The balance between results and well-being

Reinaldo Sousa Santos was the speaker of the open class on December 6th that took place in the auditorium of ISVOUGA.

The session, entitled Being happy at work: People and managing people, began with an explanation of the concept of happiness and addressed the importance of, in a work context, aligning results and expectations. For Reinaldo Sousa Santos “expectations have changed a lot” and within an organization “they are not the same for everyone”. In clear language, this professional, with more than 20 years of experience in the human resources area, addressed some fundamental aspects of people management with two effects in mind: performance and well-being. "People's needs are in permanent adjustment" said the speaker, for whom "authentic happiness combines emotion, involvement and meaning, having a meaningful life", since "being well at work implies having pleasure and fulfillment" .

Before an audience of more than five dozen students and professionals from the region of Entre Douro e Vouga, this specialist in dealing with people, spoke over 2 hours of happiness, well-being, trust, respect, leadership, empathy, fairness, resilience and positive environment.

The university professor also recalled that: “Success is a consequence of happiness. It is not success that brings happiness. It doesn't come from things to people." And the organizational climate, but above all, recognition are aspects valued by any member of a team. Using metaphors, Reinaldo Sousa Santos explained that people are not like a tree "in which you take four blows to make it fall", people, and especially teams, "are like armies", therefore, they will resist and will take defensive actions, depending on how they are treated.

Reinaldo Sousa Santos also warned of the danger of obsessing over talent retention, which must be based on well-being, on the existence of a work with purpose, autonomy and relationship experience. Because, in the opinion of this professional: "worse than the people who resign and leave are the people who resign and stay", warning of the harmful effect that lack of motivation has on the functioning and productivity of organizations.

The theme of the open class combines the speaker's vast experience with the knowledge acquired during his PhD in Business Sciences, where he developed a thesis on the theme of well-being at work. “A good decision involves the organization and performance with people and their well-being and if these two dimensions do not find a balance point, we do not have a stable relationship”.

This open class was promoted within the scope of the Public Relations course, of the degree in Marketing, Advertising and Public Relations and involved students and teachers of this course in the preparation of the initiative that also attracted the interest of students from Business Management, Accounting and also from some professionals from companies in the district of Aveiro.