Between ambition and everyday life – staying healthy at work

Work-related strain is among the most common everyday stressors: time pressure, a heavy workload, constant availability, information overload and a lack of recognition for your achievements are regularly named as key stress factors ^[1]. Workplaces where high quantitative or qualitative demands meet little room for action and decision-making are particularly stressful – made worse by a lack of social support at work ^[1]. This pattern is not new, but it has intensified through permanent digital availability and increasing demands for mobility.

Professionally, work-related stress responses can be well understood through the underlying motives of the people affected: behind the driver “Be perfect!” there is often a healthy achievement motive that has turned into an absolute demand; behind “Hang in there!” an exaggerated sense of duty that refuses rest; behind “Stay in control!” the wish for security that makes delegating difficult ^[1]. These patterns are usually acquired early in relationships – especially in the family of origin – and later show up particularly clearly in a professional context.

From a systemic perspective, work-related strain can never be understood in purely individual terms: it arises from the interplay of work organization, team dynamics, leadership culture and private life – for example when balancing work and family becomes a double burden ^[1]. Relief therefore starts on several levels at once: the instrumental level (setting priorities, drawing boundaries, delegating tasks), the mental level (reviewing your own appraisal of demands) and the regenerative level (actively cultivating recovery, breaks and social support).

In counseling, this means not only addressing symptoms such as exhaustion or overload, but clarifying together which professional and private demands truly fit your life and your values – and where a conscious, changed way of dealing with boundaries, expectations and relationships is needed.