

19. Research on Family and Social Support • Widows & Widowers who have an active family and social circle live longer • Breast cancer patients who attend a support group live longer • Coronary patients who regularly attend a support group and keep regular contact with a health worker live longer • Hospital patients who have a close family member or advocate get better care and aftercare

20. Person to Person Help & Counseling • Listen, keep good eye contact & don’t interrupt • Prove accurate listening by feedback • Encourage further thoughts • Guide to alternative solutions • Prioritize alternative solutions • If pressed for advice, give it respectfully, sensitively and briefly - don’t lecture • Follow up by showing interest in how things worked out

21. Stress on the Judge in High Profile Trials • Enough knowledge/experience? • Extensive pretrial preparation • Opinion/regard of colleagues • Jury selection & media attention • Preparation of staff

22. Stresses on the Judge in High-Profile Trials cont’d • Media coverage demands • Security requirements • Regular workload continues • Care/Management of Jury • Protecting Family/Private Life • Conclusion/Post-Trial

23. Juror Stress • Mixed emotions about summons • Demand on job & family • Sizing up other jurors • Stress of decision process • Dependency on judge • Closure on decision • Delivery of decision • Post-trial emotions and attention

24. Stress on Court Staff • Regular workload continues • Overtime demands and compensation? • Comments from family and friends • Extra requests from lawyers/press/security • How to be most helpful to judge? • Tensions between staff members • Wind up and closure of trial

26. Judicial Quality of Life • Judge-to-Judge support • Three Breaks a Day • Wellness Maintenance • Hobby/Recreation/Sports • Daily decompression I and Decompression II

27. Judicial Quality of Life cont’d • Religious/Spiritual Orientation • Personal Talk Time with Family/Friends/Colleagues • Insight about anger process • Separate public from private life space

28. Terrorism & the Courts • Denial & Discounting • Planning & Coordination • Survival through Dispersal & Cross-Training • Stages of Response to Attack • Recovery of People & Records • Resiliency of the Court Team • Pride in Keeping Courts Open