SWITZERLAND/GERMANY , Maria Fischer •
“In a time when so much stands still – when the world is holding its breath in the grip of the Corona crisis, as it were – the joy of work takes on a whole new meaning. In this time, the awareness and the desire is growing that after the almost worldwide lockdown, things cannot continue as before”, write Ulrich and Melanie Grauert, co-founders and directors of the IKAF (International Kentenich Academy for Executives) in the foreword to a book that saw the light of day in the middle of the pandemic, at least in the German-speaking world. Carlos Barrio y Lipperheide is known to the readers of schoenstatt.org for his numerous contributions on topics of work, corporate and personnel management. But “Living Joy At Work” is actually the first book by him to be published in German. —
You can see the joy in their work. The joy of working on this personal project of publishing a book whose author they have known for a long time and whose content they were and are simply convinced of. Translation, editing, layout, publication: Everything professionally done, #NotOnlyButProudly in a free, personal initiative. The fact that the book was not planned in such a way just now, while the pandemic at least in Europe is slowly abating and the social and economic consequences are growing, makes it all the more current.
For after: Live joy at work
Millions of people worldwide without work or on short-time work, with no end in sight. Familiar shops and restaurants in the city centre closed. Forever. Companies that were a star in the stock market sky before the crisis, crashed, insolvent, disappeared. And in the middle of this gloomy scenario there is entrepreneurial creativity, founding spirit and enormous solidarity. A single entrepreneur in Paraguay saves several hundred jobs by initiating an efficient conversion to the production of masks and protective equipment. There, all employees of a company accept short-time work in order to secure the jobs of some whom are threatened. The authors and editors of this book suggest that work should not simply continue as before, but should be realized with a fullness of life and joy.
The central theme
“The book about the joy of and in work is without doubt the most comprehensive book I have written so far,” said Carlos Barrio y Lipperheide in an interview during the publication of the Spanish version, “And it is based on my own experiences. It was born as a consequence of my need to give an answer to the question of the meaning of my work in a competitive and challenging environment, where human loyalties are often lacking and where God seems to be far away. Many times in my professional life I have asked myself about the meaning of my work and whether it is possible to live with joy amidst pressure, stress and demands. The book proposes a concrete way to develop different aspects that will allow us to live together with joy in work.
Carlos Barrio y Lipperheide takes the reader on a journey through literature – not only in the field of corporate and employee management, but also in theology, sociology, psychology, education and economics. The book is rich, very rich in quotations – from Enrique Shaw to Anselm Grün, from Josef Pieper to Zygmunt Baumann, from Byung-Chul Han to Pope Francis. But it is much more than a literary work, much more than a well-assorted collection of quotations. The central theme is the question of how can a joy that comes from within, in the concrete, real world of work, grow among managers and employees. The common thread is Josef Kentenich with his organic view of life and work.
“With the help of the pedagogy of Father Joseph Kentenich, the founder of the International Schoenstatt Movement, the book leads us to a deeper recognition of inner connections. It is an invitation to deepen our reflection, to rethink our personal leadership and to discover the true joy of work – to discover new inner strength and mobilize it”, Melanie and Ulrich Grauert said in the preface.
Not just theory
“The book should not remain a theory, but should become an educational stimulus for everyone who reads it. That is why there are a series of questions at the end of each chapter, so that the reader can personally reflect on his or her own experience in relation to the subject matter of the chapter in question. These questions are followed by a meditation, so that the reader can pause and reflect a little further, so that he or she can delve even deeper into their own inner life and experiences,” explains Carlos Barrio y Lipperheide.
In the German edition, these sections are contrasting in colour and designed very invitingly – the successful layout with colour highlights and a pleasant typeface motivates reading and going further.
The joy of work is contagious. When Carlos Barrio told about the publication of the German edition in the chat of the CIEES, an association of entrepreneurs and leaders in the Spanish-Portuguese speaking Schoenstatt, several of the participants decided to buy the Spanish original that was published in 2017.
The book has been available in bookstores and online on BoD and in the well-known portals since the beginning of June, and is meanwhile also available as an e-book.
Paperback
220 pages
ISBN-13: 9783751929639
Publisher: Books on Demand, 2020
On the author: Carlos E. Barrio y Lipperheide is a lawyer who graduated from the Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires, specialising in commercial and financial law.
He studied collective bargaining law in Argentina and Harvard, mediation at the Faculty of Law of UBA, and ontological coaching at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies. He is a program director for coaching at INICIA, a non-profit organization dedicated to training young entrepreneurs. Carlos E. Barrio y Lipperheide has written several books and articles on management issues and publishes regularly on schoenstatt.org
He is married with two children and lives in Tigre, Buenos Aires. He belongs to the Schoenstatt Family Movement and to CIEES, an association of entrepreneurs and leaders in the Schoenstatt Movement.
The editors of the German version, Melanie and Ulrich Grauert, with the author, Carlos Barrio y Lipperheide (middle)
Original: German 19.06.2020 Translation: Lindsay Burger, Ohio, USA
