The activity of working, a fundamental principle for human life, has suffered signification changes within the 21st century. Heavy physical work, the natural environment, bad weather conditions, have been replaced by mentally demanding, high intensity work, narrow working environments, constant stress, and mentally challenging conditions. These changes in lifestyle have led to a decrease in both physical activity, and physical work and, thereby, reduced energy requirements, causing an imbalance between energy needs and energy supplies.
The social integration of young people represented no considerable problem in the previous centuries, as intermediary stages existed, such as the apprenticeship, which evolved under conditions of severe tutelage by adults. Towards the end of the last century, things changed dramatically. Visible mutations of the individual role and statute determined the reconsideration of the primary values and understandings of human condition. Youth has established itself as a distinct period in the social life and the specific problems have been amplified, creating the so called “crises”. As a consequence, young people suffer the most, as they are strongly aware of the contrast between reality and desideratum.
We are living in times where getting things done faster and faster is the main priority. To this list, we can add meetings with colleagues, more than 20 mails a day marked as urgent, interactions with other departments to complete a project and more and more reports to send to our bosses. These are stressful times, and stress can have a big impact on our lives.
Today, the topic of personal performance is gaining more and more attention, but is it completely and, most importantly, correctly understood? The most common misunderstanding when it comes to personal performance is associating it to individual performance.
One man’s happiness is another man’s sorrow represents, by no means, the word of law in the business environment but it is, however part of the present, unforgiving reality. Basically, it translates into profit by all means. Is this a viable strategic decision? Perhaps, for a limited period of time. Ultimately, the consequences of such decisions will strike back and kneel any organization, regardless of its size. Cases such as the 2001 Enron scandal and its collapse have drawn attention to an important trend in management, namely ethical leadership.
