The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Category: Happy At Work

How to be happy at work

  • Friday Spoing

    This Friday’s Friday Spoing is otterly amazing:

    I’m doing two speeches today at Danske Bank and Oracle. Have a happy week-end and there’ll be more blogging on Monday :o)

  • What’s on your door?

    Aude Simon is a manager at a bank here in Copenhagen, and a few months back she promoted herself to Chief Happiness Officer. She came by our office today to tell us how she makes her employees and co-workers happier. Her main instrument is… her office door.

    Here she talks to my colleague Jon about it:

    That is just awesome and Aude’s co-workers love it. Little things like that take no time but still do make a difference.

    Your take

    Could you do this where you work? Do you already do something similar? Write a comment, I’d love to know your take.

  • A question for ya: How do you play at work?

    A question for yaI got this email from Samuel West in Sweden:

    You, your blog and your book inspired me to write a book on happiness at work in Swedish. The book is suppose to be done before X-mas. As you know the Swedes are not as happy as the Danes at work or after work.. so we really need more happiness at work.

    I am having problems with a chapter on playfulness. I don’t want to just omit it, since I think playfulness is vital to happiness at work. The examples of playfulness at work that I have are just not good enough for my book. I was wondering if you could ask your blog readers for examples of how they are playful at work. Examples of everyday playfulness!

    That is an excellent question. Here are two great examples I’ve seen in other workplaces.

    The Specialized lunch ride:

    Zappos at work/play:

    But what about you? How do YOU play at work? Give Sam a hand and write a comment below. Heck, you might even make it into his book :o)

  • Why do some people like bad bosses?

    I had a great interview today with a journalist from bnet.co.uk about loyalty and engagement at work.

    She asked many interesting questions, including this one:

    Some people work for horrible bosses, like the evil restaurant chefs we see on TV. Why do many people still seem to like and respect these bad managers who mistreat them?

    My answer:

    Stockholm Syndrome.

    ;o)

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  • A question for ya

    A question for yaI got an email with a very deep, but very interesting, question which I will pass on to you:

    Which of these two are more important: happiness or meaningful work?

    Perhaps I’m asking myself these questions because I’m working in the advertising industry and many people have a rather negative approach to advertising in general.

    I would like to believe that there may be some positive approach to advertising and that we can make the difference but sometimes I have doubts when I think its all about money and about making people to buy more.

    I am just opening new company with my friend and I believe it would be good to have a clear positive approach and image of the company.

    That is a great question. What do you think? Is happiness or meaning more important at work? Are there industries (eg. advertising) where work tends to lack meaning? What can you do to be happy at work in those industries?

  • Go see The Rules of Productivity presentation. Now!

    Rules of Productivity

    Thanks for all the great comments on my last post on The Cult of Overwork.

    It’s clear from the comments that:

    1. The Cult of Overwork is alive and well. Waaaay too many businesses still equate number of hours worked with productivity.
    2. This is hurting people!

    In one comment, Jorge Bernal linked to a great presentation titled The Rules of Productivity, which you absolutely must read. Not only is it clear and concise, it also cemented my belief that overwork is generally bad for productivity. With graphs! I love graphs!

    A few of my favorite takeaways from the presentation:

    • Crunch weeks deliver a brief increase in productivity but you need recovery time right after or productivity plummets.
    • When overwork becomes the norm, people think they’re more productive. They aren’t.
    • Knowledge workers should only work 35 hours/week.
    • There is plenty of empirical data from research into productivity.
    • One of the main proponents of the 40-hour work week was Kellogg’s. Not out of idealism but because it increased productivity for them.
    • Graphs!

    Go check out The Rules of Productivity presentation. Now :o)

  • The Cult of Overwork is alive and well. Sigh!

    The Cult of Overwork

    European workers don’t work enough hours compared to Americans. That is the message in this article written by a London-based venture capitalist. From the article:

    As anyone who’s ever been there or visited will attest, in Silicon Valley everyone is working *all of the time*.

    And while this might seem unhealthy, not scalable, obsessive, manic or simply ridiculous, from an ecoystem perspective it’s basically unbeatable. If you want to build companies and ride the wave of innovation, it’s a 24/7 preoccupation — not just a lifestyle business. By contrast, I am in London-based startups’ offices all the time and I am gobsmacked when they are nearly empty by 6:30 PM.

    I can see where he’s coming from – I really can. It’s so easy to equate “working long hours” with “commitment” and “success”. When you see the office full of people late at night, you automatically think “WOW, these people are serious – they’re going places.”

    You’d be forgiven for thinking so, but you’d be no less wrong. Please show me a single study that demonstrates the link between massive overwork (ie. working 60, 70, 80 or more hours a week for long stretches of time) and increased worker productivity and corporate success.

    On the other hand, there’s stuff like this:

    In 1991, a client asked me to conduct a study on the effects of work hours on productivity and errors…

    My findings were quite simply that mistakes and errors rose by about 10% after an eight-hour day and 28% after a 10-hour day…

    I also found that productivity decreased by half after the eighth hour of work. In other words, half of all overtime costs were wasted since it was taking twice as long to complete projects. After the study was done, a concerted effort was made to increase staffing.

    (Source)

    The cult of overwork is the prevailing belief that the more hours people work, the better for the company. That notion is not only harmful, it is dead wrong, as this story from Arlie Hochschild’s book The Time Bind demonstrates.

    One executive, Doug Strain, the vice chairman of ESI, a computer company in Portland Oregon, saw the link between reduced hours for some and more jobs for others. At a 1990 focus group for CEOs and managers, he volunteered the following story:
    “When demand for a product is down, normally a company fires some people and makes the rest work twice as hard. So we put it to a vote of everyone in the plant. We asked them what they wanted to do: layoffs for some workers or thirty-two-hour workweeks for everyone. They thought about it and decided they’d rather hold the team together. So we went down to a thirty-two-hour-a-week schedule for everyone furing a down time. We took everybody’s hours and salary down – executives too.”

