The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Year: 2014

  • Book review: Joy, Inc by Rich Sheridan

    Joy, Inc.: How We Built a Workplace People Love by Rich Sheridan came out December 26 and it’s the single best business book I have read in a long while.

    Menlo is a software design and development company in Ann Arbor, Michigan. They have built a culture that removes the fear and ambiguity that traditionally makes a workplace miserable and made joy their explicit goal.

    I have recently had a chance to spend a day at Menlo talking to their founders and their people and I can say with confidence that they are an amazing workplace with a remarkable energy.

    How would you like to work at a company where:

    • They’ve eliminated meetings
    • They’ve eliminated internal email
    • Employees can bring dogs and babies to work
    • You work a 40-hour work week
    • Finances and salaries are transparent
    • You get to constantly learn from and with your co-workers

    I’ve previously written about Menlo on this blog – especially about their hiring process which is radically different from other companies.

    Joy Inc by Rich SheridanThis book is a pleasure to read and has a great story that will pull you right in but it is, above all, incredibly useful.

    Sheridan clearly lays out the many innovative and effective things they’ve done to create a happy workplace and most of them could without a doubt be translated into any kind of workplace.

    You will read this book with a smile on your face and go “Of course – that makes perfect sense! Why isn’t every workplace doing this?”

    Related

  • Forbes: Managers Should Spread A Little Happiness This New Year

    ForbesI was interviewed for this excellent article in Forbes. Here’s how the article opens:

    Nobody needs telling that the years since the financial crisis struck have been tough. Across Europe, the United States and the rest of the industrialized world, employment levels are only just starting to pick up, while growth in emerging markets has not been as strong as many predicted. Even those in work have in many cases found life harder than it was before. With pay rises, promotions, bonuses and other incentives thin on the ground, going to work has been anything but fun.

    Alexander Kjerulf is one of a growing number convinced it does not have to be that way. The Danish entrepreneur is author of a book, Happy Hour is 9 to 5, published on New Year’s Day by Pine Tribe, in which he argues that if managers put more effort into ensuring employees were happy at work they would not only create more pleasant workplaces but also improve productivity, innovation, motivation, customer service and the ability to handle change – in short, all the things that managers say are so important.

    Read the whole thing – it also features Henry Stewart of the London-based training company Happy.

  • Quote

    Richard BransonJust found this great quote from Richard Branson, founder and CEO of Virgin.

    I’m often asked what it is that makes Virgin different. The simple answer is – our people. If it weren’t for a bunch of well trained, motivated and, above all, happy people doing their bit, we’d have never launched a record label, never mind a fleet of 747s.

    – Sir Richard Branson

    Source.