Case study no. 9: Patricia (age 34), Lawyer

Patricia is a 34 year old lawyer and worked hard whilst raising her son and keeping a fairly busy social life. Recently, she started feeling down and exhausted when at work. Every day she left her job dreading coming back. She felt like all the tasks were weighing on her and she couldn’t see an end of her ‘to do lists’. Her colleagues irritated her and her emails sounded angrier than she’d like to let on. She couldn’t help but comfort-eat. This didn’t help as it only fuelled her anxieties about her body weight. In addition, she began suffering from tension headaches and couldn’t fall asleep as she was feeling restless.

Convinced that this was depression she asked her GP for antidepressants. When her doctor found out that Patricia was a happy mother and never lost interest in her social or family life, he asked more questions about her job. Patricia confessed that she felt very frustrated about the fact that despite all the hard work she put in her job, she wasn’t getting any closer to her desired promotion. It felt like everybody else ‘was getting there’ whilst she was ‘stuck’. She felt like a failure. She thought that she was personally targeted by the boss. Her GP advised her to try counselling to see how the failed expectations affected her emotional well-being and what coping strategies she could use to make the situation better.

The counsellor helped Patricia to examine her personal goals and possible different career paths. He worked with her on her assertiveness skills to help her approach her boss and colleagues in a way which would allow her to achieve her goals without causing unnecessary tensions. Patricia also found it helpful to learn some tips about how to de-stress and take care of herself outside of work.

Case study no. 7: Yasmine (age 52), Teacher

She is a teacher in a primary school in Rome. She started this job at the end of Nineties with a great enthusiasm and in her first school she was very glad, then she moved to another school, closer to her home but in a more disadvantaged area; after a good start she asked for a part-time position and the troubles arose.

She felt herself marginalised both from the pupils (few hours with them, negative inputs on the didactic) and from her colleagues (less information, less frequent relationships). This confused and unpleasant situation was very stressing to Mrs Cox.

Mrs Cox is also very sociable, but started to avoid friends and relatives, to stay at home during the weekends, to be very irritable, to sleep badly, and to be inattentive. She started a cycle of meetings with a psychotherapist after the suggestion of a colleague and now she has a satisfactory relationship within the school environment and has regained her smile and the social interests.

Case study no. 8: Zola (age 45), Researcher

She is a researcher in one of the Italian universities. She started this work about ten years ago with a very unstable position but was happy to enter such an important institution after a few years of continuous chopping and changing from one company to another. She earned less than before, but she had the opportunity to optimize her position.

After four years she was able to win a fixed-term contract for three years. She was really happy, but in few month there was a disaster; her marriage was complicated and she decided to finish it, meaning more care for the children; then there was trouble with her boss and she had to move to another department. Her brother the died and the sorrow was very heavy for her.

Mrs Hatmanov at that time looked like a “zombie”, started to avoid friends, was irritable and inattentive with the children, and if you spoke to her she would not answer properly or in time. It was good she had an intensive programme with a psychotherapist and the strong support of two friends of hers. Now she is like before, very nice and sympathetic, a very good mother, open and helpful with the students and six months ago she won a full time position at the University.

Case study no. 6: Paul (age 40), Owner of famous pub

He is the owner of a British pub in a little town in Abruzzo. The pub was open in the 1997 and it was successful at the beginning, but Mr Palento was exhausted from the overwork, lack of sleep, irregular diet, and difficulties in communicating with the employees.

He was nervous, ended his relationship with his long term girl-friend, had a few car accidents, and started arguing with his employees and some clients. He was able to understand the sickness and he started a challenging psychotherapy cycle.

Today Mr Palento is in a good shape, he stabilized his life within the boundaries of a normal discipline (sustainable working time table, rest time, meal time, quality of foodstuff and social and professional relationship); he is aware of the great risk he took during the period 1999-2004 and he is very careful to avoid.

Case study no. 5: Cecillia (age 53), Coach/therapist, the owner of a training company cooperating with freelance coaches, office at home.

I was working harder and harder and with declining productivity. My ineffectiveness made me angry at myself and sharp with co-trainers. I stopped falling asleep quickly and easily even though really tired.

