Work –life conflict and job and family satisfaction of legal practitioners in Colombo district, Sri Lanka

Today a considerable number of legal practitioners or lawyers are experiencing burnout, low productivity and stress related illnesses, undoubtedly due to lack of balance between their work and professional lives. When the responsibilities attached to the personal life get neglected due to the tasks of the professional life, lawyers get pressurized. This pressure or the imbalance of working life and the professional life lead to job dissatisfaction which results in forgetfulness, less commitment towards work, client complaints, losing regular clients and deserting the job at its extreme end. In such a context this study seeks to identify the relationship between Work-Life Conflict, Job Satisfaction and Family Satisfaction using a sample of lawyers practicing in Colombo District. The sample for the research was 50 practicing lawyers out of 600 lawyers of the population who were selected randomly. Pearson Correlation Method and independent sample t test were used to measure the relationship between the variables. The finding of the research was that there exists a negative significant correlation between the work-life conflict and job satisfaction of practicing lawyers. At the same time it was found that the relationship between work-life conflict and family satisfaction of practicing lawyers is also negative. It was also found that a higher degree of job satisfaction and family satisfaction exist among males rather than among female practicing lawyers.