Huhhhhhh. Until you said that, I didn't think about the possibility Fredersdorf's wrecked health may have been due at least partially to his job. I mean, talk about a high stress job environment!...the accumulated stress over years of this can't have helped, and I wouldn't be surprised if it hurt him as well.
Armchair Psychologist Mildred is here to weigh in. :D
So if you look at the literature on the effects of job stress on health, they're actually pretty counterintuitive. The high-powered overachievers at the top with the most job responsibilities have the fewest stress-related health problems; the people lower down, whose jobs appear easier, are more likely to have stress-related health problems.
And the key criteria appear to be:
1) How much control do you have in your job over the things that matter to you? 2) How secure do you feel in your job? 3) How much are you used as a punching bag by the people above you?
People at the bottom of the totem pole, who have to do what they're told and don't have much input in how things are done, live in fear of losing their jobs, and have to put up with verbal abuse, are quietly way more stressed and unhealthy than the people who juggle a whole bunch of responsibilities at once and whose work demands look far more impressive to the casual observer.
So if we judge Fredersdorf's job by those criteria, I'm actually not sure Fredersdorf comes off as a likely candidate for job stress. Of course, I wasn't ever in his shoes, and we don't have his very secret diary, but he strikes me as one of the people who the layperson thinks should be very stressed but the research doesn't back it up.
Heinrich, yes, Heinrich lives in fear of being scapegoated à la AW. Heinrich doesn't have control over the things that matter to him (see selenak's write-up on the brothers' very different takes on how the Seven Years' War should be fought). Heinrich has to deal with Fritz punching down (if not in his capacity as general, then in many other capacities).
But if Fredersdorf is quietly afraid of losing his job if he's ever less than perfect, then that's possible, but I have no evidence for it. If Fritz is taking out his temper on Fredersdorf when they're alone, then that's possible, but I have no evidence for it. If Fredersdorf is silently seething over how Fritz mismanages things and he could do a better job if he were given a free hand, then that's possible, but I have no evidence for it.
What I do have evidence for is Fredersdorf being near the top of the totem pole, having more independence of action than most people in Prussia under Fritz, and above all, taking on more responsibilities outside of work by choice, such as alchemy and management of his estate at Zernikow (which he could have delegated far more of than he did). This suggests he didn't feel work was using up every moment of his available time and that he had to stress about getting everything perfect or he would lose his job. This suggests he had time and energy left over, and also that he was a high-powered overachiever who actually liked working, and enjoyed the challenge.
Also, even further down the totem pole, having something you're invested in outside of work offers a protective effect against work-related stress. It gives you a chance to have positive emotional experiences and keeps work from becoming your whole life. These people have fewer stress-related health problems, as a demographic, than people who are wholly at the mercy of their work-related emotions.
So...I actually vote against the evidence being for Fredersdorf fitting the profile of someone whose health is run down by work. There are unknowns, but I'd like to think there was enough trust between him and Fritz that he didn't live in fear of being scapegoated, and that he was spared the worst of Fritz's abuse. And there wasn't really anyone else he answered to in the hierarchy.
Now, *alchemy* as the cause of some of Fredersdorf's health problems and eventually perhaps his death is a very interesting hypothesis...
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Fredersdorf and stress
Date: 2020-01-11 10:09 pm (UTC)Armchair Psychologist Mildred is here to weigh in. :D
So if you look at the literature on the effects of job stress on health, they're actually pretty counterintuitive. The high-powered overachievers at the top with the most job responsibilities have the fewest stress-related health problems; the people lower down, whose jobs appear easier, are more likely to have stress-related health problems.
And the key criteria appear to be:
1) How much control do you have in your job over the things that matter to you?
2) How secure do you feel in your job?
3) How much are you used as a punching bag by the people above you?
People at the bottom of the totem pole, who have to do what they're told and don't have much input in how things are done, live in fear of losing their jobs, and have to put up with verbal abuse, are quietly way more stressed and unhealthy than the people who juggle a whole bunch of responsibilities at once and whose work demands look far more impressive to the casual observer.
So if we judge Fredersdorf's job by those criteria, I'm actually not sure Fredersdorf comes off as a likely candidate for job stress. Of course, I wasn't ever in his shoes, and we don't have his very secret diary, but he strikes me as one of the people who the layperson thinks should be very stressed but the research doesn't back it up.
Heinrich, yes, Heinrich lives in fear of being scapegoated à la AW. Heinrich doesn't have control over the things that matter to him (see
But if Fredersdorf is quietly afraid of losing his job if he's ever less than perfect, then that's possible, but I have no evidence for it. If Fritz is taking out his temper on Fredersdorf when they're alone, then that's possible, but I have no evidence for it. If Fredersdorf is silently seething over how Fritz mismanages things and he could do a better job if he were given a free hand, then that's possible, but I have no evidence for it.
What I do have evidence for is Fredersdorf being near the top of the totem pole, having more independence of action than most people in Prussia under Fritz, and above all, taking on more responsibilities outside of work by choice, such as alchemy and management of his estate at Zernikow (which he could have delegated far more of than he did). This suggests he didn't feel work was using up every moment of his available time and that he had to stress about getting everything perfect or he would lose his job. This suggests he had time and energy left over, and also that he was a high-powered overachiever who actually liked working, and enjoyed the challenge.
Also, even further down the totem pole, having something you're invested in outside of work offers a protective effect against work-related stress. It gives you a chance to have positive emotional experiences and keeps work from becoming your whole life. These people have fewer stress-related health problems, as a demographic, than people who are wholly at the mercy of their work-related emotions.
So...I actually vote against the evidence being for Fredersdorf fitting the profile of someone whose health is run down by work. There are unknowns, but I'd like to think there was enough trust between him and Fritz that he didn't live in fear of being scapegoated, and that he was spared the worst of Fritz's abuse. And there wasn't really anyone else he answered to in the hierarchy.
Now, *alchemy* as the cause of some of Fredersdorf's health problems and eventually perhaps his death is a very interesting hypothesis...