    But Strain discovered two surprises.

    “First, productivity did not decline. I swear to God we get as much out of them at thirty-two hours as we did at forty. So it’s not a bad business decision. But second, when economic conditions improved, we offered them one hundred percent time again. No one wanted to go back!

    Never in our wildest dreams would our managers have designed a four-day week. But it’s endured at the insistence of our employees.”

    Interesting, huh? They cut back work-hours but production remains the same.

    So where exactly is the evidence (apart from our own unexamined bias) that overwork is a prerequisite for success?

    Your take

    What’s your take? Would you only invest your money in a company where the parking lot is always full – even on Sundays? What does tons of overtime do to you personally? Do you get twice as much done in an 80-hour week as in a 40-hour week? What does it do to your life outside of work?

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  • The Happiness Hat will hurt you until you smile

    Smile, dammit:

    This is not meant to be taken seriously – this is art. Or social commentary. Or both. The Happiness Hat was created by Lauren MacCarthy, who calls it:

    A wearable conditioning device that detects if you’re smiling and provides pain feedback if you’re not. Frowning creates intense pain but a full smile leaves you pain free! The first in a series of Tools for Improved Social Inter-Acting.

    To me, this is a great commentary to the pressure to be happy that exists in society today. There seems to be a sense that “if you’re not happy, there’s something wrong with you.” Ironically, this makes people less happy.

    Barbara Ehrenreich talks about the same phenomenon in her new book “Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America“.

    Here she is on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart:

    The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
    Barbara Ehrenreich
    www.thedailyshow.com
    Daily Show
    Full Episodes    		 Political Humor Health Care Crisis

    What we need to remember is, that unhappiness is a part of life – including work life. No workplace is perfect. No job is without problems. And no one is happy every moment of every work day. And that’s as it should be.

    If we expect to be happy all the time at work we are bound to be disappointed. If we consistently marginalize and criticize people who are unhappy at work, we lose some very valuable voices of reason and realism in the workplace.

    When your circumstances are bad, there is nothing wrong with being unhappy; it is only natural. And trying to force people to be happy only makes them less happy.

    So let’s give unhappiness it’s central place in the workplace – as a perfectly natural, even helpful, state of mind. And that, ironically, will lead to more happiness at work!

    Your take

    Have you ever felt pressured to be happy at work when you weren’t? What did that do to you? What constructive role do you see unhappiness play at work? Please write a comment, I’d love to hear your take.

  • Hooray, it’s Monday!

    Below there’s a message for all my Danish readers. For everyone else: I bet you’re sorry NOW, that you weren’t born Danish, huh :o)

    We’re launching a new web site (in Danish) for everyone who’s lost their happiness at work and would like it back.

    Har du mistet arbejdsglæden? Og vil du gerne have den igen?

    Hurra, det er mandag!

    Er du en af de mange danskere, der engang har været glad for sit arbejde, men lige nu har glemt hvordan det var at glæde sig til mandag morgen?

    Vi har nemlig lavet en lynhurtig lille video netop til dig, der har mistet arbejdsglæden – og gerne vil have den tilbage.

    På bare 3 minutter vil du:

    1. Lære den ene, vigtigste ting, du SKAL gøre, for at få din arbejdsglæde tilbage igen.
    2. Forstå præcis hvor farligt og ødelæggende, det er, når du ikke er glad for dit arbejde.
    3. Få en udfordring – tør du tage den?

    Sus ind på www.hurradetermandag.dk og se videoen allerede nu. Go’ fornøjelse :o)

  • Happiness at work at Perrigo

    Health care company Perrigo is looking for more employees and this is how they try to attract them:

    Where many companies present themselves seriously and factually, Perrigo present themselves as a fun, lively, social place.

    I don’t know about you – but it kinda makes me want to work there :o)

    Here are the top three four reasons why Perrigo’s “casting call” is a great way to attract great people.

    1: It speaks to your emotions
    Disney World does the same thing. I’ve seen the video they use to present themselves to potential new employees and it contained exactly NO facts. Instead it was all about all the cool stuff Disney does – from Monday Night Football to Pirates of the Caribbean to their Cruises.

    I saw this video with a group of highly paid consultants and leaders as part of a seminar at Disney University and after that 6-minute presentation, several of the group declared themselves ready to quit their careers and go work for Disney World :o)

    That is the power of speaking to people’s emotions!

    Where most companies try to speak to your logical, rational side, Perrigo’s video speaks directly to your emotions, which is more effective. Many studies in decision-making show that we make our decisions with our emotions and only then do we find the rational arguments to support our emotions.

    2: It’s fun
    Why does recruiting always have to be such a deadly serious process? In fact, studies show that we make better decisions when we’re happy and relaxed. Let’s make it fun!

    3: This video will instantly repel a ton of potential hires
    While many people will be attracted to Perrigo, many others will see this video and think “I will never work for a company that silly.” And that’s a great thing because those people would obviously not fit in at an organization that is happy and fun-loving. It’s much easier to let these people self-select early in the process than to have to read their applications and interview them (and possibly even hire them) only to find later that they’re a bad fit for the company culture.

    4: Employees were involved in making it (Update)
    After I posted this, it struck me that this is especially cool because current employees could get in on the fun of making the video.

    Your take

    What’s your take on this? Does this video make you want to work for Perrigo or run away screaming? Have you seen other companies present themselves in fun, untraditional ways? Write a comment, I’d love to hear your take.

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