"It can happen to anyone"

The FST Academy has recently begun offering a seminar entitled “Personnel or Personal Energy Protection,” or PEP, to keep employees from reaching this point in the first place. Working with a trainer, the participants develop the basic understanding and the necessary tools to manage high stress situations on a targeted basis. They learn to safeguard their own performance as well as that of their colleagues. They become aware of ways to identify the typical symptoms of stress and exhaustion and actively alleviate them. Then they practice dealing with stress and “energy robbers” at a basic level without doing damage to themselves.

The seminar’s trainer knows what he’s talking about. Jason Kohn, FST Academy, has gone through this living hell himself. And that’s why he would like to help others avoid the same fate. And there is one thing he is sure about: “It can happen to anyone!”

Kohn has worked at Freudenberg since 1997, as a CAD system engineer at the Technical Development Center in Weinheim in the early years, and later as head of Development and Business Development at the Competence Center Liquid Elastomer Solutions in Öhringen. His wife and children live in Weinheim, and he commuted “a few kilometers” – easily a good 100 km – to his new workplace in Öhringen by car so his family would not have to move. “That meant an extra two hours on the autobahn each day in addition to the actual work, which was new and challenging,” Kohn said.

When he came home in the evening, he tried to spend as much time as possible with his twin sons. Since he is very sports-minded, he wanted to make sure that physical activities did not suffer after he had been so sedentary. “That occasionally meant jumping on my bicycle around midnight and riding through the darkness for two hours,” he said, looking back. And the house still needed renovation on the weekends…

All of this clearly did not leave enough time for sleep and relaxation. “It was crazy: At some point I was certainly tired and keyed up at the same time.”  Kohn kept ignoring the alarm bells that his body was sounding. “If I had been more attentive,” he reflects today, “I would have paused and given it some thought.”  He was increasingly irritable, slept badly and above all too little. And he didn’t trace the lack of sleep, dizziness, or stomach pains back to his situation.

“When we’re driving and the oil light comes on, we know exactly what to do,” Kohn said. Namely, drive to a service shop immediately and have the oil changed or filled. That is, deal with the cause that triggered the signal light. “Unfortunately, we don’t learn to respond to comparable symptoms in our body or psyche.”  Kohn didn’t even take his panic attacks sufficiently seriously – until he finally suffered a total mental and physical breakdown that kept him in bed for six months.

Kohn has changed a good many things since his recovery. First of all, he changed jobs internally, moving back to Weinheim and thus close to his family. He also completed a two-year-long training program on “mediation and coaching” and further course work to become a “burnout advisor.”  Working with Renate Pasch-Donohoe – Kohn’s coach and mentor – he familiarized himself with the PEP concept. They jointly tailored it to the needs of FST staff and managers. The FST Academy has recently begun offering the seminar on the topic.

“Seminar participants are expected to deal with the factors that can put stress on their bodies and minds,” Kohn said. Being overwhelmed is one source of stress; others are noise, exhaust gases, alcohol, improper nutrition, and nicotine, among many others. “We have to be familiar with our personal ‘energy robbers’ and know what we can do to counter them.”

This is not only important for the affected or potentially affected individuals. It involves their supervisors as well. If they are well trained, managers can respond to the alarm signals in their staff and take specific countermeasures. Everyone benefits: Healthy employees are more motivated and are ill less often, which has an impact on both their professional and their personal lives. On the other hand, if the symptoms are recognized too late, the mental and physical responses lead to reduced performance – and errors and conflicts increase.