The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Category: Happy At Work

How to be happy at work

  • Hapiness at work at SAS

    sasEveryone in Scandinavia knows that SAS (the airline, not the IT company) is struggling. They almost went into chapter 11 3 weeks ago and were saved only by a new agreement with pilots and cabin crew who agreed to lower salaries and longer working hours to save the company.

    So I was very interested to see how this would affect the mood among employees when I flew SAS to Tokyo 2 weeks ago for a speaking gig and a vacation in Japan.

    Here’s the feedback i sent to SAS after:

    Hi

    My girlfriend Patricia and I recently flew to Tokyo and back and we have to compliment one of the cabin crew. I’m afraid we never got her name, but she was the only Japanese lady on the crew and she was AWESOME.

    She was happy, smiling, cheerful and talked to a lot of people – us included. She also wore a badge that said “Hello Sunshine” on her uniform. She had an energy about her that simply made us happy and certainly made me want to fly SAS again.

    The whole crew were good – even on the trip back when they were struggling because of missing crew members due to illness – but she was amazing.

    But here’s the kicker: This Japanese lady was actually also on our flight out to Tokyo – and she remembered us on the flight back almost 2 weeks later. How she did that I have no idea. She also remembered that I didn’t have anything to eat on the flight over and was clearly concerned. Here’s one person who is very obviously committed to great customer service. Kudos!

    11 hours on a plane is rarely a good experience, but she made it a happy one :o)

    Cheers,

    Alexander and Patricia

    It always love to see someone who so clearly cares about their job and the people they serve.

    Have you ever seen someone like that? And did you find some way to thank them after?

    UPDATE: SAS replies:

    Thank you for your compliments to our cabin crew.
    I will be happy to pass along your compliments to her and the rest of the crew for recognition of their attitude and service level.

    It is gratifying that you have taken the time to tell us of your satisfaction. Again, thank you for writing, and we look forward to welcoming you both onboard SAS in the New Year!

  • Arbejdsglaede tip: Do a Random Act Of Workplace Kindness

    Your mission today is to perform at least one random act of kindness at work. A small, nice, generous, funny, surprising, silly, amazing, touching and/or kind act for someone else at work.

    If you’re stuck for ideas, here are a few suggestions:

    • Bring someone a cup of coffee, without them asking
    • Leave a flower on someone’s desk
    • Leave a nice, hand-written note for a co-worker
    • Help someone carry their stuff
    • Pass out candy in the hallways
    • Do you have more suggestions? Write a comment!

    For bonus points, do a random act of kindness to total stranger on the way home from work.

    Have you done this? How was it? What happened? How was it received? Tell us all about it in a comment – we’re curious, dammit :o)

  • The Level 5 Good Morning Works!

    I just got this email from Kate Matcham from Stamford Global. I spoke at one of their conferences in Copenhagen for 120 project managers – and of course also mentioned the Level 5 Good Morning.

    Kate has since used it in her workplace:

    Actually the level 5 good morning is working a treat – which is why I’ve kept it up!

    I have a new team member that I supervise who sits next to me, and Mihaly also sits with us in the same section, which can be a bitdaunting for a new team member!! The three of us collaborate really well together, and I think the level 5 good morning has helped our new team member feel comfortable…

    In fact, the three of us just worked on an urgent roll-out of our new website, and we had a great team dynamic – everyone knew their role, trusted one another, communicated perfectly. It was great.

    I think the level 5 good morning was a big contributor to that… It’s hard to measure though isn’t it, you sort of just ’feel’ the effect. Anyway, thanks for the invaluable advice!

    Way to go, Kate!

    I’m still fascinated that such a simple thing as saying “good morning” to your co-workers can actually make a difference. But it can :o)

    Here’s how you do it.

    Try it and let me know how it goes!

  • We launch something pretty nifty on November 30. Watch the launch livestream!

    On Friday November 30 you can join us for a free half-hour teleseminar where we unveil a new cool little project we’ve been working on – and tell the world all about Arbejdsglaede. Sign up right here.

  • The level 5 “Good morning”

    Studies show that when you have a good start to your work day, you’ll typically have a good day. Here’s our easiest and best tip for kicking your work day off with happiness: The Level 5 Good Morning.

    We call it that because there are several approaches to saying good morning at work:
    Level 0: You ignore people completely
    Level 1: A somewhat unintelligible grunt
    Level 2: Saying good morning without looking at people
    Level 3: Make eye contact as you say good morning
    Level 4: Also say something more than just good morning, e.g. “How are you?” or something more personal.
    Level 5: Also touch the other person – e.g. a handshake or a pat on the shoulder. You can even hug, but only if you want to :-)

    At what level are the typical good mornings in your workplace? And what would happen if you took it to level 5?

