When war survivors report their highest life satisfaction during bombing raids, we need to rethink everything we know about workplace wellbeing.
Imagine this: You're in Sarajevo during the NATO bombing. Between you and the supermarket stand two snipers. Every trip for groceries becomes a dance with death. Your mate volunteers to go, you insist it's your turn. For thirty harrowing minutes, one of you dodges bullets while the other waits, wondering if they'll return.
Now here's the uncomfortable truth that challenges our modern obsession with comfort: The people who lived through this describe it as simultaneously the most harrowing and the best time of their lives.
This isn't masochism. It's thermodynamics.
Energy Flow vs. The Happiness Trap
Christian Schnepf, a German researcher who developed the Science of Good Times framework, argues we've been measuring the wrong thing. While organisations chase happiness metrics and wellness programmes proliferate, we're missing something fundamental: humans aren't designed for comfort. We're designed for energy flow.
"Good times equals energy flow," Schnepf explains. "When I'm having 100% good time, everything in my body and in my environment is flowing with zero restrictions."
This aligns with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's research on flow states, which shows that peak performance occurs when both challenge and skill levels are high and in equilibrium. When challenges exceed skills, we experience anxiety. When skills exceed challenges, we get boredom. But in that sweet spot—where high challenges meet high skills—we find flow.
The data backs this up. Meta-analyses demonstrate that employees who experience appropriate challenge-skill balance show significantly higher productivity, creativity, and job satisfaction compared to those operating in anxiety or boredom zones.
The Comfort Crisis
Here's where it gets uncomfortable for the developed world. In our quest to eliminate all discomfort, we've created what Schnepf calls an "energy stagnation crisis." When there's no real threat to run from and nothing compelling to run toward, our energy has nowhere to go.
Consider this striking pattern: suicide rates in wealthy nations often exceed those in war zones. Solzhenitsyn observed that suicide was remarkably rare in the Soviet gulags, where mere survival required every ounce of energy and focus. The weak died from the elements; the strong were too busy staying alive to contemplate ending it.
This isn't an argument for creating artificial hardship. It's recognition that we're built for challenge.
The Science Behind the Struggle
The relationship between stress and performance follows the Yerkes-Dodson Law, formulated in 1908. Performance increases with arousal up to an optimal point, after which additional stress leads to decline. Recent research validates this in workplace settings, showing moderate stress levels correlate with increased productivity and positive mood.
But here's the crucial distinction: not all stress is created equal.
Eustress (positive stress) emerges when we face challenges we perceive as manageable and growth-oriented. It's characterised by excitement, motivation, and capability. Think meeting a challenging deadline, delivering an important presentation, or pursuing a promotion.
Distress (negative stress) occurs when demands exceed our perceived capacity to cope. This manifests as anxiety, frustration, and feeling overwhelmed.
Research shows employees experiencing eustress are 34% more likely to love their jobs. They report increased energy, heightened focus, and stronger goal-oriented behaviour.
From Snipers to Software: Translating Crisis Clarity
The Sarajevo survivors weren't masochists—they were experiencing pure energy flow. With death potentially minutes away, they had zero concern about future problems and complete clarity about what mattered: survival. Every restriction on their energy disappeared except one crystal-clear objective.
This mirrors what we see in high-performing organisations. Steve Jobs called it "values-based management": If everyone wants to go to San Diego, you'll debate whether to fly or drive, but you won't waste energy arguing about the destination. Elon Musk embodies this with brutal clarity: "We're launching this rocket." Those aligned with that mission thrive under his demanding leadership. Those who aren't, don't last.
The difference between toxic pressure and productive challenge isn't intensity—it's alignment and meaning.
Creating "Good Struggle" in the Workplace
So how do we create productive challenge without actual snipers?
1. Crystal-Clear ObjectivesVague goals create distress. Clear, meaningful objectives create eustress. As research demonstrates, tasks must have well-defined objectives that provide structure and direction. When employees understand exactly what they're trying to accomplish and why it matters, challenge becomes energising rather than overwhelming.
