“Among the complexities of the world lies the insatiable desire to discover the answer to how to be happy, a dizzying race in which only the wise, after a while, realize its futility. This relentless pursuit keeps us distant from our essence, occupied and exhausted, while emptiness persists. However, the real question may be simpler than we imagine. All we really need to do is stop, breathe, and appreciate every present moment in its entirety for existing, and then ask ourselves, why?” (Marcello de Souza) For those who read the first part of this series of articles that precisely addresses the role of happiness in companies, you have already realized that the subject is much more complex than expected, isn’t it? There is no line of defense capable of explaining happiness and its role in life other than its pursuit in oneself. The understanding of happiness throughout history is a complex and multifaceted narrative that spans a variety of cultures and philosophies. From ancient times to the present day, different concepts of happiness have been developed and explored in the same way that a single conclusion has never been reached. Imagine that even in the 17th century B.C., Zoroaster mentioned the pursuit of happiness as the search for a safe refuge, involving elements such as family and livestock. In 6th century B.C. China, Laozi emphasized harmony with nature, while Confucius highlighted values such as duty, courtesy, wisdom, and generosity as essential to a happy existence. On the other hand, Buddhism, founded by Siddhartha Gautama in the 6th century B.C., teaches that happiness is achieved through the liberation from suffering, a state attained through the Noble Eightfold Path and the overcoming of desire. Aristippus of Cyrene, a contemporary of Plato, distinguished two states of the human soul: pleasure (gentle movement of love) and pain (rough movement of love). Hence, an approach known as hedonistic emerged, where happiness is seen as the relentless pursuit of pleasure and the minimization of pain. This view places sensory and emotional pleasure at the center of the pursuit of happiness, raising questions about the balance between immediate and long-term pleasure, as well as the pursuit of pleasures that do not harm oneself or others. Still, in the 4th century B.C., Aristotle saw happiness as an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue, relating it to satisfaction and personal fulfillment, known as Eudaimonia, rooted in the development of virtues and personal flourishing. For him, it involves the pursuit of a meaningful life purpose, the realization of human potential, and the practice of virtues such as courage, wisdom, and generosity. Happiness here is linked to authenticity and personal growth. In Epicureanism, a philosophy advocated by Epicurus, an ancient Greek philosopher, happiness is conceived as the result of seeking a tranquil pleasure based on friendship, wisdom, and moderation. Epicurus valued ataraxia, the tranquility of the mind, as a desirable state to achieve happiness. Then came the Stoics who believed that tranquility (ataraxia) was the path to happiness, emphasizing control over things that could not be changed. For Christianity, through the teachings of Jesus Christ, love was highlighted as the key to harmony and happiness. Epictetus went further; he approached happiness by focusing on control over our lives. He argued that true happiness emerges when we accept that we only have control over our actions and choices. Instead of seeking wealth, fame, or pleasure, he emphasized the development of moral virtues, such as wisdom, courage, justice, and moderation. He believed that unhappiness originated from the pursuit of external things beyond our control. Saint Augustine, one of Christianity’s fundamentalists, saw happiness as the result of seeking God and conforming to His will. Thomas Aquinas, another Christian theologian, argued that happiness was achieved through the pursuit of God and human flourishing, through the development of virtues. Each of these perspectives offers a unique and distinct view of what constitutes true happiness and how to achieve it in its respective philosophical or religious tradition. In the 7th century, Muhammad emphasized charity and hope in the afterlife as essential elements for eternal happiness. Baruch Spinoza argued that true happiness was intrinsically linked to knowledge and understanding the nature of things, along with accepting our position in the universe. He saw the pursuit of understanding as a fundamental path to happiness. On the other hand, Arthur Schopenhauer had a pessimistic view of life and happiness. He believed that happiness consisted of the absence of suffering and suggested that the best way to achieve it was to minimize desire and will. IMMANUEL KANT argued that the pursuit of happiness should be guided by morality and duty. He believed that true happiness was aligned with reason and the fulfillment of moral duty. Karl Marx, on the other hand, advocated for an egalitarian society as a path to human happiness. In the late 19th century, Sigmund Freud explored the pursuit of happiness through the “pleasure principle” and the “reality principle,” with their inherent limitations. Jean-Paul Sartre, an existentialist philosopher, argued that happiness was linked to authenticity and personal freedom. For him, true happiness emerged when we took responsibility for our choices and created our own meaning in life. Viktor Frankl argued that the pursuit of happiness alone can often be frustrating and unattainable. Instead, he emphasized the importance of finding purpose or meaning in life as a more enduring source of satisfaction. He believed that when people find genuine meaning in their lives, even in the most difficult situations, they can experience a deeper form of contentment and well-being. In other words, for Frankl, the joy of living is related to the search for meaning and purpose in life, rather than a direct and selfish pursuit of happiness as an end in itself. By finding meaningful purpose, people can experience a deeper and more lasting type of contentment, even amidst difficulties and challenges. In recent decades, positive psychology, developed by Martin Seligman and others, has explored happiness as a scientific research field. Positive psychology