In search of 'Harmony' between work and life

"Armonia" is a text-path towards wellbeing at work and in life and, with this book, the author Debora De Nuzzo has won the Il Sole 24 Ore Literary Prize for Economic and Social Non-Fiction, now in its third edition. The author describes it as a 'path of personal growth that everyone can develop and that every company can promote internally by transforming workplaces into places of meaning and significance, because even when we work we are living', going on to specify how 'the work-life balance is a deception, a symptom of a pathological need to have everything under control, while we need to create harmony between all our personal spheres, including work, in order to make the most of our resources in a manner consistent with who we are'. Because 'it is time to regain our love for work and life; to go beyond the numbers and problems that see life increasingly distant from a world of work that wants us to perform at all costs'. "It is instead necessary," he adds, "to think about the wellbeing of people, inside and outside the workplace, proposing practical solutions that directly involve individuals because organisations are made up of people before they are made up of workers. And all this in order to "create our own personal work-life harmony, where the life dimension is no longer to be neglected and work is no longer labelled as the evil of our times", thus taking "the situation in hand to create mature personal and collective solutions and scenarios", i.e. answers for those who "want to take care of their own and others' wellbeing, to work and live in a healthy and sustainable way".

The author, who is a trainer, mental coach and consultant for organisational well-being, was a guest at the Trento Festival of Economics, where - in a debate with Karen Nahum, General Manager Publishing & Digital Area of the 24 ORE Group - she had the opportunity to present her book.

A text that, as stated in the jury's motivations, was appreciated and awarded 'for going beyond the concept of work-life balance towards a more harmonious vision and for its ability to generate discussion on a subject on which individual workers are increasingly critical, particularly the new generations, and on which companies are progressively dedicating internal programmes in the sphere of a welfare that is increasingly understood as corporate wellbeing'. A literary prize, therefore, that has the characteristics of being open and inclusive, ambitious and aimed at Italian and foreign authors, and that is awarded "to the most original contribution that has revealed a thought capable of tracing new models of interpretation of economic and social reality driven by geopolitical, demographic, and cultural movements on a global scale; that has also been able to propose new looks at broad themes, from macroeconomics to finance, from sustainability to social cohesion, work, as well as leadership, open innovation and enterprise".

Debora De Nuzzo, Harmony, Il Sole 24 Ore, pp. 176, euro 12.90.