Stigmatization of stress in companies

Question: How are you? Answer: Good!… And you? Answer: Great, everything's good!
These are probably the answers you'll get to > 90% of these questions. At least that's my experience. Talking openly about stress due to high workloads is unofficially a TABOO in many companies. In this post I delve deeper into this topic.

Fear of stigmatization and job loss:

Many people are afraid of being seen as weak or incompetent if they admit that they are stressed. The fear of perhaps even losing your job because you are no longer “sustainable” or no longer perform as desired. Employees become “too expensive”.

Before that happens, the manager should at least recognize that there is a need for action, i.e. to help people.
It should be noted at this point that “too expensive” is relative. In Germany, the fluctuation costs per employee are estimated at up to 150% of the annual salary. If you know this number, it is certainly smarter for a company to invest in stress management coaching than to replace a long-standing employee . You can read it HERE.

The difficulty recognizing stress:

Often others recognize much sooner than you do that your work-life balance is off track and is at a level that is far from healthy.

But what are the signs?
The word “stress” everywhere, but what are the symptoms actually?
More about that in further articles shortly.

Often you are so caught up in the hamster wheel that you can't do it yourself recognizes. After recognition comes the recognition of this imbalance to oneself. You can read more about the effects of stress HERE.

And, I know what I'm talking about. I was once on the verge of burnout. When my doctor said "You are now on sick leave for the next few weeks!" my incredulous answer was "That's not possible, I don't have time for that." ...

So I can empathize with you maybe it works.

In addition, saying the magic word “no” can actually be (in the truest sense of the word) vital to survival. R.I.P. my dear friend P. – it was 5 years ago in April, I think of you often.

Stress in public discourse – A lot of discussion, but still mostly a taboo topic

People talk about it all the time, studies are shared, health insurance companies are suing, stress is always a popular topic in magazines, etc. .

But if you type “stress management” in the search on LinkedIn, for example, and sort it after posts, many interesting posts appear, but (almost) no one responds.
What does that tell us? Is it really just the algorithm’s fault? In my opinion it also confirms that stress is a taboo topic in real (working) life.
Maybe not in every company; It is very far from me to lump everyone together.
But hardly anyone wants to be seen with a “stress like”.

A single post with notable reactions I found @Leadership First (5.5 million followers!) on LinkedIn; almost 8,000 likes, but relatively few comments. Namely 122. Many other Leadership First posts have well over 10,000 likes, some even more than 20,000.

In addition to the job, there are currently social causes such as:

Wars: We are becoming aware of how small the earth is and with today's technology that is no longer far away.

Right: Fear of right-wing tendencies that can pose a threat to democracies.
Climate changes: The effects are known. Fear combined with a certain paralysis “What can I do…?”

Digitalization: Digitalization is changing our lives in many areas. This can lead to insecurity and stress.
Fear of artificial intelligence: Negative use can have serious consequences. And: Are we forgetting how to learn?

Individualization: Individualization means that we have more and more expectations of ourselves. This can also lead to stress.

Our lives are very complex and dealing with all the challenges is not easy.

Conclusion on job stress:

As my now 94-year-old friend Barbara* likes to say

“I’m not stressed, I just have a lot to do.”

shows that HANDLING challenging situations is crucial.

*==>> At the age of 92, she stopped running her well-running business

There are people,

who simply have the right, healthy approach within themselves,
others who have learned how to deal with it in stress management seminars and
People to whom the previous points do not apply.

I belonged to the last variant and am very grateful that I was able to learn methods that today help me deal with challenging situations differently.

Holistic. Completely independent of location. Without any equipment.

With these methods I help and accompany people to regain their balance. 1:1 – Workshops – Seminars

If this sounds interesting to you, then contact me and let’s talk: