✨ What do you think about when numbers smile but people… not so much? ✨
A reflection born in the field, between silent offices, tired eyes and (almost) sparkling reports.
There are times during my work in the company when everything — at least on paper — seems fine. The numbers are (all in all) good. The balance sheet makes the partners happy. The KPIs may not set off fireworks, but they don't set off alarm bells either.
But then you enter. You walk through the corridors. You observe the faces. And you realize that something is out of place.
No laughing. No snorting. No complaining either.
There is only a gray, compact silence. Like the sky before a storm.
And there, punctual as a notification, the same question always comes back to my head:
“But how much does what they are doing really cost people?”
No, I'm not talking about economic costs. We know those by heart, we can read them and comment on them. I'm talking about another price. The one you don't see in the graphs. The emotional price.
The price you pay when a company — even a seemingly successful one — consumes a little bit of the energy of its employees every day. And, often, even of its founders.
There is a subtle but very dangerous error that we have begun to consider "normal". Thinking that if the results come, everything else can wait. That if business is booming, well-being is optional. That if things work, people will adapt.
But it doesn't work that way.
People don't adapt infinitely. They resist, yes. For a while. Then they shut up. They retreat. They give up. Until one day they no longer laugh at jokes during coffee breaks. They no longer propose ideas. They don't even get indignant. They simply... stop being there. Even if they are there.
When you turn off the internal power, you can also have a screaming gross margin.
But you're winning a game you're playing alone. And no one wants to stay too long on a team where the only one cheering is the Excel spreadsheet.
I'm not saying results don't matter.
I'm saying we should look for results that are worth reaching.
Results that don't come at the cost of exhausted enthusiasm, dreams reduced to a minimum and lives suspended between calls and weekends of emotional recovery.
“How much energy are you burning to make all this work?”
Maybe the point is no longer just “how is the company doing?”
Maybe it's time to ask ourselves: How are people doing?
And if the answer is: “They stand, but with their hearts on standby”…
then no, we are not really growing. We are just consuming ourselves well.
🎯 And if this topic speaks to you, stick around. We’ll go into more detail shortly — much more.
(Without numbers. But with many true things.)
💬 Meanwhile: have you ever experienced a situation like this?
Tell me in the comments. I know, it's not easy. But even some awareness begins like this: sharing what cost us in silence.
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