In addition there are new laws, which don't allow to employer to dismiss a person so easily as it was once (recall O"Henry's hungry girls buying socks for their last few pennies). It's all to provide us with benefits, training, and a secure future. .
Many firms have gone over to the five-day workweek. We all have thirty minutes for lunch law. To avoid different health problems we can enjoy orthopedic chairs, keyboards and some other of professional equipment, smoke-free environments.
New technology has raised productivity growth and it has also improved the quality of jobs in organizations with high performance work systems. Computerized offices provide us with economy of time and place (no need in dusty archives anymore) in preserving and finding information. In short, the combination of technology and high performance workplace practices leads to more skilled work and high quality jobs for workers in different fields (Eileen Appelbaum, 2001). But there is a dark side as well.
The matters are not perfect, as they seem to be at the first sight. For each advantage there is a "but" point, like for each beautiful decoration there is an ugly back stage. Let's look briefly at the back stage of things. .
Working in our enchanted palaces, everyday we are revealed to countless stress situations, we are working a lot and without any "stress filtration", never stop to think, never stop to breath. (I remember my best friend discussing important matters, one secret project, with her client, silently drying her tears: some minutes before her boy friend broke up with her by phone. She didn't have a chance to stay for a moment with her bitterness). In every country, family hours of work have increased and lack of control over work time and work schedules has raised stress at home and at work. Work-related stress has been shown to affect millions of European workers across all types of employment sectors.
