The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Author: Alexander

  • Workbook

    WorkbookI have just uploaded a workbook containing the exercises for my brand new book Happy Hour is 9 to 5 – How to Love Your Job, Love Your Life and Kick Butt at Work.

    Download it here:

    These exercises will work fine even for people who haven’t read the book and you’re more than welcome to:

    • Email the workbook to as many people as you want.
    • Use it at work with your team, department or work group.
    • Modify the questions to fit your specific work situation.
    • Or whatever else you can think of. Knock yourself out.

    mp3’s for some of the exercises are coming very soon!

    Read the book free online here and buy it on paper or as a pdf here.

  • A question for ya: Losing a job you love

    QuestionOn my post about Liking vs. loving your job, Love Lost asks:

    I had a job that I loved, I worked hard, loved what I did, did well with the people I worked with. But then the 18 month contract ran out and I can’t go back for six months and they can’t make me a permanent employee.

    So what do you do when you lose a job you love and take a job you may hate?

    That’s a really good question. What would you do? Write a comment, I’d really like to know!

  • Why “Motivation by Pizza” Doesn’t Work

    Motivation

    My store manager implemented an embarrassing (and happily short-lived) safety incentive: Employees caught violating safety procedure were immediately given a two-foot rubber chicken on a string to wear around their necks–in front of customers. To get rid of the chicken, an employee needed to catch another employee behaving “unsafely.”

    The practice quickly descended into a game of hot potato, with employees chasing one another around the store in search of the slightest violation to rid themselves of the safety chicken.

    Source: workingamerica.com’s MyBadBoss contest.

    Many people don’t feel motivated at work, and there’s a very simple explanation for this: The motivational techniques used by most managers don’t work.

    While few companies use rubber chickens (fortunately), most of the standard motivational tools like promotions, bonuses, employee of the month awards, pep-talks and free-pizza-nights are downright harmful to the drive, energy and commitment of employees. It only leaves them feeling manipulated, cynical and demotivated.

    The result: According to one Gallup study 60-80% of workers are not engaged at work. They feel little or no loyalty, passion or motivation on the job. They’re putting in the hours, but they’re not doing a great job and they’re certainly not happy at work!

    As the illustration above shows, there are four different kinds of motivation. Only one of them works and unfortunately, many managers focus exclusively on the other three. Kinda silly, huh?

    These are the four different kinds of motivation:

    (more…)

  • First reviews of Happy Hour is 9 to 5

    Happy Hour is 9 to 5The first reviews from readers of my just-published book about happiness at work Happy Hour is 9 to 5 are coming in and people seem to love it. Yaaaaay!

    Sheldon Cooke says:
    “…by far one of the most refreshing books on work culture that I’ve ever seen.”

    Lars Pind says:
    “I just purchased my copy, and it’s looking really good… It’s easily worth the $19 price tag for the PDF version.

    stic writes:
    “…the tips & tricks and recommendations will certainly take you closer to this euphoria.”

    Read all about the book, read it free online and buy it here.

    If you’ve read it, you can also add your own review.

  • Monday Tip: Send a co-worker an anonymous present

    The Chief Happiness Officer's monday tipsFirst go read this inspiring story from Kenny Moore, a catholic monk who went corporate.

    My plan was to anonymously send a $40 floral arrangement to two unsuspecting employees every Monday morning… Attached to the flowers would be a note: “Don’t ever think your good efforts go unnoticed.” Signed: “From someone who cares.”

    Then do the same: Send someone in your organization an anonymous present. Flowers, candy, balloons, a cool gadget. Something fun, happy, cheap and positive. Attach a note similar to Kenny’s

    Then watch what happens and tell me about it in a comment.

    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.

    Previous monday tips.

  • Make change happen

    Gabe recently asked:

    What advice do you have for those who want to improve things and are consistently met with opposition?

    I gave my answer here but then I thought: “Hey, let’s get an expert in on the conversation.”

    I passed the question on to Ann Michael who blogs at managetochange.typepad.com. She wrote an excellent answer in the comments to the post and expanded on it on her own blog. My favorite part is:

    I know it’s an overused expression – but look for “low hanging fruit???. What are the relatively easy things (low or isolated implementation impact – e.g., things you or you and a buddy can do yourselves) that could have a noticeable positive impact on the business? That’s where you start (even if it’s not at the top of list for things YOU want to do first!). You need to gain credibility for your approach. Results speak louder than aspirations.

    There are more great suggestions in the comments on Ann’s post.

  • First interview(s)

    I announced yesterday that I would love to do an interview about happiness at work for your blog, and Mike MacLeod was the first to take me up on it.

    He asked 10 great questions and you can see the whole interview here.

    Update: Andrew Ferrier posts another interview here.

    Update update: And Erno Hannink posts his interview – complete with silly picture.

    Uodate[3]: Can lawyers be happy at work? Read the interview by Anastasia at the Lawsagna blog.

  • Ask the CHO: Making change happen

    Ask the CHOOn my post about liking vs. loving your job, Gabe asked an interesting question in the comments:

    What do you do if you work at a place where, every time you try to “raise your game???, i.e. creating coding standards, improving functionality of commonly used systems, etc, you are told that “We don’t have time for that.??? or “We should put that on the back burner until we have more staff.??? or anything else that ends up sounding like “No???.

    What advice do you have for those who want to improve things and are consistently met with opposition?

    To me, there are few things that are more demotivating than coming up with what I believe is a good idea, only to see it shot down by the usual, boiler-plate objections.

    And it doesn’t have to be this way. London-based innovation agency ?WhatIf! have implemented a practice they call greenhousing. In the book Sticky Wisdom, they write:

    Plants are at their most fragile when they are small and just starting to grow. That’s why gardeners use greenhouses. It’s the same with ideas. They are easiest to destroy when they first appear. Unfortunately, most business cultures tend to stifle ideas before they can take root.

    (more…)

  • An interview for your blog?

    Happy Hour is 9 to 5I will of course be promoting my book in many weird ways – and one that I’ve really been looking forward to is doing blog interviews.

    Here’s the deal: If you have a blog, and would like to do an interview with me about happiness at work, just email me your questions. I promise to answer the same day and if you like the answers you can post them to your blog.

    How does that sound?

  • Quote

    Steve JobsYour work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.

    As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.

    – Steve Jobs in his commencement address to Stanford in June 2005.

    I have to agree with Steve – especially since I wrote a post last week on why you should not like your job