About this book

This book is for anyone who has a job and anyone who wants one. Whether you’re an employee, manager or executive, this book has tips for you. Whether you work in industry, service, government or retail, there are tools you can use. Whether you’re a graduate looking for your first job or have a long, distinguished career already behind you, there is always more to learn about happiness at work.

The book aims to convince you that:

Each and every one of us can be happy at work.
Being happy at work will not only make work more fun, it will also improve your quality of life outside of work and make you more successful.
Happy businesses are much more efficient than unhappy ones—happiness makes great business sense.
Happiness at work is not rocket science—it is simple to help yourself and your workplace to be happy.

Of course, it’s not enough to just know these things, we must also do something about it, so this book will leave you with everything you need to help make yourself and others happy at work:

Knowledge—The basic theory of happiness at work, based on real-life experience.
Tools—Simple, practical tips and tools that will help you achieve fast results.
Energy—I will try to make you excited about the concept of happiness at work and all fired up to do something about it.
A plan—A specific plan tailored to your situation.

Stories and cases

This book refers to many real-life cases of companies who have achieved success through happiness. Business books normally preface every business case with a list of that company’s accomplishments, which might go something like this:

Acme Inc. is the only company in the world to have achieved triple-digit growth 58 years running.

Their stock price has risen from 10 cents to $452 and is still a “strong buy” recommendation from all investment advisors.

They have expanded from their humble beginnings in the founder’s outhouse in 1938, to a complex taking up half the buildings in lower Manhattan.

The founder is now richer than Bill Gates and 3 out of 4 employees retire as millionaires on their stock options before they turn 40.

Or words to that effect.

Not only do these litanies of amazing accomplishments get boring after a while, but they also paint a false picture. The company may be successful, but who really knows why? The reason for their success could be innovation, timing, happiness, wise investments, or sheer, blind luck. Who knows?

When I use a company as a case in this book, we can safely assume:

They are doing phenomenally well¹.
They believe themselves that one of the main reasons they are doing so well is happiness at work.

OK? OK!

All the stories you’ll read in the book are true. Names and other details may have been changed to protect the innocent, but all events took place as described.

Go visit the website

This book has an accompanying website at this address: www.positivesharing.com/happyhouris9to5.

Here you will find:

Additional reading and articles about happiness at work.
Worksheets for the exercises.
Various downloads, including mp3 sound files for some exercises.
A book list to help you find more great books about happiness at work.

And most importantly, you can tell me and the rest of the world what you think about the book, and exchange thoughts about your experiences with other readers.

You can also get more inspiration on my blog, where I write about happiness at work every day. The address is www.positivesharing.com.

Go to list of chapters

Like what you've read so far?

Why not buy the book so you always have access to it.
(And make me really, really happy in the process!)

Buy it on paper, $29

Buy it in pdf, $19

Learn more about the book

1You can always Google them if you don’t believe me :o)