SYMPTOMS:

• decline of productivity, working overtime, fatigue, feeling of failure, lack of self-satisfaction
• no free time, neglecting health issues
• no vacation, inability to rest
• low self-esteem, efficacy and belief in my abilities
• desire to gain approval from others
• taking on new tasks without employing additional staff
• problems with sleeping, waking up during the night, persistent dark thoughts
• health problems – various inflammations, colds, sores, heart problems
• total powerlessness, lack of energy, inability to think clearly
• failure to meet personal commitments (forgetting promises)

CONDITIONS AT WORK

• being responsible for marketing, organization, creating programs , materials, financial aspects, contacts
• office at home – lack of separation between office time and private time

ATTITUDE OF THE PERSON BEING COACHED:

• need to prove oneself and gain acceptance from others
• protecting co-workers – taking full responsibility
• choosing “takers” as co-workers
• taking on tasks at the expense of private free time
• dropping everything when somebody needed support
• believing that who “doesn’t work doesn’t eat”
• not caring about herself but strongly concerned about the good name of the company

RESCUE MECHANISMS:

• energizing group lessons/meetings
• gardening
• better relationship with family members

COACHING ACTIVITIES:

• qualifying the level of burnout
• naming the key factors leading to self-exploitation
• recovery plan for health and body
• updating hierarchy of values and learning how to fulfil them
• learning how to delegate responsibility
• cooperating with a creative person and using the motivational program “TOWARDS”
• building a new vision of the company and her role in it
• creating self-acceptance and self-worth mechanisms
• rebuilding mechanisms responsible for keeping energy at a satisfying level

KEY ACTIONS:

• changing the way of thinking as; “I have to do everything by myself”, “I can’t ask for help”, “I’m responsible for others”
• physical recovery – diet adapted to the organism’s needs
• putting health and well-being as top priorities
• managing emotions

Case study no. 4: Kathy (age 41) Financial Director in a company employing about 100 people

I was already totally exhausted; I was sleeping the whole weekends and started to be ill. After one month’s absence I was in a good shape but within four days at work everything returned…

SYMPTOMS:

• working overtime
• lack of free time, untidiness in the house
• no vacation
• no sense of self-worth, efficacy
• reluctance towards management
• need to convince others about her skills
• taking on new tasks and activities without seeing the need to hire additional employees
• failure to meet personal commitments
• problems with sleeping
• heath problems: total helplessness, lack of energy and motivation to act, inability to think clearly.

CONDITIONS AT WORK:

• conducting periodic evaluation using unknown criteria
• not taking into consideration the need to hire additional employees
• requires working overtime ( parent company in the USA active during Polish evening hours)
• call regarding business at any time of the day or week
• time pressure – requiring immediate action without taking into consideration employees free time or needs
• an employee forced the management to show the evaluation criteria and discovered that she met all of them and even exceeded in some, yet received a mediocre score. (Hence the decrease in self-worth and in the ability to evaluate own achievements)

APPROACH TOWARDS EMPLOYEES:

• need to prove oneself and gain acceptance from others
• taking on tasks at the expense of her own free time
• protecting employees – taking on more responsibilities
• believing that only hard work can give her success
• cancelling private meetings when the company gave additional tasks
• stopped taking care of herself yet cared strongly about company business

RESCUE MECHANISMS:

• taking up sports
• sleeping the whole weekend
• taking up a hobby
• having good family relationships

COACHING PROCEDURES:

• assessing the degree of occupational burnout
• examining the energy gain/loss when dealing with different people from professional and private life
• examining key destabilizing factors
• considering the pros and cons of staying in this work situation (deepening of burnout, depression, health problems, the inability to build lasting relationships/starting a family, loneliness, loss of meaning in life)
• examining the extent to which necessary changes can be made ( minimal)
• making a decision about job change
• working on developing assertiveness, reducing the number of people/events that decrease well-being
• lowering self-expectations from 300% to 80 %
• changing beliefs concerning inequality between men and women
• finding a new job ( without the “American” style of worker exploitation)
• fulfilling the inner need to please others by changing it into the pursuit of creating good working standards
• creating a balance between the needs of taking care of others and own well-being
• fulfilling the dream of changing her job profile
• creating a vision of a smooth transfer from a committed financial director into a coach/lecturer.
• creating rules allowing balance between work and private life

KEY ACTIONS:

• the person looked for help in order not to be forced to resign, paid in advanced for a full coaching cycle.
• looked at her situation and discovered that she was playing the role of a victim and that she expected change to come from her employees.
• took responsibility for her well-being
• discovered that she was trying to give more than it is realistically possible and good for her well being
• started to believe that she can work in a company with rules which are close to her idea of good organization

Case study no. 3: Gloria (age 41), Project Manager of an IT change process at an international bank

Gloria Weber is project manager of an IT change process at an international bank. She has seen two restructurings in the past years, with the latest one not having come to an end yet. She is certain to keep her job, but she has to deal with many concerns regarding her employees.

