The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Author: Alexander

  • Ask the CHO: Implied overwork

    ClockOffice Lady asks this question:

    I have a question, can anyone help? On our contracts, we are supposed to work 39 hours a week (excluding lunch hours).

    So we all come in at 9 am and leave at 6 pm. But since we are supposed to work 39 hours only, we supposedly can leave at 5 pm one day of the week.

    But of course nobody does and everyone works until at least 6 pm five days a week.

    According to instructions, “of course??? we can leave at 5 pm one day of the week….we just need to inform our supervisors first.

    I of course also work until at least 6pm everyday, but sometimes, there are things that I wanna do that I want to leave early for.

    Should I really not ask even though I am entitled to it? :(

    I’m fairly sure that this kind of situation is quite common. The rules say “work X hours a day”. Practically everyone works more or way more.
    (more…)

  • Journey into leadership: Introduction

    New leaderThis post is part of a series that follows A.M. Starkin, a young manager taking his first major steps into leadership. Starkin writes here to share his experiences and to get input from others, so please share with him your thoughts and ideas. This post is the first in the series.

    Hi, I am a young manager who has very recently got his first Profit-and-Loss responsibility in a large corporation where I have to turn around a small and loss-giving company rather quickly.

    Would it be interesting and inspiring if I shared my thoughts and experiences with you on this task?

    A lot of us – statistically at least – work for big corporations that may or may not share our points of view and our ethics. We all have the choice whether we want to make the best of it, quit or just stay passive. How do you make a difference if you are just a pawn in a chess game with 100.000 pieces?

    That is what I want to explore and share with anyone, and that is why I agreed with Alexander to post those thoughts and experiences on his site, which is read and contributed to by a lot of inspiring people, who at least have in common that employees are real people, not “human resources”.
    (more…)

  • Announcing: Journey into leadership

    New leaderI’m totally excited about announcing the newest feature on the site: Journey into leadership.

    I was contacted by A.M. Starkin, a young manager who recently got his first profit-and-loss leadership position of a small company. He must turn this company around from loss to profits and must do so quickly.

    He believes that happiness at work is a major part of the solution, but is also a part of a larger organization that may not always share these beliefs.

    Starkin will be chronicling his journey, thoughts, ideas and questions about once a week, but not on a fixed schedule.

    This is real life, as it happens. Not a business case, edited after the fact. Not an anecdote from a “friend of a friend”. This is a real person in a very real situation, and I’m totally jazzed about following his journey and about seeing how the readers of this blog, as a community, can help Starkin.

    You can see all the posts about Starkin’s journey into leadership here.

  • How did you lose your innocence

    CleanDavid Maister asks a great question: How did you lose your business innocence?

    I keep meeting people who have given up their ability to believe in the power of standards and ideals (or to believe that anyone else in business has them).

    An example: “the firm pretends that it wants to inspire us, but the truth is that we do boring work, and so do those more senior than us. We cannot imagine that there are people who do work they are still excited about. That’s a luxury we cannot dream about. They just want us to work harder and get the people who report to us to work harder.???

    So here’s my question to you: How did we / you end up here? Clearly, something was missing from my education and upbringing – the world forgot to “beat out of me” my ideals, but seems to have done a good job of beating them out of most other people.

    I’m really interested: What (specifically) happened to you that made you lose your innocence about how business (or academia) was run (stories please?)

    (more…)

  • Podcast at The Engaging Brand

    SpeakerAnna Farmery of The Engaging Brand does some great podcasts. Last week it was Dan Pink, next week it’s Seth Godin and this week it’s… me!

    I skyped with Anna last week and she has posted the first part of our conversation here with a second part coming later this week.

    I had a great time talking to Anna about happiness at work and answering her great questions, some of which were:

    • On your blog you give a Monday morning tip – which tip would you share with the listeners as your favourite?
    • You believe happiness breeds creativity and engagement – can you explain to me why you so passionately believe in this?
    • You talk about humanness on your blog – as a manager/leader how do you make stronger personal connections without losing that respect level?
    • Is this kind of culture one that develops or do you have to work at it?
    • Are there cultural differences around the world – can there only one definition of a happy work place?
    • What would your 8 word legacy be?

    I think the podcast came out very well – what do you think?

  • Fiddling while the blog burns

    As you can probably see, I’m fiddling with the blog layout, and things may look strange for a while.

    Yes, I code some of my own php. Yes, that makes me a geek :o)

  • Quitting over an unfair raise

    My first boss…I just didn’t like his methods. I thought I was doing well …I got $1000—a 10 percent raise—and I was quite pleased…I thought I was doing much more than everybody else, I thought I was performing at a different level…and everyone came bouncing back with their raise and they all got $1000. So [the] raise that sort of pleased me at one point now irritated the hell out of me…And so I quit. I had a baby and no money. I borrowed $1000 bucks from my mother. I quit.

    Guess who told this story? Why it’s Jack Welch in this article.

    Which illustrates nicely that our satsifaction with our salaries depends not on absolute numbers but on the perceived fairness of that salary.

    And of course, the best way to make salaries more fair, is to make them public inside the company.

    Btw: Scientists have found the center in our brain that gives us our sense of fairness.

  • Monday Tip: Move

    The Chief Happiness Officer's monday tipsDid you know that because we are descended from nomads, the human body is really designed to walk 10 km a day. Less physical activity than that is actually harmful.

    Spending a day sitting in your car, at your desk, in your car and on the couch in front of the TV is as unhealthy as smoking a pack of cigarettes. No kidding!

    Most of us today have jobs that are high on brain activity and low on physical activity – not good. A body is more than “that thing, that carries my head from one meeting to the next,” and the state of your body is vital for your physical well-being and for your creativity and energy.

    So today, do what you would normally do – but move your body while you do it. Walk around a little while talking on the phone. Have a stand-up meeting. Sit as little as possible. Walk over to talk to colleagues, instead of emailing or phoning. Basically use every chance you get to activate your body.

    Notice how it feels and how this may actually make you less tired both mentally and physically than sitting passively in your chair all day.

    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.

  • Free Hugs

    I’m joining the free hugs movement :o)

    What are your thoughts on hugging in the workplace? I kinda like it, but I realize it’s not everybody’s thing.

    Via one of my favorite blogs: Pharyngula.

  • Free ebook: 1001 best things said about work

    Fortune cookiesErnie Zelinski emailed me a copy of his free e-book “1001 best things ever said about work” and I gotta say that that’s quite the quote collection.

    It includes nuggets like:

    Guidelines for Bureaucrats:
    1. When in charge, ponder.
    2. When in trouble, delegate.
    3. When in doubt, mumble.
    — James H. Boren

    Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing.
    — Thomas Edison

    When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President: I’m beginning to believe it.
    — Clarence Darrow

    Thank you Ernie for sending me this! I am quite the quote-hound myself, as you can see here.

    You can download Ernie’s ebook of quotes here (pdf) and you can find Ernie’s other books here, including his intriguingly titled book “The joy of not working”.