Love, Play, and Work

Abstract

Having read these woes of dysfunctional executives, you will have realized, if you didn’t know it already, that life in organizations can be quite stressful. And you may wonder, at times, whether it really has to be that way. Does work have to be stressful? Aren’t there more pleasant ways to go about it? What are the things that we, as coaches, can do to create better places to work? Work is, of course, one of the anchors of psychological wellbeing. I’m sure you must have heard of Sigmund Freud’s dictum that mental health consists of lieben und arbeiten—love and work. Thus in the coaching work we do, we should never forget the degree to which organizations are invested with psychological meaning. We should always keep in mind that accomplishing something tangible through work can give our clients considerable stability in a highly unstable world. Organizations are ideal outlets to help our clients cope with the stresses and strains of daily life.