Until three years ago she had been very motivated and enthusiastic in her job due to – as she accentuates – her “super boss”. Ms Weber had worked her way up from the very bottom. Following her boss’ replacement she is very stressed and under pressure. She receives less feedback and feels increasingly insecure about her performance; her workload has increased and overtime during the week and on the weekend has become the norm. She allocates less and less time for friends or hobbies. In the evenings she is often so exhausted that watching television is all she is capable of doing.

Over the past 8 months she has increasingly experienced sleep disorders and difficulties concentrating; she has the feeling that “it all gets too much”. She is repeatedly sick but doesn’t take much time off to recover as she is convinced that “it is not possible right now.” She tries to deal with headaches with medication. She feels empty and run down, she doesn’t feel like doing anything and cries repeatedly on her way to and from work. After a collapse she eventually decided to take up the opportunity of support from ibos.

© Dr. Lisa Tomaschek-Habrina, MSc | Director, ibos – the institute for burnout and stress management M: +43 676/ 34 034 61 www.ibos.co.at

Case study no. 2: Harald (age 39), Chief of the IT department of a large electronic company

It was a total collapse. The beginning of the year Harald Werner, the person in charge of the IT department of a large electronic company, spent four long weeks exhausted in bed. “I had no motivation, could neither read nor watch television, wasn’t even in the mood for talking to anyone on the phone. I wasn’t interested in anyone or anything.” he says of the lowest moments of his life. The workaholic and single father had ignored the many early warning signs.

After his divorce he was responsible for his two adolescent children. “I wanted to be a good father and a fantastic employee and had given 120 per cent around the clock.” He denied fatigue, frustration and increasing social isolation for almost five years. His collapse followed a stressful tradeshow. Werner has been sick for four months. Only with professional help in form of psychotherapy and medical attention at the ibos institute, did he find his way out of the crisis.

HARALD WERNER

”Today I am not anymore pretending to be the “solver of all problems”, but instead I sometimes say no as well. It has been a long time since I managed to do so.”

© Dr. Lisa Tomaschek-Habrina, MSc | Director, ibos – the institute for burnout and stress management M: +43 676/ 34 034 61 www.ibos.co.at

Case study no. 1: Andreas Krause, (age 39), Project Manager for innovations management of the IT department of a well known trading company

For seven years Andreas has been project manager for innovations management of the IT department of a well-known trading company. His work week consists of 80-90 hours, and he also invests time on the weekends for the processing of seven currently parallel running projects. This includes 15, sometimes even up to 20, people responsible for the workload who are also all involved in other parallel running projects.

He has difficulties concentrating, so he often takes his work home to finish it off. Due to the high workload he has been significantly restricting his social life. His wife and two children rarely see him anymore. But he doesn’t let it show. After all he doesn’t want to lose his face.

Lately he feels tired and exhausted. At night the thoughts of the next day that keep him awake. He catches colds more often, which he ignores without treating, as well as strong headaches. On one occasion an acute hearing loss followed and excruciating stomach pains finally forced him to come to the ibos institute.

ANDREAS KRAUSE:

”I felt I was at the worst point of the crisis; as if I was driving in a parking garage continuously in circles and just can’t find the exit. I always had the feeling I was chasing everything after that was happening; the difficulties I was facing seemed insurmountable. I had to learn to try not to do everything by myself and to clearly distinguish between important and unimportant matters, and to listen to my body. When I was at the point where I was most exhausted, a walk to the toilet felt like climbing the Himalayas. This sounds strange but I had difficulties doing the simplest things; even just doing the shopping in the supermarket. When I saw a line up to the register I turned around and left. That was all too much for me.

Looking back it seems ridiculous to me; back then it was horrible. I felt ashamed, wondering what people where thinking of me. I used to manage 50 employees – now I cannot even get daily things done on my own.

The most difficult during the therapy was admitting to myself that I have boundaries that I cannot cross without being punished for it. I had to accept that I have to take a step back and let my exhausted organism recharge. I had been running on empty for much too long.”

© Dr. Lisa Tomaschek-Habrina, MSc | Director, ibos – the institute for burnout and stress management M: +43 676/ 34 034 61 www.ibos.co.at