The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Category: Happy At Work

How to be happy at work

  • Book review: The corrosion of character

    I disagree with almost everything in Richard Sennett’s book The corrosion of character, and I still think it’s hugely important and very much worth reading. Confused? Read on.

    Sennett looks at the working conditions in the new flexible economy, and he sees a lot of problems. People no longer work at the same company or the same job for long stretches of time. They switch jobs or switch teams or change fields or even become consultants :o). There’s no predictability, no long-term commitment, no long-term relations with co-workers and bosses, no loyalty, more confusion, etc. Most of all, the new work environment makes it more difficult to find and maintain a narrative of your work life. Previously, when people could focus on their careers, you had that as a measure and as the backbone for that narrative. Today, where the fixed path of a career has been replaced with a crazy quilt of job changes that can be up, down, sideways or just plain jumps-into-the-unknown it becomes much more difficult to find meaning and to find yourself in your work.
    (more…)

  • There is no work-life balance

    LiNE Zine has an interview with Lotte Bailyn of MIT, who is:

    …working with organizations of various kinds to look at the way they do their work. We look at things like their work practices, their work structure, the cultural assumptions surrounding who’s a good worker, and how they evaluate performance. With them we work to rethink those aspects in such a way that employees are able to live up to their highest potential in their work, and are also able to integrate their work with their personal lives. That is what we call the dual agenda.

    That’s interesting work, and one of the most interesting things is that they specifically DO NOT talk about work-life balance, a term I find misleading.

    We specifically do not use the term “balance” because it connotes that these two domains in people’s lives have to be equal; that it’s a balance scale – hence if one goes up, the other goes down. The underlying premise of our work is that this need not necessarily be so. We talk about “the integration of work and personal life” to show that work is also part of life. The term “work-life” implies that somehow the two are different, and of course they are not. Work is obviously an important part of life but shouldn’t be the only part.

    That’s a very good point. Actually, I’d take it one step further. Looking at my own life, I certainly don’t see a work life and a private life. I just see one life, mine, being expressed in different aspects. And these aspects are so mixed and so mutually dependent, that it makes no sense to attempt to separate them. They are already as integrated as they can be, and there seems to be no time where I am 100% at work or 100% off work. I’m always just me, living my life. And it feels good.

  • IT policies at Semco

    I’ve gotta hit you with one more quote from CIO Insight’s brilliant interview with Ricardo Semler. This one’s about IT policies:

    One of the things I’ve noticed with this security issue is that IT people want to make sure that their systems are intact, private, confidential “blah, blah, blah” but they think nothing whatsoever of invading the e-mail privacy of their own employees. That’s very interesting to me, because it’s not only a double standard, but a violation of constitutional rights. Companies have taken the blind assumption that because the system is theirs, then anything that people do on it has to be available to them. I think it’s a very hypocritical mode, and it deals with fundamental freedom issues that I don’t think people have completely thought through.

    …And what’s most interesting is that we searched far and wide for anybody who could tell us what kind of software or system could be installed on our [server] that would make it impossible for our own IT people to spy on people’s e-mail. We did not find one. We had to customize one.

    Imagine that: A company that actually goes out of it’s way to ENSURE that employees’ emails stay private. That is an immensely powerful statement of faith in people.

  • Common sense at Semco

    CIO insight has a truly excellent interview with Ricardo Semler, the CEO of Semco. Here’s my favourite bit from the interview:

    When you want somebody hired, let’s say it’s for a leadership position of some kind, you go to the system and you advertise that you think someone is needed. Then on a given day – say, Wednesday at 4 o’clock, meeting room 11 – you say we’re going to discuss this, whoever’s interested. Because of the fundamental tenet that we don’t want anyone involved in anything that they really don’t want to do, all of our meetings are on a voluntary basis, meaning that the meetings are known, and then whoever is interested can and will show up, and should also leave the moment they become uninterested. It is a bit unnerving to watch these things, because people come in, plunk their things down, and then 15 minutes later somebody else says “Bye bye, see you.” But the fact is that whoever is left there has a stake in the decision being made, and the decision is final in the sense that it’s going to be implemented after the meeting.

