Finding Balance: How Highly Sensitive Professionals Can Thrive in Their Careers While Honoring Their True Nature

In this insightful conversation, I speak with Saskia Focke, a mother of two who has built an impressive international career before transitioning to entrepreneurship. After working as a Human Resources Director, Saskia decided to start her own business specializing in supporting individuals going through challenging times, particularly those dealing with burnout or high-stress situations. We also explore the fascinating topic of high sensitivity in the workplace, discussing strategies for navigating professional environments and dealing with difficult colleagues in potentially toxic work settings.

Saskia’s Career Journey: From Corporate Ladder to Meaningful Self-Employment

Saskia began her career journey studying International Business Administration in Paderborn, North Rhine-Westphalia. Her dream was always to work internationally, which motivated her choice of study. During her fourth semester, she spent a year studying in Barcelona, eventually completing her degree as a “Diplomkauffrau” (business graduate).

“I quickly realized during my studies that working with people and everything related to human resources was what I was truly passionate about,” Saskia explains. She chose to specialize in HR and shaped her career path accordingly, as she found herself less drawn to finance, accounting, and number-focused roles.

Saskia’s corporate career began with a position as an HR specialist at an airline company in Frankfurt, where she traveled extensively to destinations like Chile and Miami. Living in Cologne at the time, she commuted daily by ICE train to Frankfurt for work. After three years in this role, feeling the desire to grow professionally with limited opportunities for advancement, she was headhunted for a position at a Spanish retail company in Düsseldorf.

“I quickly rose to the position of HR Director and Operations Manager there, which I did for six years,” she shares. This role also involved significant travel, primarily to Austria, mainland Italy, and Spain, where the company headquarters was located in Madrid.

Balancing Motherhood and Career

When Saskia decided to start a family, her corporate career took a different turn. Remarkably, she returned to her leadership position just six weeks after having her first child. “I’m the type of person who always wants to do everything, and I find it very difficult to put things aside,” she admits.

This quick return was partly due to her leadership responsibilities for the German and Austrian markets, where finding an adequate replacement proved challenging. Initially, the part-time arrangement worked well, but complications arose when she was expected to resume business travel.

“Traveling with a very small baby was absolutely out of the question for me,” Saskia states firmly. When her Spanish supervisors insisted on her presence for on-site work, she had to make a difficult decision. “At that time, flexible leadership models like job-sharing weren’t as common as they are today.”

Rather than finding a new job immediately, Saskia decided to have a second child. Her first daughter was born in 2013, followed by her second daughter in 2015. When her younger daughter turned two and her parental leave ended, Saskia faced another career decision.

“I had always dreamed of becoming self-employed,” she reveals. During her parental leave, she prepared for entrepreneurship by attending start-up seminars and developing her business concept. However, when an opportunity in HR consulting presented itself, she decided to try that first. After a year and a half, she realized her desire for independence, creativity, and freedom was stronger than remaining in permanent employment, which led her to finally establish her own business.

Discovering High Sensitivity and Its Professional Implications

Saskia identifies as a highly sensitive person (HSP), a trait she began exploring over 20 years ago. She noticed signs of this sensitivity from childhood, experiencing difficulties that her classmates didn’t seem to share.

“I noticed as a child that I was a bit different from my classmates in some ways,” she reflects. “For instance, when the classroom was noisy and chaotic, it was stressful and difficult for me to concentrate.” Even during her high school final exams, despite being academically strong, maintaining concentration for six-hour examinations proved extremely challenging.

Other early indicators included finding class trips stressful due to her need for alone time and recovery space. “While others were having fun and energetically participating in everything, by day two, I desperately needed two hours with a good book in a quiet corner to recharge,” she recalls.

For Saskia, these experiences continued into adulthood. Group travel with friends, amusement parks, and crowded airports all represent significant stressors. This doesn’t mean she’s antisocial—quite the opposite. “I love working with people. That’s the paradox. Many wouldn’t expect someone who does one-on-one counseling and self-marketing training to be somewhat introverted and highly sensitive.”

High Sensitivity in Corporate Careers

When asked whether corporate careers are suitable for highly sensitive individuals, Saskia offers a nuanced perspective. “That’s a fascinating question. I would never give a definitive answer saying yes or no,” she explains.