2. Optimal Challenge DesignMatch task difficulty to employee capabilities, then stretch slightly. The flow research shows this sweet spot produces peak performance. Too easy breeds boredom and disengagement. Too hard creates anxiety and paralysis.
3. Immediate Feedback LoopsWar zones provide instant feedback: you're alive or you're not. Modern workplaces need to recreate this clarity (minus the mortality). Real-time information about progress enables continuous adjustment and maintains the balance necessary for flow.
4. Remove Energy Blocks, Don't Just Add PerksSchnepf's GTR (Good Time Ratio) framework identifies five areas where energy flows or blocks: self, social, actions, obtainment, and environment. A toxic manager can block energy across all five areas, no amount of yoga classes will compensate.
The Autonomy Paradox
Here's where it gets counterintuitive: Those demanding bosses at Tesla and Apple might actually be creating flow states—if employees share their vision. When you avoid being "killed" by Jobs' perfectionism and ship that product, you feel profoundly alive. You've survived the corporate sniper.
But this only works when employees genuinely want the same outcome. If they're just there for the paycheque, the same pressure becomes destructive distress rather than productive eustress.
Beyond Kumbaya: The Hard Truth About Soft Skills
The workplace wellness movement often misses this crucial point: we don't need less challenge, we need better challenge. Sitting around singing kumbaya doesn't create engagement. Conquering meaningful obstacles does.
A soldier-turned-businessman told Schnepf: "I couldn't care less when someone says no to me in business, because my life isn't at stake. There's nothing wrong." His war experience didn't traumatise him—it liberated him from trivial fears.
This is post-traumatic growth in action. Research shows that workers who develop PTG report greater energy, involvement, and focus in their professional roles. The struggle didn't break them; it revealed capabilities they didn't know they had.
The Energy Investment Decision
Every moment, your body makes a calculation: is this worth my energy? In Sarajevo, the calculation was simple—move or die. In modern offices, we've made it so complex that often the answer is: nothing is worth moving for.
Schnepf's research suggests the solution isn't eliminating all resistance but ensuring energy has somewhere meaningful to flow. "A human is different than a tree," he notes. "We are not designed to stand still. We are designed to move, to do things."
Practical Application: The GTR Method
Rather than chasing happiness or trying to eliminate all stress, focus on energy flow:
- Identify where energy is blocked (bureaucracy, unclear goals, misalignment)
- Identify where energy wants to flow (meaningful challenges, aligned objectives)
- Remove blocks systematically (but don't expect this alone to create engagement)
- Create compelling destinations (visions worth struggling toward)
- Match challenge to capability (then increase both together)
The Uncomfortable Conclusion
Jensen Huang, NVIDIA's founder, told Stanford graduates: "My entire career was full of hardship, pain, struggle, and failure. That's what forged me. I wish upon all of you hardship, failure, and struggle."
This isn't sadism—it's thermodynamics. Energy needs to flow. In the absence of external challenges, we create internal ones: anxiety, depression, existential crisis. Better to choose our struggles consciously than have them chosen for us by our stagnating energy.
The Sarajevo survivors weren't happy. They were alive—fully, completely, undeniably alive. Every cell focused on a single, clear objective. No energy wasted on trivial concerns. No paralysis from infinite options.
Perhaps the question isn't how to eliminate workplace stress, but how to transform it from distress that depletes to eustress that energises. Not through artificial pressure or toxic management, but through meaningful challenge aligned with clear purpose.
Because when the snipers are metaphorical rather than literal, we need something worth running toward, not just comfort to rest in. The alternative isn't happiness—it's stagnation. And stagnation, as thermodynamics teaches us, is death by another name.
Next week in Part 2: "From Manager to Leader: The Energy Direction Revolution" - Why controlling where energy shouldn't go creates resistance, while showing where it should go creates flow.
