The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Category: Happy At Work

How to be happy at work

  • Happiness at work

    Are butchers happy at work? Sure thing, according to an Australian survey:

    A Galaxy poll of consumers on the perceived happiness of workers found that butchers were the most friendly and contented workers in Australia, and Ricky Beaves agrees.

    Mr Beaves became a butcher 35 years ago and is happy every day.

    “At the time I went into it simply because it was a job,” he said. “I’m lucky that I’ve always enjoyed it.”

    Being a successful butcher has more to do with personality than anything else, Mr Beaves said. “We have fun with our customers.”

    So there are apparently a great many happy buthcers.

    What about happy plumbers? Those exist too:

    Happy Plumber

    Happy dentists? Why the heck not:

    Happy Dentist

    Almost any job holds the potential for happiness at work. There are happy bus drivers, nurses, programmers, teachers, undertakers, sewage workers and fry cooks at McDonald’s. There are also unhappy people in every profession you can mention.

    This doesn’t mean that YOU personally could be happy in any job. You need a job that lets you do what you do best. You also need to work in a company culture that fits well with who you are.

    So this is not to say that anyone can be happy in any job. That would be an overly simplistic, naive assertion. But any job has the potential for happiness, with a few exceptions: If a job is exploitative, if it requires you to be a bad person or if it involves unethical behaviour, then happiness at work is probably impossible.

    Update: Just found an article, which proves that you can be happy at McDonald’s – and make a lot of other people happy: McDonald’s drive-thru worker gains online fan base.

    Your take

    What do you think? Can you think of a job that by definition makes happiness at work impossible? What jobs have made you happy or unhappy?

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  • See me on Danish news

    I was on Danish news TV (TV Avisen) Monday night talking about how you can stay happy at work after the summer vacation is over.

    You can see the clip here – all two minutes of it :o)

  • Joyous communication

    Here’s three minutes of happiness for ya:

    World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo.

    Fun though this clip is, there are also some deep lessons here about communication, fun, play and mutual expectations.

    Why shouldn’t corporate communication be as lively, fun, playful and effective?

  • Leadership is…

    The Happiness at Work Manifesto

    A couple of weeks ago I was writing my regular op-ed piece on leadership for a major Danish newspaper and I was plumb out if ideas. It’s funny how your creativity can get stuck when you’re looking at an empty word document and a looming deadline :o)

    So I asked for ideas in my twitter feed (follow me on twitter) and got tons of input, of which the email I got from Joe D. Calhoun, Director of Business Development at Paraco Gas Corporation was by far the coolest.

    Here is Joe’s email in full – read and enjoy, it’s excellent!

    When it comes to leadership … we have all been told leaders are born, not made, that leadership is about ego, nice guys finish last. BUNK …. Leadership is all about happiness. Seeking a means to find the greatest good for the greatest number of people. If you’re happy and your know it … share it … find a way to lead others to it … nice guys DO finish first.

    Leadership is also NOT about a title or a job or position. I have had jobs that were very low on the totem pole of life and yet I was looked up to for my leadership of taking on a task and seeing it through to completion … all the while doing it with my “excessively happy” style. Volunteerism is leadership of the happiest sort. A labor of love … working for free (and I have been doing a lot of that lately as I have been un-employed) and supporting a cause – sometimes one that is not sexy and glamorous. This year I helped an organization plan, solicit donations, decorate, facilitate live and silent auctions, all to raise $20,000 for the treatment of drug and alcohol additions. I loved it … Leadership is love.

    Leadership takes energy … do you know any energetic people that are not happy? Energy to face the challenges of anything with a smile on your face and find new ways of solving problems.

    Ask most leaders … they will tell you … they feel “called” to lead. Every calling has an innermost happiness associated with it. I recently accepted a job offer … I knew 30 minutes into the interview that I would take the job … it felt right in my gut. I felt like I was supposed to be doing this. This sense of calling came while discussing the opportunity and the company. I had prepared three pages of notes for the interview … questions … things I thought I wanted to discuss. Instead we talked about the industry … laughed and I read the plan they had for expansion of the department. I was the right peg for the hole … I knew it … they knew it. Leadership is having a calling and answering it … and that feeling in your gut is ultimately tied to “how happy will this make me?”

    That’s a nice little manifesto for leadership right there! Click here for more cool thoughts from Joe.

    Your take

    What do you think – are leaders born or made? Does your boss have your happiness in mind? Is there any room for love in your workplace?

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  • CA looks at webstress

    Last week on my twitter account (click here to follow me), I hinted at this mysterious project in London that I couldn’t talk more about. Well now I finally can and it’s a really cool one :o)

    CA (formerly Computer Associates) commissioned a study (called The CA 2009 Webstress Index) to look at webstress, a term they came up with to describe the frustration and unhappiness you experience when a crucial web application is not working properly.

    Here I am, talking about the study:

    And here are some of the key findings:

    • 68% of workers say they rely on web applications more now than two years ago and 97% wouldn’t be able to do their job without them.
    • 24% say that every day they have to cope with badly performing applications with an additional third 34% claiming this happens on a weekly basis.
    • 81% say they have no choice but to use some business applications even when they aren’t working properly

    You can see the whole study here.

