“It’s not worth being this anxious!” said my client, expressing the frustration of many harassed professionals and senior executives.

On top of burgeoning workloads, senior professionals and leaders have to deal with the anxiety, fears and unhappiness of colleagues, staff and clients yet often have no one they can turn to with their own anxiety or to explore their own uncertainties.

Many professional jobs used to confer prestige and command respect and, while this brought pressures, it also established a position in society and bolstered self-esteem. Today these consolations are less assured and many senior people feel overworked, under-appreciated and generally beleaguered.

It is in the nature of working life that we try to do too much and consequently may feel a sense of failure. When things conspire against us we can experience anxiety, isolation, loss of meaning and fear of the future on top of day to day frustrations.

In the West ‘subjective-well-being’, or happiness, has been virtually flat since World War II even though wealth has expanded spectacularly. Material needs are met in abundance yet we are no happier with our good fortune and we work harder and harder. We all desire well-being but have lost touch with what it is and how to achieve it.

Work consultancy
Work consultancy is one to one, confidential executive counselling for professionals, managers and leaders in all walks of life. It is an alliance between consultant and client offering support, encouragement and challenge where work related issues are explored and resolved through a philosophic discussion of the client’s way of being.

During sessions, which typically last two hours once a month, we look at a person’s relationship with their job, with others and with themselves, exploring stress triggers and choices. Work consultancy helps clients to reduce unproductive anxiety, re-engage positively with life and re-discover how to live creatively. Through work consultancy people can find new energy and enthusiasm for their work and develop a sense of well-being.

I am not part of the client’s organisation and this objectivity frees them to talk about their concerns which might be time management, decision making, clarifying priorities, interpersonal conflict, managing change or work life balance.

Typically when I ask clients what they most hope to gain they say: “more space for myself”, “learning to say no”, “to stop being overloaded with the wrong type of work”. For some, deeper issues emerge once we start working together.

One client said “I feel miserable every day. I have done for years. I get up in the morning and think, another terrible day. I don’t want to continue living this way.” Another realised that he had not worked through a ten year old bereavement and this was colouring his world grey, sapping his energy and making well-being impossible. Another had to fight an addiction that was endangering her health and jeopardizing her future prospects.

This is how one client describes his experience of these challenging but rewarding sessions:

“Work Consultancy has been very much about ‘self’. Over the weeks trust, security and a sense of freedom have allowed me to explore areas, ideas and thoughts which initially seemed far from the objectives and aspirations of the organisation. In reality by being able to bring into the open these thoughts and actions it has enabled me to self relate which has sharpened my perception about self. The knock on is that it allows me to make more informed decisions about the objectives of the organisation and its personnel to such an extent that benefits can be seen in the direction of the organisation, self and group achievements and interpersonal relationships.

I would recommend this to anyone who has the guts to be honest in this secure and safe environment!”

Diana Pringle, MA UKCP
The Work Consultancy Partnership