GNH and workplace wellness

GNH stands for Gross National Happiness. The Philippines is no. 103 out of 150 countries on the Cantril scale of life evaluation of happiness, just below Kyrgyzstan, and just above Bangladesh. Denmark is No. 1, USA is 11th, Saudi Arabia is 26th, and Singapore is 33rd. You can check out the World Happiness Report at www.earth.columbia.edu.

Part 1 of my reflection focused on how Pope Benedict XVI deepens the original spirit of youth on the encyclical Mense Maio. Effectively, the Pope wanted the youth to be instruments of a different peace: a peace that leads to “gross national happiness,” or well-being.

In this Part 2, let us ask ourselves as leaders of business, government and communities, what have we done lately to set a good example for the youth in their search for well-being. The GNH value is an index function of the total average per capita of several clusters of measures that range from Economic Wellness (e.g., income distribution) and Environmental Wellness to Workplace Wellness (e.g., frequency of job changes) and Political Wellness.

On workplace wellness: what have we done lately to guide our youth and young adults when making decisions about taking contractual jobs in business-process outsourcing (BPO) companies? They leave and arrive home at odd hours, or are compelled to rent in nearby bedspaces or apartments, far from home. After their training and before their contracts are up, they must know already where to apply next, go through another training and complete another contract with another BPO, “role-playing” their being part of several companies from other parts of the world. At their young age, they become breadwinners for their families, who probably have no idea of the stress levels they experience at work: the number of calls they have to make every hour.

What has happened to “decent work?” The Holy Father reminds us in Caritas in Veritate: “…poverty results from a violation of the dignity of human work, either because work opportunities are limited [through unemployment or underemployment], or because a low value is put on work and the rights that flow from it, especially the right to a just wage and to the personal security of the worker and his or her family. For this reason…my venerable predecessor Pope John Paul II issued an appeal for ‘a global coalition in favor of decent work,’ supporting the strategy of the International Labor Organization. In this way, he gave a strong moral impetus to this objective, seeing it as an aspiration of families in every country of the world. What is meant by the word ‘decent’ in regard to work? It means work that expresses the essential dignity of every man and woman in the context of their particular society: work that is freely chosen, effectively associating workers, both men and women, with the development of their community; work that enables the worker to be respected and free from any form of discrimination; work that makes it possible for families to meet their needs and provide schooling for their children, without the children themselves being forced into labor; work that permits the workers to organize themselves freely, and to make their voices heard; work that leaves enough room for rediscovering one’s roots at a personal, familial and spiritual level; work that guarantees those who have retired a decent standard of living.”

What have we done lately to challenge the new jobs extended to the young to be decent work? –REV. FR. ANTONIO CECILIO T. PASCUAL, Businessmirror