How should you deal with a bad boss? Here’s some EXCELLENT research-based advice from Stanford Professor Bob Sutton (51 mins into the video).
On a related note, a journalist once asked me during an interview why employees put up with bad bosses.
Without thinking about it I blurted out “Stockholm syndrome.”
I only later realized I may have been right.
Michal Srajer, one of our Partners in Prague, is currently travelling the world and interviewing many different people for his podcast about happiness at work. His first interview was with me and you can hear it here.
His second podcast features Søren Lockwood, the CEO of SEB Pension in Denmark, who took his company of 300 serious financial professionals in dark suits through a transformation that has resulted in happier employees, lower absenteeism, happier customers and better results.
You can hear the podcast here:
Søren Lockwood also spoke at our conference this year in Copenhagen, where examined the classic question of whether you can prove that happiness at work is good for the bottom line. He gave the best answer EVER:
Complete this sentence: “When it rains, the price of umbrellas goes __.”
If you guessed up you’d be right in most places. But at IKEA stores, you’d be wrong.
Here’s how they price their umbrellas depending on the weather:
Yes, on rainy days, umbrellas are cheaper :o) What a nice way to make customers happy.
This is no coincidence – happiness matters at IKEA. Their founder, Ingvar Kamprad, once said this:
Work should always be fun for all colleagues. We all only have one life. A third of life is work. Without desire and fun, work becomes hell.
To me, this attitude only makes sense. Making your employees happy makes the business more profitable and making your customers happy keeps them coming back.
It ain’t rocket surgery, and fortunately more and more companies are figuring this out and committing themselves to happiness at work.
Henry Stewart is the found of Happy, a company in London that does computer and happiness trainings. They are also (naturally) a very happy workplace.
In this speech, Henry shares 3 more advanced tips for creating a happy workplace:
The economist Milton Friedman famously once said that “The business of business is business.”
We respectfully disagree.
On November 18+19 we are arranging the first ever conference about happiness at work in India together with Les Concierges and Naresh Jain of ConfEngine.
We have just announced the schedule with an amazing lineup of speakers and workshops, including critical themes like:
… and many, many more great topics. Speakers include:
And of course myself :) See the entire schedule here.
Attendance is limited to 300 people, so better get your tickets now.
A loooong while back we shared the idea of playing a game in the office, where you challenge coworkers to come up with ideas that combine two existing themes. You may even offer a small prize for the funniest or most creatives replies.
Here are two examples contributed by Destiney from Colorado Mountain College Steamboat Springs:
Destiney is also looking for more ideas for themes.
Here are two I came up with:
Baked goods + TV show: Game of scones. Breading bad.
Celebrity + Car: Harrison Ford :) Too easy?
There must be a million more. What combination would you suggest? Write a comment!
My learning position
Coursera is an AMAZING site that lets you take hundreds of university-level classes taught by highly respected people from different fields.
It’s also my latest addiction. Seriously – I may have a problem. Yesterday I finished one course, and immediately signed up for 4 more :)
I’ve taken courses on many different topics several of which have been directly useful and relevant to happiness at work so I thought I’d share the 5 best ones here:
5: Unethical Decision Making in Organizations
A seminar on the dark side of the force’ that teaches you how strong organizational contexts push good people towards unethical decisions. You will also learn how to protect yourself and your organization against such forces lurking in the dark.
4: Positive psychology
A great overview and introduction to the “science of happiness” taught by Barbara Fredrickson, one of the leading researchers in the field.
3: Introduction to neuroeconomics
Neuroscience, when allied with psychology and economics, creates powerful new models to explain how we make decisions. Neurobiological mechanisms of decision-making, decisions under risk, trust and cooperation are central issues in this course.
2: Critical perspectives on management
Using a wide disciplinary approach – from economics and history to social theory and even a smattering of biblical criticism – the course examines several core management strategies and debunks them mercilessly as wrong and damaging, including:
Topics include: the function of the firm; the role of incentive; the ways in which narrative forces shape decision making, and how market relationships define the managerial culture in ways that can lead to sub-optimal outcomes.
1: Social pshycology
The best and most interesting online course I’ve taken so far. It examines how we affect each other in groups and almost all of the content is relevant to the workplace.
The course isn’t currently offered but will hopefully return.
But I’ve taken so many other great courses as well. Here are my 4 favorites outside of the field of happiness at work:
Have you done any online courses? What’s been your favorite things so far? Let me know in a comment!
UPDATE: As I was writing this, I stumbled on a course called Classical Sociological Theory and signed up for that too :) As I said… I may have a problem :)
This is just too cool: Every month, financial-services company Motley Fool selects a random employee who gets 2 weeks off and $1,000. Their mission is to spend those two weeks on whatever they want with zero contact with the office.
They do this to show employees that it’s OK to balance work and life and not overwork yourself to death.
Genius!
