Article 3
Why It's Necessary to Reflect on Identity, Especially Now
In this and the next blog posts, we will discuss some comments that were left by the participants in our streaming event last April 1, "Smart Working: Are We Really Working Smartly?" Taking our cues from those comments, we will address some important social and managerial themes. Today we will talk about transformation of identity. We will then deal with living conditions, the impact of smart working, and "possible new leadership models." "The backgrounds behind the colleagues (or the speakers) during smart working are phenomenal, and we could even create links between colleagues that were previously ...
Covid-19 and the Prison of Categories
A broad debate is developing in Italian media on the so-called "phase 2" of the coronavirus emergency. This period will involve the gradual opening of non-essential activities (remember that essential ones are already open) and the reduction of the restrictions on mobility for citizens. In this debate, various categories are used to distinguish between businesses and workers. For businesses, the first major distinction is that between those that operate in essential sectors and non-essential sectors. This division into categories can be problematic, because while on the one hand it is possible ...
Is a New Division of Work Possible?
In this period of emergency, family (im)balance is being put to the test by people being forced to be constantly together in the home. The question is: when mutual help between partners becomes essential, is a greater sharing of domestic work and care also emerging? For the moment, the answer seems to be no. An investigation conducted by the Valore D association on the issue of female smartworking[1] stresses that in Italy one out of three women is working more than before and is unable to reconcile her work activity with home life. Home work and care, which has increased out of all proportion ...
I Don’t Want to be Celebrated on March 8
It’s March 8, the day on which, since 1922, Italy has symbolically celebrated International Women’s Day, commonly known as the Festa della donna. This day, created to remember women’s economic, political, and social achievements, but also the discrimination and violence to which women continue to be subject, does not cease to provoke contradictory feelings and opinions. In fact, many women say that they don’t want to be celebrated on this day. There are two frequent reasons for this position. The first regards the need to be seen as considered people, not women. It’s the same reason ...
How Work Changes at the Time of the Coronavirus
The Coronavirus (COVID-19) has two significant impacts on the organization of work. The first regards the “open space” organization of offices, where workers may or may not have fixed workstations, designed to reduce costs relating to physical spaces and to favor interaction and the exchange of information.[1] The layout of such offices also favors contagion though, and thus the proliferation of diseases. This is true for the Coronavirus, but obviously also for the normal seasonal flu. So in order to address this problem, in the immediate term companies have been forced to limit the movement ...
Diversity Management: Apply with Care
On February 4, 2020, the New York Times published an article [1] on the case of the Prada company, that in 2018 was accused of having produced racist advertisements put up in the city of New York, and then removed due to criticism. After a long investigation by the New York City Commission on Human Rights, a formal agreement was reached stating that the company would adopt some measures on the issue of diversity and inclusion: from a financial and occupational standpoint, the company would support ethnic minorities, accept outside monitoring of its operations, and promote awareness of diversity ...
Gender Equality in the Professional World
Despite the lively public and academic debate on the question of gender equality in society and the labor market, it is always important to ask if this widespread "sensitivity" is actually translating into concrete results. According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2020 produced by the World Economic Forum (WEF),[1] Italy saw the largest improvement from 2017 to 2018, going from 82nd to 70th, but in 2019 it dropped down to 76th out of a total of 153 countries. While the positive result for 2018 was due to growth in the area of "Political Empowerment" of women, which maps female participation in ...
Ideas First, Regardless of Gender
On December 11 of this year, Marta Cartabia was elected president of the Italian Constitutional Court. During the press conference held after her election, she expressly stated that being a woman "was not a secondary aspect," that her election represents a "historic step," that she "broke the glass ceiling," and that her female colleagues told her "your election is our election."[1] The media and the political world, on both the right and the left, conservatives and progressives, all celebrated the election of the first woman president of the Constitutional Court, stressing that the event represents ...
Obesity: Stigma Becomes Dehumanization
About one month ago, the Italian Association of Dietetics and Clinical Nutrition held an "Obesity Day" (https://www.obesityday.org/), and in the conference organized in Rome on that occasion, presented the "Bill of Rights and Responsibilities of Persons with Obesity." The opening of the Bill is as follows: "The rights of persons with obesity are the same human and social rights as those of persons without obesity." Why did they feel the need to write a "Bill of Rights and Responsibilities of Persons with Obesity"? The main goals of the sponsors were: to enhance people's sensitivity to issues of ...
Why Old Age is Harder for Women
"Leave me all of my wrinkles, don't take any away. It took me my whole life to get them." Anna Magnani Longevity, considered a positive phenomenon at the individual level, is becoming critical at the collective level, in both society and the labor market. Ageism is a form of prejudice and devaluation of the individual, based on his or her age; in particular towards the elderly (1). Because of this prejudice, in 2020 being more than 45 years old can represent a stigma in Italian companies, and thus a source of discrimination. Studies in fact stress that ageism translates into managerial practices ...