Symposium 2026 | Holding the turbulent world at work | Parallel Paper Session 5
Mourning After Unplanned Midlife Career Transitions: Identifying Ballast and Treasures in the Family Baggage
Dr Elisabeth Prchla
Dr Elisabeth Prchla
As an executive coach, I guide leaders and organisations through personal and professional transformation processes—especially during times of career transitions or organisational change. I bring a unique blend of experiences: seven years as a scientist, over two decades in international leadership roles in the biopharma and life sciences industries, and several years as a global Talent Head in a DAX-40 company.
In my leadership roles, I enabled outstanding business results and transformations by fostering a culture of ownership and collaboration within complex internal and external ecosystems. My educational background is equally diverse, with a PhD in Biochemistry, an MBA, and a Master in Change from INSEAD. My professional journey took me to several countries — I have now settled back in my hometown Vienna, Austria, where I enjoy the cultural offerings and the wonderful nature in the surroundings. What drives me is the desire to create real, human impact. In my coaching, I support leaders in rediscovering their vitality, acting with authenticity, and leading with clarity and compassion. I firmly believe that true change is possible—when personal insight meets the courage to grow.
This is a path I walk myself—every single day.
Abstract
Job loss in mid-life has been reported to expose individuals to a variety of emotions linked to disruption of their established work and life identity. Individuals go through a “liminal” phase where they mourn their loss of self-definition and establish a renewed sense of self. While a lot has been published on the emotional and social impact of job loss and strategies of transition, especially in the Anglo-American realm, little is known about contextual conscious and unconscious drivers originating in the wider family system. The present paper shares results from interpretative phenomenological and socio-analysis on how German senior executives affected by involuntary or unplanned job loss experience the liminal phase in the light of patterns of loss and recovery over three generations of family history.
Drawing from concepts of emotion regulation and psychodynamics it elucidates the impact of the wider family system and potential intergenerational trauma transmission on individual reactions to the experience of job loss reverberating back to World War 2 and highlights sources of both maladaptive coping and resilience. I identify 3 kinds of narrative strategies: “Braving”, “Exploring” and “Trusting” that connect subjective coping and status of the transition with perceived impact of the family system. This is put into context with potential experiences of the whole generation of corporate managers of generation X which epitomises liminality by having been born in times of the German economic miracle and witnessing consecutive massive disruption and continuous turbulence in the world of work. It supports a look into the family system to reassess continued suitability of defences and mobilise resources of resilience.
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