Overwork is Not Noble: When Doing More Becomes a Trauma Response
On LinkedIn, in July 2025, I shared a post about how overwork is often rooted in deeper survival strategies. Then, on the Are We Well Podcast, I reflected further on the pressures we face in justice-rooted and caregiving spaces, particularly when our self-worth and values become tangled with success and productivity.
This blog post offers space for inquiry for anyone trying to do good work without losing themselves or straying from their values.
Over-Functioning Isn’t Always a Choice
In the podcast, I spoke about how over-functioning becomes a strategy for safety. For many of us, especially those carrying complex trauma or systemic marginalization, doing more has been a way to protect ourselves: from violence, scarcity, criticism, being left behind, and whatever versions of failure we imagine.
When we’ve grown up in systems that rewarded over-responsibility or equated rest with laziness, it’s no surprise we struggle to pause or let go. Even in healing spaces, overwork can feel like the cost of being “good enough,” “trusted,” “appreciated,” and “successful.”
But It's Not Just Personal
What happens when a whole workplace, group, or community relies on people who silently do more?
Masks the need for better systems
Distorts group dynamics and decision-making
Reinforces inequity when women, especially women of color, carry the emotional and cultural labor
Undermine true collaboration and collectivity
It’s easy to frame burnout as an individual issue. But we also have to name when the places we work are built on unsustainable models that depend on personal sacrifice.
Workplaces Must Intervene
We need to move past narrow conversations about burnout and wellness that shift the majority of blame and responsibility on individuals. True workplace wellness must include:
Realistic job scopes and timelines
Accountability for unsustainable leadership norms
Space to challenge harmful team dynamics
Policies that operationalize sustainability, not just idealize it
Wellness should not be a performance metric. It should be embedded in the way work is structured.
Somatic Reflection for the Individual: Where Does Urgency Live in Your Body?
Take a quiet moment to check in.
Inhale slowly through your nose
Exhale longer than your inhale
Notice your body’s weight and posture and where it meets the ground or furniture
Now ask yourself:
Where do I feel urgency, pressure, or the need to “do”?
What happens if I soften that place, even just a little?
What would it mean to be enough without over-delivering?
This isn’t about fixing yourself. It’s about noticing. So much of healing is unlearning the urgency we’ve inherited.
Final Thoughts
Overworking isn’t always about ambition. Sometimes, it’s about survival. Sometimes, it’s about love.
No matter the root, we deserve to ask: What would sustainability feel like? What would it look like to build systems and communities that don’t require extracting our resources or lead to our burnout?
I hope this post invites people to imagine a world where we can thrive without having to fight. What might change if we stopped asking people to be resilient and started asking systems to be just?
If this resonated, you can listen to the full podcast episode👇🏽:
🎧 Apple
🎧 Spotify
🎧 YouTube
