Are we really present?
As recovery becomes stalled people are finding it harder and harder to boost their resilience at work. Recent financial pressures created breading ground for increased uncertainty at the workplace that seriously undermines sustainable organisational performance.
Although old management narratives still believe (and are having a comeback) that by generating fear and disproportionate pressure organisations can deliver the best bottomline, this is not only untrue but the work context and people’s expectations have significantly change and the paradox between organisational empathy and productivity is completely false.
We can be both empathetic and productive, and so organisations.
Actually, by stating that health and wellbeing is no longer a strategic priority it means that organisations were investing in approaches and interventions that lack impact, where only following a trend or their policy was not coherently aligned with critical organisational mission and values.
To insist in the same old narrative will not bring good results for people or for business. In a toxic work context people will endure until they are able to and will often be at the workplace despite not feeling well, showing levels of productivity that are nowhere near their potential.
Also, the comeback of traditional at the office control approach couldn’t be more far away from the organisational design that people at work need, since there was never a more critical moment for people to focus on using technology to boost their productivity and work smarter, not harder.
So in this edition of our review we invite you to dive into the concept of Presenteeism by the hand of our guest writer Hugo Figueiredo Ferraz’s blog post themed “Presenteeism: Why do people decide to work despite being sick?”. We also suggest an interesting book by Erin L. Kelly and Phyllis Moen “Overload — How good jobs went bad and what we can do about it”. And finally, we invite you to watch a great Ted Talk by Tom Oxley “Workplace Mental Health — all you need to know (for now)”.
Do take part in this conversation by leaving a comment on our blog or replying to hello@bound.health
Let’s not surrender to old and dated narratives that create false dichotomies.
Managing Partner Bound.Health