    All meetings are voluntary. How cool is that? Read the interview, it’s great! Also, for those of us who know Open Space Technology: That’s the law of two feet right there!

  • The happy leader

    What is it that the best leaders do that gives them their results? How do great leaders motivate and inspire? Why do they do it?

    I’m convinced, that it’s very simple: The best leader is the happy leader. One who sets the happiness of himself and his people above anything else. There are many examples of such leaders, and we’ve written an article about The Happy Leader that describes a few cases both in Denmark and internationally. The article also contains specific tips on how to get the same results for yourself.

    The article is only available in danish, but if there’s demand for it, I’ll translate it into english.

  • You’re fired – you lucky dog

    The NY Times has an interesting article about people who discover, that being fired from their job was the best thing that ever happened to them.

    “Even though I had to sell everything I ever owned and didn’t have any income to support my son, I was suddenly free and happy,”

    I agree. Looking back on my life, I have to say that every major change I’ve made or lived through (even the ones that seemed traumatic at the time) have been changes for the better. Not that I’ve ever actually been fired – I’ve always managed to walk away from jobs I didn’t like any more on my own :o)

  • Fast times (and good!)

    Following a recent book review here on the site, I can safely say, that my days are lived in fast time right now. The Happy At Work Project has taken of in a mad way and I zoom from meeting to meeting, workshop to workshop and lecture to lecture. In just the last couple of weeks I’ve done more than we did most of last year! WOOOO-HOOOOOOOOO! I remember saying last year around this time that I was looking forward to the time when I felt like I had too much to do on the project – well that time has come, and I’m enjoying myself no end.

    I’ve had three meetings with prospective customers over the last two days, and they’ve been extremely interesting. I’ve developed a way of avoiding the traps of the typical sales meeting setup, and transformed these meetings into a real chance for me to learn about the organization I’m visiting and for them to learn about the things we do. I’m getting real and valuable insights into many kinds of businesses – from friggin’ sales meetings! How great is that. Also the meetings are fun. And people buy stuf. Top that! :o)

  • Work for Google

    Google has list of ten good reasons why it’s good to work for them, which includes:
    2. Life is beautiful. Being a part of something that matters and working on products in which you can believe is remarkably fulfilling.
    3. Appreciation is the best motivation.
    4. Work and play are not mutually exclusive. It is possible to code and pass the puck at the same time.
    9. Boldly go where no one has gone before. There are hundreds of challenges yet to solve. Your creative ideas matter here and are worth exploring. You’ll have the opportunity to develop innovative new products that millions of people will find useful.

    Sounds really, really good. It’s nice to see that Google are not only on the cutting edge technologically, but also in the way they treat their people. Kudos!

  • Pioneers of Change

    My good friend Carsten Ohm just returned from ten days in South Africa with the Pioneers of Change. This is a group of people who are

    developing the commitment, understanding, and a network of relationships to create or transform systems that they may come to serve Life, and operate in life-affirming ways.

    Their advice on creating that change is pretty cool:
    [ Be yourself ] What are your values, your talents, your purpose?
    Find [ what really matters ] to you, bringing meaning to your work.
    [ Start now ] Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
    [ Engage with others ] Don’t go it alone.
    [ Never stop asking questions ] Develop your ability to probe and wonder.

    That’s good advice – I may have to steal it for our work on the “Happy at Work” project.

  • Quote

    Anybody who thinks work should be miserable simply because it is work or that there should be a cordon sannitaire between ‘work’ and ‘life’ needs to find a time machine, key in the year 1543, and go and join Calvin’s crew. They’ll feel more at home there. In the meantime, the rest of us will get on with enjoying our work, and our workplaces.

    – Richard Reeves in Happy Mondays