One in five employees in the Netherlands reports burnout-related symptoms. This article is about why rest at work is not a reward you earn afterwards but a condition you build in beforehand, what happens in a nervous system that stays switched on for too long, and one small step you can take today. Written for founders, leaders and HR professionals, and for anyone who works with people running on empty.
You know the moment you push past yourself
It is half past three. You have not paused since nine this morning, you have had three conversations that deserved real attention, and there is still one email you would rather answer tomorrow. You notice you are getting short with people. Not because you have a short fuse, but because something in you is running low.
Most people know this moment. And most people respond the same way: keep going. Just this one thing, then it is the weekend. Just this quarter, then it gets quieter. Rest becomes something you allow yourself once the work is finished, and that moment rarely arrives.
What sits underneath: a system that cannot switch off
Your nervous system is constantly working on one question: is it safe enough here to soften. It does not ask that question in words, but in signals. A packed calendar, a conversation that keeps replaying, a phone that buzzes all day. As long as the answers stay unsettled, your system stays alert. Useful for a while, costly when it lasts for months.
Stephen Porges, who developed polyvagal theory, describes how the body continuously and unconsciously assesses whether a situation is safe. That assessment shapes whether rest and connection are available to you, or whether you stay in a fight or flight pattern. It is a theoretical model rather than a complete explanation of everything people experience, but it helps to understand why you cannot simply decide to relax. Rest is not willpower. It is a state your system has to be given permission for.
That is exactly why well-meant advice so often falls flat. Telling someone to relax more is like telling someone to sleep better. It is true, and it does not help.
Rest is not a reward you earn afterwards
In most organisations rest is treated as something you deserve. Perform first, recover later. Hit the quarter first, then take the holiday. The numbers show where that leads. The Dutch National Working Conditions Survey, run by TNO and Statistics Netherlands, found that 21 percent of employees report burnout-related symptoms, compared with 13 percent ten years earlier. More than a third of employees say they want action on psychosocial workload, and that need is highest in education and healthcare (Arboportaal, April 2026).
It shows up in money too. According to TNO’s Arbobalans, Dutch employers paid over 8 billion euro in continued wages for work-related absence in 2023, of which almost 5 billion is attributed to psychosocial workload. Absence due to mental health complaints lasts around 63 working days on average (HRMorgen on Arbobalans 2024).
These are not numbers to be frightened by. They point to something simple: recovery that only starts once someone collapses is slow and expensive. Rest that is part of the working week is cheap and fast. Not because rest solves everything, but because a rested system thinks more clearly, listens better, and notices sooner when something is going sideways.
Why the body is the shortest route
You cannot think your way out of tension. Your thoughts are usually the last thing to settle, not the first. The body is more direct. Your feet feeling the floor, your breath becoming a little longer, your shoulders dropping without you forcing them down. That is not vague, it is the most practical entry point there is, and it costs you half a minute.
At House of InnerPower I work with the InnerPower Method: LAND • ADEM • VOEL, which translates as land, breathe, feel. Not three separate exercises, but one movement you return to again and again. LAND is slowing down and noticing where you are. ADEM is the breath as a bridge between body and nervous system, also in the middle of a working day. VOEL is noticing what is going on before tension stacks up. It is a returning practice, and that word is deliberate. You lose it, and you come back. Again and again.
What you can do today
For yourself. Once a day, at a fixed moment, put both feet flat on the floor. Breathe out slowly three times, a little longer than you breathe in. Then notice where you are and what you need. Thirty seconds is enough. The point is not that you relax, the point is that you notice how you are doing. That is the information you can actually work with.
For your team. Start one meeting a week with a minute of quiet, without explanation or exercise. Just a minute in which nobody has to do anything. It feels awkward at first, and that awkwardness shows you how hard the rest of the day keeps moving. What you discuss afterwards often goes deeper.
For yourself as a founder. Look at your calendar once this week with one question: where is the recovery in this. Not as an intention, but as a block that holds as firmly as a client appointment. If the answer is nowhere, you know your first step.
Preventing instead of repairing
What I see in practice is that people rarely collapse because of one big event. They collapse after a long series of moments in which they pushed past themselves without noticing. Learning to notice is therefore not a soft skill. It is the most practical skill there is, for a team and for anyone carrying a business on their own shoulders.
I am Ilse-Marie Sobering, founder of House of InnerPower. Over more than ten years of working with inner calm, breathwork and nervous system regulation I have guided over 2500 participants. Down to earth, practical, and never asking anything that does not fit someone’s body or day.
Frequently asked questions
How many employees have burnout symptoms?
In the Netherlands, the National Working Conditions Survey by TNO and Statistics Netherlands found that 21 percent of employees report burnout-related symptoms, compared with 13 percent ten years earlier. More than a third of employees say they want action on psychosocial workload, most of all in education and healthcare.
What can employers do to prevent workplace stress?
It starts with the workload itself, because no exercise compensates for a calendar that is structurally too full. Beyond that, it helps to make recovery a visible part of the working week rather than something people arrange in their own time. Think of real breaks, space between meetings, and making it normal to say how things are going. A workshop or series of sessions can teach people to notice where they are, but it only works if the organisation moves something too.
How do you spot early signs of burnout in a team member?
It is usually about change rather than a fixed checklist. Someone who was always engaged and starts withdrawing, becomes short with people, sleeps badly, or works harder than the job requires. If in doubt, open a conversation without a conclusion and ask how they have experienced the past few weeks. A suspicion of burnout belongs with an occupational physician or GP, not with a workshop.
Does breathwork actually help with work stress?
Calm breathing techniques, such as breathing out for longer than you breathe in, are a simple way to give your body a different signal and are widely used with tension. It is not a treatment and it does not solve workload. What people often do gain is that they notice earlier when tension is rising, and that they have something available anywhere.
Is breathwork safe for everyone?
Calm techniques suit most people. Intensive forms of breathwork do not, and ask for an intake beforehand and proper guidance. There are situations in which intensive breathwork is not appropriate, for example during pregnancy, with cardiovascular conditions, epilepsy, or psychiatric vulnerability. In the sessions I guide, everyone stays free at any moment to stop or do something else, and nothing is asked that does not fit someone’s body or day.
What does workplace stress cost an employer?
According to TNO’s Arbobalans, Dutch employers paid over 8 billion euro in continued wages for work-related absence in 2023. Almost 5 billion of that is attributed to psychosocial workload. Absence due to mental health complaints lasts around 63 working days on average.
Join us
If you would like to practise this with guidance, you will find the upcoming dates on the House of InnerPower agenda.
Ilse-Marie Sobering is the founder of House of InnerPower and the creator of the InnerPower Method: LAND • ADEM • VOEL (Land, Breathe, Feel), a cyclical practice of returning to yourself again and again. She has studied yoga philosophy and Eastern philosophy for more than 25 years, and has worked professionally since 2015 as an E-RYT 500 yoga and Yoga Nidra teacher, mindfulness and breathwork coach, Ayurveda practitioner and EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) practitioner. In Spain, where she lived for seven years, she taught trainings, teacher trainings and retreats at various locations in the Málaga region, including near Periana, Nerja and Frigiliana. She now works from the Netherlands, teaching trainings and speaking in the Netherlands, in Spain and online. Within the method she works with Yin Yoga, Yoga Nidra, breathwork, meditation, Qigong and somatic work, complemented with elements from her hypnotherapy training. She teaches teacher trainings, continuing education and company training, for people living with long-term stress and for professionals who want to deepen the way they guide others.
