The Ripple Effect of Pressure: From Work Stress to Family Impact

This week, I took my 12-year-old to physical therapy for a torn MCL. She tore her MCL during a soccer tournament that was two hours from our house. It was attended by all parents and some grandparents, and the cheering squad felt somewhat akin to Simon Cowell. As she embarks on a journey to heal and strengthen her body against future injuries, every therapist and doctor discusses her college plans.

She is twelve.

What are we doing?

Pressure is something we’ve all experienced at some point in our lives. It’s the drive that gets us out of bed in the morning, pushes us to meet deadlines, and fuels our ambition. But what happens when pressure goes unchecked? When we set unrealistic expectations for ourselves, our employees, and even our families, it can create a ripple effect of stress that spills into every corner of our lives—and the consequences can be more damaging than we think.

The True Cost of Pressure: Time Lost Due to Stress

We often equate busyness and pressure with productivity. But the reality is that too much pressure can have the opposite effect. It can lead to burnout, lost time, and reduced effectiveness. Studies have shown that stress is one of the leading causes of lost time in the workplace.

I frequently work with staffing companies. The sales goals are high, the atmosphere is tense, and the pressure sometimes feels like the inside of a kettle.

Add in a demanding sales team lead and watch your turnover costs escalate.

The American Institute of Stress reports that 1 million workers call in sick every day due to stress. Imagine how much potential is wasted when we allow pressure to dominate our work environments. What we don’t often realize is that the cost isn’t just measured in hours lost—it’s also about what those hours could have been: moments of creativity, meaningful progress, or time spent with loved ones.

The impact of stress isn’t isolated to the individual feeling the pressure. When we place unrealistic demands on ourselves, we create a culture of stress that affects everyone around us. Employees who are overworked are less likely to be engaged and more likely to experience fatigue, which affects their productivity and even their safety.

Earlier this week I commented on a LinkedIn post where a COO was eschewing the value of eating during meetings. She claims that it not only allows her to conduct a meeting without losing time for lunch; it also brings down the tone of a meeting. Given that she is a COO, I'm guessing most of the people she meets with would be employees. Not only are you promoting basic bad table manners, you're also proving that a lunch break is unnecessary.

Time off is valuable and should be taken, no matter whether it's one hour for lunch or 10 days for a trip to the Caribbean, and no matter whether you are the CEO or the lowliest intern.

Illness and Injury: The Physical Impact of Pressure

Pressure doesn’t just affect our minds—it affects our bodies too. Chronic stress has been linked to a host of health issues, including heart disease, high blood pressure, and gastrointestinal problems. It weakens the immune system, making us more susceptible to illness, and it increases the risk of anxiety and depression.

When employees face constant pressure without adequate support or recovery time, it can lead to physical injuries as well. Workplace accidents are more likely to happen when employees are fatigued, stressed, and not operating at their best. The cycle is vicious: pressure leads to stress, stress leads to exhaustion, and exhaustion leads to mistakes, injuries, and even more pressure to compensate for lost time.

Pressure on Children: The Hidden Cost of Unrealistic Expectations

The ripple effect of pressure doesn’t stop at the workplace; it often finds its way home, affecting our families in ways that can be just as harmful.

Many parents unknowingly project their own expectations and stress onto their children. We see this particularly in the world of youth sports, where kids as young as 6 or 7 are pushed into training schedules that would make a pro athlete sweat. The goal? Scholarships, professional contracts, or simply the elusive concept of being “the best.”

And what makes the pressure worse? Cost. The cost of a mid-tier club-level lacrosse team in Maryland is $4000/ year. That doesn't include uniforms, equipment, or travel costs. Ask me how I know. ??

But the price of this pressure is high. Kids, who should be focused on academic, social, and spiritual learning, growing, and having fun, are instead being weighed down by adult-sized expectations. And what happens when they don’t make the cut? When they aren’t selected for that elite team, or when they lose interest in a sport that was once fun? The inevitable sense of failure can be crushing, leaving long-lasting effects on their confidence and mental well-being.

We have to ask ourselves: Are we raising children who are resilient, confident, and well-rounded, or are we conditioning them to equate their value solely with their achievements? The truth is that constant pressure and the fear of failure can take away the joy from activities that should be about fun and learning.

Breaking the Cycle: Finding Balance

So, how do we break this cycle of pressure and stress? It starts with taking a step back and re-evaluating our expectations—of ourselves, our employees, and our families. Here are a few steps that I am taking in the hopes of realigning my own expectations:

• Set Realistic and Clear Goals: Whether it’s a project deadline or a child’s extracurricular activity, make sure the goals you’re setting are achievable and realistic. Focus on the short term (i.e., talk about high school to your middle schooler, not college or pro sports.) Unrealistic goals only breed stress and disappointment.
• Encourage Downtime: Both at work and at home, downtime is crucial. Employees need time to recharge to be productive, and children need unstructured time to play, explore, and relax. In addition, recognize your employees' schedules. If your employee's workday is done at 4 pm, don't schedule a meeting or call them after that time. (Unless you're performing brain surgery or a rocket might explode into earth - I'm not qualified to offer advice in either of those cases.)
• Prioritize Health, and Wellbeing: Recognize the signs of stress and burnout—in yourself and in others. Encourage a culture of support where taking care of one’s mental and physical health is valued.
• Talk About Happiness: In our house and even on client calls, I talk about happiness. Business owners I work with MUST remember the purpose of their business. Because if you lose sight of that, you're going to be spinning your wheels. Likewise, at home, there are plenty of tough times, but if you talk about happiness (what makes you happy, times when you were happy, what gets you down and how to find happiness even in short bursts), you are showing that it is not tied to financial success, popularity, or medals. This is the resilience our children, our friends, and colleagues need.
• Celebrate Effort, Not Just Results: Instead of focusing only on outcomes, celebrate the effort that goes into tasks. I don't believe in participation medals, but I do believe in measuring yourself only against your previous self and not others. This helps shift the focus from perfection to growth, reducing the fear of failure.

Conclusion: Choose Growth Over Pressure

Pressure is a part of life, but too much of it can lead to serious consequences for ourselves, our colleagues, and our families. We need to redefine success—not as constant busyness or relentless pursuit of perfection but as growth, balance, and well-being. By creating environments—at work and at home—where people feel supported, valued, and not overwhelmed by pressure, we can foster true, sustainable growth.

Let’s choose to lift the weight of pressure, embrace balance, and foster environments where people—our employees, our children, and ourselves—can thrive without the fear of failure.