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Sudhaker: Great tips, thank you! A happiness consultant – eeeexcellent!

I found in the middle of all busy work do the following
Just get out of formal set up walk into street grab a bite or nuts to munch just keep walkinvg
Hop into movie- eat snakcs – jous gwet inot some unknown
Look at some children stuff – fun games fun children

all this once once a fortnight

good writings great makings and happy landiings

sudhaker

Overall, I’ve really been enjoying the chapters posted. They’ve been a real boost to my mood at work and my attitude towards my job.

In the interests of helping you bring this book to publication and providing you with the requested general critique, I thought I’d make some more precise points below:

You appear to have used the “South West Airline” anecdote about the plane doing a 360 twice.
You mention Semco many times – and I can tell you are a big fan of Semler, but basing your arguments on one example weakens the power of your argument. You’ll get people mentally thinking this kind of philosophy only works for Semco.
Systematically examining and refuting some of the arguments against a happy workplace in one chapter would give readers a place to start from when arguing for changes to make a happier workplace. they will face opposition.
Many of your points are made from an employer/owner perspective. I agree that the most effective change starts from the top, but could you include a few employee tips, to help us cogs in the machine to make our jobs a happier place to be? This also broadens your potential audience.
I’m really enjoying the anecdotes regarding happier workplaces, and I’d love to read more.
I think you make this point obliquely, but I think it should be brought out to the fore : employees generally know their job inside out – they’re experts at it. A happier, more communicative workplace lets you use your pool of expert employees to grow and improve business without getting consultants in because your workers can implement or at the least suggest effective changes. Employees are more likely to support a change they suggested. And you get to skip the managerial decisions that come down from on high with no real understanding of the ‘frontline’ processes.

Hope some of this helps.
Amy

“Be Open” principle reminded me of an article by Joel Spolsky “The Identity Management Method” (http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2006/08/10.html)
It is short, and I think his company will add to your list of happy companies :)

I’m also reminded of a conversation I once had with an associate who we both determined worked at what we considered to be a “love-based” workplace. She was new to the job and I asked her what it was like to work at a place where the employees were valued and basically “loved” and she said it was really tough (not the answer I expected). She said at her previous job – a place we determined together to be more “fear-based” than “love-based,” she said she knew what to expect. She did her job “or else” … she knew the consequences of not producing and did her best to do what she was told. At this new job they expected and encouraged her to be creative, to bring her best self – and her whole self – to work. Her previous conditioning at the old job had taught her to be careful, not to try anything untested and certainly not to fail, and here they encouraged that. She was bringing her old fears and her old baggage to the new situation and, in conversations with other newbies at her job, they were afraid it was too good to be true. When would the other shoe drop?

So when indoctinating seasoned employees into a new, love-based environment – or when creating a huge culture shift from fear to love (or from unhappy to happy) at a workplace, it’s crucial to remember that people have baggage.

I think one of the main goals of every worker – really every human – is to be happy. But sometimes it’s the pursuit of this happiness that can lead to unhappiness. Be happy where you are with what you have now – work to be grateful for whatever is in your life right now and you’ll start attracting more of that feeling into your life (www.thesecret.tv is a great documentary that shows the science behind attracting things into your life!).

OK, I’ve gone on long enough. Thank you again … can’t wait to see the book!

Speaking of books, you’ll have mine in a couple of weeks, so watch your mail!!

I was earning close to 100k$ as a software developer/project manager/architect (whatever title fit their mood for the day) but was profoundly unhappy. I resigned one month ago and I am now planning a 1 year trip around Europe with my girlfriend and our 2 kids. After that I plan to settle back home in Montreal, but live a *very* different life centered around happiness and not salary or standing.

I particularly enjoyed your article on the advantages of low-rent living – that’s exactly the times when we were the happiest. The big salary, house and luxury car only make me feel trapped and do not help toward my happiness! Of course, making this decision is very destabilizing, but I can feel I am on the right track.

Thanks again.