Faster, further, better - driven by digitization and globalization, more and more believe People, the performance requirements of our Society no longer able to cope and react with excessive demands. How does this mechanism come about – and what can you do about it?

The drama of the meritocracy: When work makes you sick!
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Only top performance leads to success?

“Only top performance leads to Success” – that was the maxim under which she grew up and by which she lived: at school, in the Study – and of course also in Job. There wasn't a day that she wasn't completely stressed out, not a night that she was out of bed before nine Office came, often even later. Fun in the job others had, because work was not fun, but above all mandatory. She wanted to fulfill this duty as well as possible, even if she had to force herself to get up every morning.

Then came an economic crisis and that Company lost orders. Everyone started to make theirs Workplace to fear. The Executive took the opportunity to his Employees to encourage greater achievement and issued the slogan, "We all have to work harder" - and she lived up to it. She often sat in the office until midnight because she was now trying to do 200 percent of the unimportant little things in order to meet the demands of her boss.

When the slightest mistake costs the job

The smallest mistake, the tiniest carelessness, could finally cost her the job. Due to her high willingness to perform, she thought she was about to be dismissed for sure: Who, if not you, kept the company running and did everything that got left behind? She believed everything under Control to have - until the day she was released.

You have shown too little commitment in the job, too little of your own creative ideas introduced and too little in the Solution more current Problems involved, her boss confirmed. Promoted were others who had done far less than they had, but who had shown more presence and greater dedication. She was deeply disappointed - and for the first time began to doubt her life maxim "Only top performance leads to success": Maybe it was all one lie?

Working differently, less performance-oriented - just how?

She decided to work differently in the future and to become self-employed. She no longer wanted to sit in the office late into the night every evening, but wanted to decide for herself when to start and when to stop. She no longer wanted her precious time with her Meetings waste, in which there was only pointless talk, but carry out their work efficiently.

And she didn't want to wear herself out for any boss, but wanted to realize herself and do the work she thought was right. Professional independence seemed to her the perfect form of work. Her commitment was correspondingly great: she often worked much more intensively and longer than she had intended, and that without ceasing and relaxation.

Performance, performance, performance - your own inner driver

This had to go wrong. Her initial work euphoria soon kicked in Stress um, she was tired, irritable and unbalanced. They were overcome by existential fears. But what was worse, she began to lose joy in her work. Instead of doing her day's work with enthusiasm, she again saw only an accumulation of duties that had to be fulfilled.

Through the pressure that she built up in this way, she pushed herself and only rushed listlessly from one Tasks to the next. She soon saw the work that she had chosen herself only as a necessary evil to secure her livelihood.

Work addiction: exaggeration or understatement?

This, however, increased her fears for existence again. Her willingness to perform decreased noticeably, she just did what was absolutely necessary. It couldn't have been worse with a boss - and she couldn't even complain about him.

When she became ill, she began to reconsider the way she worked. Certainly there were external factors causing pressure and stress. First there was the financial insecurity that self-employment brought with it. There were customers and her wishes that had to be fulfilled, even if she would have preferred to have done things differently. And there were conflicts with employees that complicated everyday work.

Perfectionism: When your own attitude makes you sick

But the real problem, she soon found out, was her attitude to work. She not only had pressure from the outside, but above all she had too high demands on herself. She always tried to do everything 110 percent at all costs, instead of taking on unimportant things more relaxed.

She tried at all costs to avoid mistakes - out Anxiety Losing orders - instead of just doing her job as well as possible. She wasted a lot of time weighing up problems and decisions over and over again instead of simply tackling them. In short, she realized that she saw herself as a typical perfectionist work life made it harder than was absolutely necessary. The question was: what could she do about it?