The suitability depends more on the specific work environment and conditions than on the size of the company or industry. For highly sensitive professionals, factors like having a private office, supportive colleagues, and reasonable autonomy make an enormous difference.

“What’s crucial for highly sensitive people in the workplace is having the opportunity to organize themselves according to their needs,” Saskia emphasizes. “They thrive when given significant personal responsibility rather than strict regimentation.”

Saskia notes that highly sensitive individuals process stress hormones differently: “These hormones break down more slowly and remain at elevated levels for longer periods. While others might already be relaxed, highly sensitive people are still experiencing high stress levels.”

Additionally, highly sensitive people lack the mental filtering mechanisms that others have: “It’s like having a huge closet with the door always open. You can keep putting things in—actually, you can fit more in there than most people can—but eventually, it becomes so full that the closet bursts or everything falls back out at you. That’s the problem with sensory overload.”

Despite these challenges, many highly sensitive people excel in corporate careers when the conditions are right. Saskia herself thrived in corporate settings where she had a private office and supportive colleagues.

Strategies for Highly Sensitive Professionals

For her younger self and other highly sensitive professionals, Saskia offers several key pieces of advice:

1. Radical acceptance: “You are how you are, and you can’t change that. A highly sensitive person will never become someone who coolly handles one appointment after another without being affected.”
2. Adapt your daily life to your personality, not vice versa: “Because you are who you are, you need to organize your daily life—especially if you have children and work—in a way that minimizes stress and preserves your energy.”
3. Take regular breaks: “I go to a room by myself for 20 minutes every day. My children know this and joke, ‘Oh, Mom is in her refuge again.’ This is crucial because your autonomic nervous system needs to power down. It cannot constantly run at high speed.”
4. Review your schedule regularly: “I always look at my days and my week to identify where I have free spaces. It’s not sensible to pack everything in. Sometimes canceling appointments is essential for your well-being.”
5. Be authentic with your children: “It’s important to authentically model self-care rather than playing the role of the perfectly functioning supermom. Children learn by observation, and my children see a normal mom with positive phases but who also gets irritable when daily life becomes too much.”

Burnout Risk and Prevention

Highly sensitive individuals may be at greater risk for burnout due to their tendency to accumulate higher levels of stress hormones. When these become chronic and they lack tools to counteract this stress, burnout becomes more likely.

For those currently in stressful employment situations, Saskia recommends first assessing how long the negative feelings have lasted. “Everyone has occasional bad days—there’s no need to be dramatic. But if you observe that you’ve been in poor form for many weeks, it’s important to take sick leave to step out of the treadmill.”

The approach to career changes must be highly individualized. “You have to look at the person’s overall situation,” Saskia explains. “I had a client who was a single mother with a child. You can’t simply tell her to reduce her hours—she needs every euro. You have to look very carefully at whether it’s the job itself or the company that needs changing.”

For those feeling stuck but with family responsibilities, Saskia recommends starting with basic analysis: “Many people don’t even know exactly what makes them unhappy. The first step is to sit down and really identify the three points that make you so dissatisfied.”

She suggests writing these down and determining whether the issues relate to job content (the actual tasks) or working conditions (location, salary, colleagues). For highly sensitive people, colleague relationships often represent a particularly vulnerable area.

Finding Your Path as a Highly Sensitive Person

Saskia’s journey illustrates that highly sensitive individuals can build successful careers by honoring their unique needs and strengths. Whether in corporate environments with the right conditions or through self-employment, the key is creating work arrangements that respect one’s sensitivity rather than fighting against it.

“I am definitely a better freelancer than employee,” she admits. “It doesn’t mean I worked poorly as an employee, not at all. But I feel absolutely comfortable as a self-employed person because I can do my thing at my own pace, at my own time, the way it suits me.”

For highly sensitive professionals contemplating career changes, Saskia emphasizes the importance of thorough analysis and planning. There are many different paths available, from adjusting current roles to complete career changes, but the right choice depends on individual circumstances, financial needs, and personal priorities.

By understanding and honoring their sensitivity while making strategic career choices, highly sensitive professionals can find fulfilling work that energizes rather than depletes them—creating a sustainable career path that leverages their unique strengths and respects their need for balance.

THE ORIGINAL INTERVIEW APPEARED IN GERMAN