Ep. 129 Work Isn't Working...And It's Causing Mind & Body Harm
In this episode, host and former employment attorney Bree Johnson digs past the surface-level conversation about workplace stress to expose the measurable, documented ways chronic work pressure is harming your body, reshaping your brain, and eroding your relationships.
From elevated cortisol and cardiovascular strain to impaired prefrontal cortex function and trauma-mirroring neurobiological patterns, this episode names what most organizations — and their EAP programs — refuse to.
If you've ever felt exhausted, reactive, or hollowed out after years of high performance, this conversation will reframe everything. Because the goal isn't to push through. It's to understand what your body has been trying to tell you all along.
Key themes
Chronic cortisol elevation: How sustained work stress keeps the body's stress hormone dangerously high for years — or decades.
Nervous system dysregulation: Fight-or-flight as a permanent background setting — and why a beach vacation won't fix it.
Cognitive impairment: Sustained pressure damages the prefrontal cortex — the very region your job demands most.
Work wounds as trauma: Columbia University research links adverse workplace experiences to trauma-like neurobiological patterns.
Systemic failure: Why legal systems, EAP programs, and affinity groups are bandaids — not solutions.
Work recovery: The shift from pushing through to listening to what your body's wisdom is actually signaling.
If this episode resonated, subscribe and leave a review — and share it with the high performer in your life who keeps saying they're "fine."
Next week: why we build our identities inside our work, and what it really costs to walk away.
Keywords:
burnout recovery, chronic workplace stress, work stress physical effects, cortisol and burnout, nervous system dysregulation, prefrontal cortex stress, work trauma, work wounds, high performer burnout, executive burnout, Sunday scaries, emotional numbness at work
Connect with Bree
Social: @breejohnsonofficial
Website: www.executiveunschool.com
Work Recovery Services: www.executiveunschool.com/services