    Please do not underestimate the effect of something as simple as saying good morning at work. Here’s an example from one workplace:

    I once worked for a bank in Germany (well these are two locations in which you would not normally expect “personal affection” ;-)).

    The team was large, about 40 people worked in one open space office. It surprised me a lot that every morning, whoever arrived, walked through the whole office and greeted everybody with a handshake and some personal words. It did not matter if the team members came, the bosses from higher up or anybody from another department. It was known everywhere that here you greet everybody personally.

    For the first week, I found that very strange and a bit intimidating. Also, it cost a lot of time all in all. Yet afterwards, I really enjoyed it. It gave everybody the chance to get to know the colleagues a bit better, to hear what they are off to or to realize that somebody is not in or just returned from a trip or vacation. There was no need to e-mail weekly lists on who is out when. We just knew it.

    Btw, when I moved on to another job, I sort of missed it.

    So that’s your mission: For the rest of this week, greet your co-workers in the morning with a level 5 good morning.

    What if people don’t say good morning back? Well, here’s one way to deal with that.

    Once you’ve done it, please write a comment below and tell us how it went. Did it work or fail miserably? Did you do it exactly as proscribed or improve upon the mission in your own way?

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  • The best damn newsletter

    Newsletter

    I recently revived our newsletter about happiness at work after a year-long hiatus and I’ve really been enjoying writing it. Right now, 2,500 people subscribe to it and you can see the newsletters here.

    But I would like to do an even better job. I’d like to reach more people and inspire them and help them to do even more to create happiness at work.

    Do you have any good tips or suggestions for me? What should I keep on doing and what should I change? What’s the best damn newsletter you know and what makes it good?

    Any ideas are much appreciated :o)

  • Memo from one boss: Don’t work too much!

    Overwork

    I found an excellent blog post about Wisetech Global, an Australian IT company with a somewhat… different attitude to overwork:

    If employees work more than 40 hours a week regularly, they have to talk to their manager to redress the situation.
    …
    WiseTech Global chief executive Richard White said the company’s approach was consistent with its core values, which state that although staff should strive for the best outcomes, “we do not ask people to impale themselves on their work commitments”.
    …
    “Its not the amount of work, it’s the quality of the work,” he said.

    There you go. This is what every single workplace in the world should do.

    Hat tip to Luciano Moretti for telling me about this awesome company.

    And we can all contribute to a better and healthier attitude to working hours. Check out this comment from Dee:

    I work in retail, and it’s true, some enjoy spending all their time at work, and that’s fine. If you want to spend 60 hours at work, that’s your prerogative. What I don’t like is the judgmental attitudes surrounding work hours– the unsaid expectation that if you don’t work 9-9, you’re a failure, or letting your team down.

    No, working 12 hours, five days in a row makes me miserable AND a failure– a failure at my job. I work to live, I don’t live to work, as the old saying goes and, when I first started and was eager to fit in, I bent over backwards keeping a similar schedule. I felt ashamed that my ‘meager’ 12 hour day contribution wasn’t enough, and I felt in ‘awe’ of the woman that habitually came in at 6am and leaving at 9pm. Then one day, about a year into the job, I remember wondering why I had gotten the flu yet AGAIN, (the fourth time in two months!) when it hit me. I was working way too much and almost killing myself. Life is going to get me in the end. I don’t need my job to speed up that process.

    Now I work less, work better, and win more accolades, get more sales, and get sick less, all because I don’t conform to the cult of overwork. I’m in the minority, but I’m happy. And that lady? Well, she still works her heart out, and complains the whole way.

    YES – shorter working hours can make you enjoy work more, enjoy life more AND help you do better work.

    What’s the attitude to overwork at your workplace? Are people who constantly work overtime celebrated as heroes or is there a real effort to keep working hours down?

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  • Bring back the 40-hour work week
  • Don’t let The Cult of Overwork ruin your work life.
  • The top 5 new rules of productivity.

  • New article says happiness at work is impossible. I don’t buy it. Surprise :)

    An article called The Dangers of Viewing Work as Play by Zeesham Aleem makes some great points about shifting working conditions and the need for organized labor, but then goes on to argue that being happy at work is basically impossible.

    I found the article because I’m mentioned in it:

    Google is known for promising outstanding quality of life to many of its employees, from its cafeterias to its napping pods.

