Category: Happy At Work

I recently asked a seemingly simple question here on the blog:

What is the opposite of work?

A week later there were 30 creative, insightful comments on that simple question and there are some interesting trends you can notice in them.

But first this: I had an ulterior motive for asking this question, and it was of course to get at a usable definition of work, as Martin Mouritzen guessed in the 2nd comment:

I guess that really depends on how you describe “work”. I love my work, so for me work is not work at all, and I can find myself working in the evening for relaxation.
But: The work I do for relaxation is always something which does not have a deadline, which does not have any set expectations and something which can challenge me.

So I guess for me the opposite of work is simply “stuff I do to relax”.

Many other comments echoed this. Rowan Manahan wrote:

My evolving definition of work is “Stuff you HAVE to do, whether you want to or not, because you are not independently wealthy.”

By that definition, anyone who LOVES their job doesn’t work. It may take a lot of their time and make demands on their energy and availability for other things, but if they wholeheartedly LOVE it, it isn’t work per se.

Robbert took a dictionary approach:

Wordnet defines work as “exert oneself by doing mental or physical work for a purpose or out of necessity”.

As such the opposite of work can be several things:
– Excerting yourself for no purpose or necesity (Sport or hobbies)
– Not exerting yourself for a purpose (Sleep or recovery from illness)
– Not exerting yourself for no purpose (Lazing about, procrastination)

Present in these definitions is that work is what you HAVE to do, which fits in well with the traditional, industrial-age-definition of work. It’s what I do for pay and i do it because I need money to survive.

The problem with this definition is of course that many of us love our jobs and would do what we do even if we didn’t have to.

Ioana took another approach:

I prefer the sociological distinction myself: the opposite of work is leisure. Rest would be the opposite of activity and I don’t think the concept of work can be reduced to activity. I believe the productive aspect is the essential one. Work is productive activity. It usually involves some sort of compulsion, but it might be more appropriate to speak of necessity. In a paid job there is compulsion indeed, but not for other types of work, such as housekeeping (for one’s house) and child rearing, which are done simply because they’re necessary.

This approach emphasizes production – work is that which produces results.

Chris Stapper echoed this:

I want to believe that work is something like ‘creating value’.

And so did Ken Ferry:

Work is what I do to accomplish something.

There were also some silly approaches, like this:

The opposite of ‘work’ is ‘krow’.

Thanks, Luc.

And though Noel Coward did not actually comment on the original post, I still thought of this quote of his:

Work is much more fun than fun.

Rather than try to come up with the most correct definition of work, ie. one that would make sense in an economical, sociological and psychological perspective, I’d rather try to find a definition of work or rather a view of work, that promotes happiness at work in most normal kinds of work.

This immediately eliminates some definitions:

• If work is simply that you do because you have to, then happiness at work is almost impossible by definition.
• If work is only what you do for money, it eliminates all volunteer work.
• If work is only what you do for a purpose, then all aspects of your job that are not productive are no longer work.

I’m not claiming to have the answer yet, but as I see it here are some elements of a definition if work that is conducive to happiness:

1. Work is something you choose to do. You may not have a choice of whether or not to work but you have choice in what work you do.
2. Work is something you’re valued for. Either someone pays you for your work or someone takes the time and resources to organize your work.
3. Work is an activity where you make a positive difference for someone else.

Does that make sense at all?

Yesterday we expanded our company headcount by over 30% when our newest associate Arlette Bentzen joined us.

And of course there were flowers:

Arlette (on the right) has a background int the travel industry and in fitness. She will be doing workshops and speeches and she will also be our event manager and run our conferences and other events. Arlette is a wonderful person who has a lot of energy (pretty much a requirement to work for us) and we’re very excited about her :o)

And here’s the whole team:

British sandwich chain Pret a Manger’s FAQ page explains their policy on franchising:

Franchising – sorry we don’t. Please don’t call us and ask for a franchise because we don’t; we really don’t. We don’t franchise. The fact is, we don’t like to franchise, so we don’t.

A little bit of humor goes a long way in business :o)

And speaking of the ills of long commutes, check out this video that examines bicycling in Copenhagen from a car-centric North American perspective:

I have no doubt that a bike commute being physically active is a lot more likely to contribute to making you happy at work than driving your car.

What do you think – would you like your city to be more bike-centric?

And thanks to Ole Kassow for telling me about the video above.

According to a new survey, long commutes are bad for you. Really bad:

One in three employees with a commute longer than 90 minutes say they have had recurring neck or back pain within in the past 12 months. Just about the same amount say they have been diagnosed with high cholesterol…

The study shows a strong correlation between obesity and the length of your commute…

Employees with long commutes experienced lower levels of enjoyment and higher levels of fatigue and worry than employees with short commutes.
(source)

These findings don’t surprise me at all. Here are the top 3 reasons why long commutes are bad for ya:

1: Commute time is butt time
A recent article in the NYTimes said this:

It doesn’t matter if you go running every morning, or you’re a regular at the gym. If you spend most of the rest of the day sitting — in your car, your office chair, on your sofa at home — you are putting yourself at increased risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, a variety of cancers and an early death. In other words, irrespective of whether you exercise vigorously, sitting for long periods is bad for you.

(source)

And unless you commute by bicycle or walking/running you will spend most of your commute time on your butt, either behind your steering wheel or on a bus or train seat. This is bad for you even of you’re otherwise in good shape and get lots of exercise!

2: Commutes are stressful
Is your commute anything like this scene from the movie Office Space:

When do you commute? At the same time as everyone else.

You can almost expect a lot of traffic, delays, traffic jams, road work, lack of parking spaces, inconsiderate drivers and a host of other stress factors. Plus a lot of people always seem to leave home five minutes late so they’re in a hurry which just adds to the stress.

3: The commute takes time that you could spend on things that make you happy
The 1-2 hours you spend going to and from work is time that you can’t spend with your friends, kids, spouse, family or on exercise, movies, cooking, reading or other things that make you happy.

So I can easily see, why long commutes are bad for

What to do

So enough complaining – what are some things you can do, to reduce the impact of a long commute? Here are 5 suggestions:

Commute outside of peak times
Not all jobs will let you do this, but if you can come in earlier or later then maybe your commute will be faster and less stressful.

Leave for work a little earlier
If you leave for work in plenty of time, your commute make take a little longer but it will feel shorter and will be less stressful. It may take you an hour and ten minutes rather than just an hour, but at least you can spend that time in a more relaxed state of mind rather than fretting about whether or not you will be late.

Of course this works against point #3 above…

Commute by public transportation
This is not only environmentally better (lower carbon footprint) but it also means that you can get some work done during your commute and possibly reduce your working day accordingly.

Telecommute
I’ve seen studies that show that employees who telecommute 1-2 days a week are happier than those who come into the office every day. Is that an option for you?

Pick a job closer to where you live (or vice versa)
But maybe the simplest and most effective thing is to work close to where you live. The next time you look for a new job, maybe you should give preference to jobs that offer fewer or shorter commutes.

I fully realize that modern urban planning in most countries and most cities conspires to work against this. One notable exception is Copenhagen, that has focused on public transportation and bicycle safety since late 60s. And it works. I personally live 3 miles from work and ride my bicycle in every morning and 35% of all Copenhageners commute by bike. We’re also the happiest people at work? Coincidence? Probably mostly, but there may still be some causation going on :o)

Your take

How long is your commute? Have you tried having a long commute? How did it affect you and what did you do about it? Please write a comment, I’d love to know your take.

We’ve been running a very successful newsletter about happiness at work in Danish for years now – and we finally (finally!) got an international version in English up and running. In fact, the first newsletter went out today.

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