High Performance: Slavery of modern age

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The earliest records of slavery are known in the Iron Age in 3,100 BC. Mesopotamia, where Iraq and Kwait are today. Since then, over ten thousand different types of slavery have been cataloged. Over time, humanity was perfecting its slavery methods. It went from slavery to manual labor in the fields, in mines, came into the domestic environment, became a trade, and today it is close to 40 million people, according to the Australian Walk Free Foundation in June 19.

You did not read it wrong. There are 40 million human beings in a situation known as Modern Slavery.

The report should be read by every inhabitant on this planet. You can read it by clicking here.

What the report does not point out are the veiled means of slavery. If it is a cultural characteristic of a human being, of subduing another to satisfy its pretensions, I can say that clearly the relentless pursuit of high performance is the new way to enslave people.

The irresponsible wave of encouraging people to push their own limits has set Burnout's record high.

Companies have a large share of the blame for setting targets each year of 15% or 20% above what they practiced the previous year. But market leaders and pseudo gurus who encourage this practice, too.

Countries like Japan have found that stimulating self-performance is an indirect way to take away the most precious good of a human being, that is, life. And they are holding a broad debate to extinguish what is known there as karoshi: "die from working so hard." High performance kills people, and a lot of people haven't realized it yet. Kill how slavery killed.

Japanese workers even fulfill an average workload of 15 hours a day. All of them seeking high performance! And die soon after. The issue was so worrisome that if the death of an employee is characterized by karoshi, the victim's family will receive a government compensation of $ 20,000 a year, as well as direct financial compensation from the employer, which could reach $ 1.6 million.

In that country there is a National Defense Association for hard working professionals. Including a hot line for you to report companies that are making their teams work above acceptable. See the website by clicking here. It's very interesting.

It's the one of high performance making victims.

To entice a professional to pursue his own high performance is to encourage him to enslave himself. Unconsciously we can submit to this self-harm and the excuses are the most diverse.

"I'm working hard because there are a lot of unemployed people, and I don't want to lose my job."

“There are people who would earn half of what I earn, so I need to show that I'm killing myself from work”

“I wake up at 5 am to be more productive. So I can be seen as giving my best. ”

“I send emails at dawn to show that I am in line with the company's expectation”

And so on ...

The example of slavery fits again here. The German geologist Moritz Alphons Stübel (1835 - 1904) traveled from 1868 to 1877 through several Brazilian farms recording photos of them and collected fantastic testimonials. According to him, many of the slaves worked exhaustively because they were afraid of being beaten by their masters. The fear of dying in the past is today the fear of losing a job. Visit the sad Stübel image gallery (click here), We see that it is very similar to today's professionals: Distant eyes, hopeless, tired of suffering and without any prospect of change.

High performance is the slavery of modern times.

Alberto Roitman is founder of Nexialistas Consultores. Writes about behaviors in the corporate environment. He is the author of the books: You Are What You Deliver, The Last Chance, and Themes for Team Discussion (Feb/2020).