    Alexander Kjerulf, a consultant who calls himself The Chief Happiness Officer, wrote a book called Happy Hour is 9 to 5. Ideally, the knowledge worker is able to make play out of work.

    Sounds great, right? But no, that’s not how things are according to Aleem:

    But reconceptualizing work as fulfilling doesn’t alter its ultimate infringement on leisure.

    Enjoyable work at a desk still takes a toll on the body and the mind. The non-physical nature of labor masks the fact that on average, knowledge workers peak in productivity after their sixth hour of work.

    But most importantly, no matter how much you love your job, it’s time that generally isn’t under one’s control — time that could be spent on health, family, friends, community and doing things that can alter the conditions of society.

    Got that? No matter how you dress it up, at the end of the day work is hard, unpleasant, out of your control, bad for you and takes time away from all the other things you would rather be doing.

    This is presented as just the way things are and even worse as the way they should be with Benjamin Franklin as the role model:

    Franklin represented an attitude toward work that coupled industry with frugality, the signature sign of grace according to Calvinist doctrine. Hard work was an end in itself…

    This attitude towards work is all-pervasive in the Western world and has been for thousands of years. Just yesterday I mentioned it as a prime example of some of our most pernicious work-related cognitive illusions. But it’s still wrong for two reasons.

    First, it’s factually wrong.There are and always have been plenty of people who love what they do, who come home from work fulfilled and energized and for whom work is a beneficial influence in their lives.

    Secondly, this attitude is morally wrong because it’s hurting people. This attitude towards work is one of the main reasons why so many people accept stressful jobs, jerk bosses and bad working conditions.

    Let me say this very clearly: If your work brings you down, drains your energy and makes you stressed and frustrated then something is wrong. This is not something that should be accepted or (even worse) idolized and sought out.

    Work can make you happy and it should make you happy. Why anyone would argue otherwise is beyond me.

    Your take

    What do you think? Is work ultimately a draing on your time and resources? Or can it actually be a net-positive influence in your life? Please write a comment, I’d love to hear your take.

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  • Spooooooky for halloween…

    What The Heck Is Arbejdsglaede!? Find out on November 30.

  • Much of what you know about business is wrong. You will continue to believe it even now that you know it’s wrong.

    “Cognitive illusions can be more stubborn than visual illusions”
    – Daniel Kahneman (Source)

    This quote explains why many workplaces are still unhappy even though we all should know by now, that happy workplaces are not only more fun but also make more money.

    In the image above, every horizontal line is perfectly straight. Don’t believe me? Hold up a ruler to your screen and check.

    OK, now you know the horizontal lines are straight. What does your mind see? Bendy lines.

    And in the same way, managers and employees alike are clinging to cognitive illusions like:

    • Work is unpleasant but that’s normal and there are no happy jobs.
    • The more hours we work, the better.
    • If you’re enjoying yourself, you’re not getting enough done.
    • Managers can never be friends with their employees.
    • It’s a dog-eat-dog world and everyone is just out to screw everyone else over.

    The list goes on… you can add your own in the comments.

    Kahneman also notes how hard it is to change your beliefs, even when you know better:

    When my colleagues and I learned that our leadership assessment tests had low validity, we accepted that fact intellectually, but it had no impact on either our feelings or our subsequent actions.

    So how do we overcome our cognitive biases in the workplace (and in general)? It can be done, but it takes work. Here are 5 steps that help.

    1: Be aware of your biases
    This is where it all starts. We all have cognitive biases (Wikipedia has an exhaustive list) but as long as we are not aware of them, we are slaves to them. The first step to overcome a cognitive bias is to know that you have it. And you do :o)

    2: Follow the facts
    What conclusions do the facts actually support? For instance, if you look at productivity studies, permanent overwork leads to lower productivity, not higher. This is what the research shows. This is fact.

    3: Be willing to acknowledge that you have been wrong
    If you believe A but the facts support B then change your beliefs. Everything else is stupid.

    4: Don’t be afraid to stand out
    But this means going against the flow, since everyone else still believes A. Tough! Truth is not decided by majority rule, and it’s absolutely possible for 90% of any group to be dead wrong.

    5: Use stories
    Possibly the best tool for changing peoples’ minds is stories because stories speak to our emotions not just our intellect.

    The upshot

    Much of what you know about business is wrong. If you don’t do something about it, you will continue to believe it even now that you know it’s wrong. This is bad.

    Your take

    In your opinion, what are some of the most stubborn and pernicious beliefs in the business world? What beliefs have you changed personally? What helper you change? Please write a comment, I’d love to hear your take.

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