examines factors such as gratitude, optimism, resilience, and engagement as important components of happiness. This approach emphasizes the importance of psychological well-being and personal development in the pursuit of happiness. We have reached the point of wanting to link happiness with genetics. Yes! According to some scientists, genetic studies suggest that happiness also has a hereditary component. Today, the concept of happiness is intrinsically linked to the “cult of the individual,” associating it with quality of life and self-esteem. Depression is seen as a “performative failure of the subject,” and subjective well-being depends on a series of factors, such as autonomy, relationships, and self-confidence. Not to mention the happiness of self-help, which highlights Having to the detriment of Being, and often promotes simplistic and generic solutions, against the understanding of happiness as something complex and as singular as multifaceted in a plural universe. The frantic race for happiness, which departs from the realm of understanding and enters the stage of spectacle, is a bizarre and unsettling spectacle that we witness today. Modern society pushes us into an abyss of having, showing, and proving our happiness at any cost. In this spectacle scenario, happiness is no longer an inner search, leaving Being for Having, as an external imposition. It is as if we were told: “You must be happy, or there is something wrong with you.” This “exploratory” and imperative happiness has become a necessity, a mandate imposed on us. Those who dare not to follow this dictate are labeled as insane and devalued. It is not surprising the growing number of people suffering from depression, anxiety, and loneliness in our individualized and fearful society. The relentless pursuit of happiness distances us from ourselves, makes us strangers in our own skin. We are forced to live artificial lives, shaped by the expectations of others, instead of allowing ourselves to be authentic. I think you must have understood by now that today it is precisely from this perspective that I want to generate reflection for us to deeply understand the “Chief Happiness Officer.” I want to explore a less optimistic view of happiness in the corporate context. It’s not that the intention is to depress you; on the contrary, it’s to break the status quo of the simplistic view and understand how we should actually see the relationship between happiness and the company. In other words, the idea today is to provoke and make you question this imposition of happiness so that we allow ourselves to explore the complexity of our emotions and experiences. The idea is to help decipher true happiness that cannot be canned or sold. When we understand the perspective of happiness in human evolution, we soon realize that somehow, deep down, everyone seeks to demonstrate that it resides in the acceptance of our imperfect humanity and in the search for meaning rather than empty pleasure. Perhaps that’s why the main idea of a CHO is not to dictate what is and how to be happy; on the contrary, it is to be open for each one to discover for themselves, even if that means challenging imposed norms and expectations. After all, genuine happiness is not a spectacle for others, but an internal journey of self-awareness and authenticity. AGAINST THE OBVIOUS The fact is that, whatever it may be, under Western or Eastern perspectives, where Eastern and Western outlooks differ in many aspects. While the West tends to seek happiness externally, through achievements and material pleasures, the East directs the search inward, emphasizing spirituality and inner peace. Where the West sees happiness as an achievement, the East sees it as a state of being. I hope it is already clear that since the early days of philosophy, the pursuit of happiness has been considered a noble aspiration and an inalienable right of the human condition. However, when we talk about the work environment, over the centuries, what began as a libertarian ideal in the 18th-century Enlightenment seems to have acquired a sinister shadow of unrealistic expectations and incessant duty. At the height of the Enlightenment, thinkers like John Locke, Thomas Jefferson, and Jeremy Bentham proclaimed the pursuit of happiness as a natural right, a fundamental principle that should be protected by governments. It was a call to individual freedom and personal fulfillment. However, this noble view of happiness has transformed over time. Today, the pursuit of happiness often unfolds before us as a relentless demand. Social media and the media bombard us with images of perfect lives, leading us to believe that happiness is constant and that any deviation from this ideal is a personal failure. The social pressure to be happy all the time has become overwhelming. Furthermore, the pursuit of happiness has evolved from an aspiration to a duty. The phrase “I declare these rights to be unalienable: Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” now seems like a constant reminder that we must pursue happiness incessantly, as if it were a goal to be achieved. Of course, this relentless obligation becomes exhausting, resulting in anxiety, dissatisfaction, and even a sense of failure when we do not meet the unattainable standards that modern society imposes, leading people to develop previously unimaginable mental disorders. The hidden weight of the pursuit of happiness lies in the pressure to be happy, the shame of not meeting expectations, and the feeling that happiness is an obligation. Instead of bringing satisfaction, this incessant pursuit can distance us from it, leaving us anxious and unhappy, and this cannot in any way inhabit a work environment, quite the opposite. If you want a CHO (Chief Happiness Officer) in your company, maybe it’s time to rethink the approach to happiness. First, it must be clear that in the contemporary world, globalization and the interaction between cultures are shaping how we view happiness. People are increasingly exposed to different perspectives and are starting to adopt elements from both traditions in their pursuit of happiness. Instead of pursuing constant and unattainable happiness, it might be wiser to focus on cultivating … Continue lendo HAPPINESS IN ORGANIZATIONS PART 2: THE HIDDEN WEIGHT OF HAPPINESS