Digital detox and mental resilience in PR

PR is a profession where many things happen at once. Clients have topics that need to be addressed at short notice, editorial teams are under time pressure, LinkedIn never sleeps, and somewhere there is always another approval thread running on Teams or via email. Especially in tech PR, with topics such as adtech, martech or data activation, the pace is high. The topics are complex, require explanation and are often closely tied to market movements, product developments or industry debates.

But that is also what makes PR so exciting: the dynamics, the variety, and the interplay between strategy, communication and responsiveness. You learn a lot in this environment. But anyone who wants to work well in this field over the long term needs more than organisation and specialist knowledge. They also need mental resilience. And they need to set boundaries consciously.

For me, this is exactly what “always-on human” means: not simply being online all the time, but staying able to perform without losing yourself in permanent operating mode.

The figures show why this is not only a personal issue, but also a structural one. At the beginning of 2024, around 77.7 million people in Germany were using the internet, with internet penetration at 93.3 percent. This means that social media has become a natural part of everyday life for a large share of the population, both privately and professionally. At the same time, a Bitkom study shows that a significant proportion of employees remain reachable for work even while on holiday, as emails and instant messages are part of many people’s time off. 

PR thrives on attention, timing and the ability to connect. We monitor topics, respond to developments, craft messages and coordinate with clients, the media and teams. It’s challenging and rewarding. At the same time, this can quickly lead to a way of working where being available is mistaken for professionalism.

In day-to-day agency life in particular, there are typical patterns that many will recognise:

• a ‘quick glance’ at your mobile in the evening,
• one more consultation before the end of the working day,
• a quick reply whilst on holiday ‘just to be on the safe side’,
• that nagging feeling of unease when your inbox remains unread for too long.
   

The problem isn’t every single message. The problem is the cumulative effect and, above all, the lack of mental downtime. The WHO describes burnout as a syndrome resulting from chronic work-related stress that has not been successfully managed, characterised by exhaustion, detachment, cynicism and reduced performance. It is important to note that burnout refers explicitly to the work context.

This classification is helpful because it shifts the focus away from the individual need to ‘be more resilient’ towards the more professional question of how we can organise work in such a way that people remain productive. 

Mental resilience is often described as simply being ‘resilient enough’. In day-to-day agency life, this rarely works. Resilience does not mean bottling everything up. Resilience means recognising stress early on and managing it in such a way that it does not build up.

The WHO emphasises that work can protect mental health if working environments are designed to be safe and healthy. At the same time, it highlights psychosocial risks such as heavy workloads, time pressure, a lack of support, long or inflexible working hours, and conflicts between work and private life. These are precisely the factors that many in the communications industry are familiar with, to varying degrees.

What strikes me as particularly important in a PR context is that resilience is not just an individual issue. It also stems from team culture:

• What are the expectations regarding availability?
• How do managers deal with periods of high stress?
• Is it okay to set boundaries?
• Are breaks and holidays respected, or merely granted ‘on paper’?

If these questions remain unresolved, even the best mindfulness tip won’t help. 

When people hear the term ‘digital detox’, many immediately think of putting their mobile phones away, switching off social media, and spending a weekend in a dead zone. Whilst this can be beneficial, it is often unrealistic for those in communications roles, as they work with digital channels, rely on the flow of information, and need to be able to respond quickly.

That is why, in day-to-day PR work, a digital detox is not a radical withdrawal, but rather a targeted break from constant digital noise. It’s about questions such as:

• Which channels really require a quick response?
• What constitutes ‘information hygiene’ and what is merely habit?
• Where does ‘proactive’ end and ‘constantly on edge’ begin?

Research into working outside working hours is also fascinating in this context: a review published in the National Library of Medicine shows that, in most of the studies examined, increased use of smartphones for work purposes outside working hours was linked to greater work-life conflicts. Furthermore, stress and sleep disturbances, amongst other things, are described as negative consequences.  

This hits a sore spot in PR. After all, the job relies on communication, but the very same tools that make us efficient can also blur the boundaries. 

I don’t believe in perfect balance. Everyday life is far too dynamic for that. However, I do believe in practical routines that make a difference, especially during busy periods, when there are lots of deadlines or intensive client projects.

One of the biggest stress factors is not only the volume of tasks, but the uncertainty around whether something requires an immediate response, whether it is urgent or whether it can wait.

What helps me is to structure availability more consciously:

• clear communication channels for different topics, such as email for coordination and Teams for urgent matters
• fixed times for checking emails instead of constantly monitoring them in the background
• visible team agreements on what really counts as “urgent”

This may sound simple, but it reduces mental friction.

“Doing everything completely differently from tomorrow” is unrealistic. What does work, however, are small, repeated interruptions:

• selectively turning off push notifications
• 30 to 60 minutes of focus time without chat
• no work inbox in bed
• short offline breaks between two calls

This is not a wellness programme. It is work organisation. And that is exactly how it should be seen.

In PR, we want to be solution-oriented. That is a strength, but it can also mean that we only start setting boundaries once we are already overloaded.

That is why it helps to communicate earlier:

• What is realistic this week?
• Which topic has which priority?
• Where do we need to shift timelines, get support or adjust expectations?

This is more professional than silently overdelivering. And it helps protect against the typical agency mode of trying to somehow get everything done until nothing is done well anymore. 

In a work context, the WHO recommends not only individual measures, but also manager training, mental health awareness and stress management interventions. This fits very well with agency reality, because resilience is more effective when it does not have to be organised privately by each individual.

Managers in particular make a difference because they shape expectations:

• Do they respond to everything at night themselves?
• Do they signal trust or constant availability?
• Do they talk openly about peak workloads?

In teams where these things can be discussed, the quality of work usually improves as well. Not despite boundaries, but because of clear boundaries.

In PR, we often communicate topics that are themselves about acceleration: automation, real-time data, performance, personalisation, AI and scaling. These topics are exciting, but they also come with a certain logic: faster, more connected, more efficient.

That makes it all the more important that we, as communications professionals, do not apply the same logic to ourselves without reflection.

Because good PR needs more than responsiveness. It also needs:

• context instead of simply passing information on
• strategic thinking instead of constant replying
• linguistic precision instead of copy written from exhaustion
• empathy in client communication instead of running on autopilot

In short: good communication needs cognitive and emotional capacity. And that does not emerge in a permanent state of alert.

In Germany, the issue of mental strain in the workplace is also becoming more visible. According to the DAK update on the Psychreport, mental health-related absence in 2024 amounted to 342 days of absence per 100 employees. Mental health conditions therefore remain a relevant workplace issue, with long periods of absence and high importance for prevention and workplace health management. In addition, BAuA explicitly points out in the context of digital work that working conditions must not lead to excessive digital stress and that protective measures are necessary.

That is the key point: mental health is not only a private matter. It is part of professional work design.

Many people enjoy working in industries that are fast-moving, connected and close to the pulse of the times. But that does not mean we have to be in response mode around the clock. On the contrary, it is becoming increasingly important to manage attention consciously: our own, as well as that of our target audiences.

For me, “always-on human” means:

• being reachable without seeming constantly available
• responding professionally without ignoring your own limits
• working ambitiously without making constant tension the norm

Digital detox is not a contradiction to PR. It is a prerequisite for staying good at this job in the long term: clear in our thinking, precise in our language and reliable in our consulting.

And in the end, that is also what good communication is about: not only for brands and topics, but also in how we deal with ourselves.