I know a lot of wonderful, cheerful people whose voicemail greetings sound like the recordings of a badly depressed person. “Hi,” a slow, lifeless voice goes, “you’ve reached the voicemail of… [whoever].” Pause. “Please leave a message after the tone”.
Meanwhile I’m wondering if I should call a suicide hotline and stage an intervention.
So this monday tip is simple: Make yourself a cheerful voicemail greeting. One where you sound happy and upbeat. One that will make whoever hears it a little happier at work.
A cheerful voicemail greeting will not only cheer people up, it will also improve the quality of the voicemail messages you receive – if the last thing people hear before they leave you a message is a happy voice, they will tend to be more positive themselves. And of course, when people start calling each other and hearing cheerful voices everyone will become a little happier at work.
This tip also applies to those “Out of office” email messages. Sure you can simply write “I’m out of the office and will be back on xx/xx”, as most people do. But you could also do like the HR manager of one of Denmarks largest grocery chains. The last time I emailed him, I got this back:
I’m not in the office, and will be back on xx/xx. Why not contact one of my stellarly talented colleagues instead?
Stig
Chief of the HR tribe
This email delivers the necessary facts and it also says something positive about Stig who is indeed a happy guy and about Fakta where he works. Let’s bring some more fun into the workplace – and this is one easy place to start.
The Chief Happiness Officer’s monday tips are simple, easy, fun things you can do to make yourself and others happy at work and get the work-week off to a great start. Something everyone can do in five minutes, tops. When you try it, write a comment here to tell me how it went.
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