    This study is interesting because it confirms something I’ve seen in many workplaces: Employees are reliant on IT systems to their jobs. Increasingly, the IT systems we use are web applications, meaning they reside “somewhere on the internet”. When these systems are slow, buggy or unavailable we get frustrated and angry.

    This is especially true these days, where companies are demanding ever higher levels of productivity, efficiency and customer service from their people. If companies demand this but don’t give employees the well-functioning tools they need to deliver, the result is unhappiness at work.

    And of course, when employees are unhappy at work, the results are:

    • Lower productivity
    • Higher absenteeism
    • Higher employee turnover
    • Lower customer satisfaction
    • Lower profits

    These factors taken together can cost organizations huge sums of money.

    Speaking from my own experience, my own company is absolutely dependent on web apps – all our vital IT systems run on a web server somewhere. If any of them are not working, we’re basically crippled. Fortunately, that happens very rarely or I would be suffering from seeeeerious webstress :o)

    The same goes on the customer side. We all use web applications to buy books, plane tickets, movie tickets, hotels, etc. – and when these web apps aren’t working or seem too slow, there are always ten other sites offering much the same products at much the same prices.

    If your company offers any kind of web application to its customers, that system should make them happy. At the very least, it shouldn’t give them webstress and make the unhappy because its, slow, buggy or even down.

    I think it’s time for organizations to take webstress seriously. CA’s study confirms what I’ve seen in many workplaces all over the world, namely that badly performing web applications is a major source of unhappiness at work and in customers. And THAT’S why I am so excited about the CA study.

    Full disclosure:
    CA offers Application Performance Monitoring Solutions that let organizations track the performance of web applications. They are paying me to contribute to this campaign but I still mean every word :o)

    Your take

    What about you? Are you using any crucial web apps in your job? Have you experienced web stress?

  • Happiness at London Business School

    Happiness at London Business School

    A couple of months ago I went to London to guest speak at Srikumar Rao’s class on Creativity and Personal Mastery at London Business School. It was a fun and exciting couple of hours… and then the students in the class completely surprised me.

    A mysterious package arrived with a poster which you can see above. These are pictures of the students being happy with some of my key messages superimposed. That has got to be one of the coolest things anyone has ever sent me and that poster is going up on the wall in my trophy room.

    Thanks again to Srikumar’s class for a great time and a fun gift which surprised me AND made me happy!

  • Job lock vs. flexicurity. What would you prefer?

    Health Care

    I rarely go into politics or public policy on this blog, but I’m going to make an exeption today.

    I’ve been following the US debate on health care pretty closely and the biggest issue currently in play is whether or not the US government should offer health care in addition to the private insurance companies.

    In the current US system, where there is no so-called public option, many people have health insurance through their workplace and this system has one serious often overlooked drawback, namely job lock:

    Millions of Americans are in what’s called “job lock.” They can’t leave their jobs because they feel they can’t get the same health insurance benefits on their own or at the next job.

    A new poll by NPR News, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government shows that one out of four Americans has experienced job lock, in the last couple of years, or someone in their immediate family has. That’s despite legislation enacted six years ago to deal with the problem

    In other words, you may hate your job but if you quit you and your family no longer have health insurance. This article looks at job lock in detail.

    In Denmark on the other hand, we have pretty much the exact opposite: Health care is public and paid for through our taxes. In addition, Denmark has a unique labor market approach called flexicurity.

    Flexicurity means that on one hand it’s easy for companies to fire employees but on the other hand, you get very generous unemployment benefits, ie. 90% of your salary.

    The drawback to this system is obvious: Very high taxes.

    The advantages are many, though. First of all, the Danish economy has been doing very well. Even now, during the financial crisis, we’re doing better than most of Europe and unemployment is still below 5%.

    From a standpoint of happiness at work, there is no doubt that the Danish system is best. When it’s easy and safe to quit a job there is much less risk in leaving a job you hate. Even if you choose not to quit, just knowing that you could makes things more bearable. Hating you job AND knowing that you can’t quit makes everything worse.

    Even the fact that it’s easy to fire people increases happiness at work. Seriously! It means that companies can fire employees who don’t perform well or who don’t fit in.

    In countries with very strong labour protection laws, it can be almost impossible to fire anyone – meaning that underperforming employees stay in their jobs and everyone else has to pick up the slack. Also, remember that unhappiness at work is highly contagious, so one unhappy employee can easily drag down the whole department.

    So in my opinion (and I am NOT an economist, so take this with a grain of salt) the flexicurity model makes Danes happier at work – and as I’ve previously mentioned happy workplaces are more productive, innovative and profitable.

    The American model on the other hand, makes people less happy at work and thus decreases productivity.

    Your take

    What do you think? Have you ever experienced job lock? What advantages or drawbacks can you see to the US or the Danish model?

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  • Happiness at work at Zappos

    I’ve been inspired by Zappos for quite a while now. Not only are they insanely successful, it’s also a genuinely happy workplace, judging from all I’ve read about them.

    Here’s a nice little piece from abc news that shows just how happy this company is:

    MAN, that’s good to see :o)

    Here are my top three reasons to love zappos.

    1: They have a culture that promotes happiness at work

    Zappos is committed to defining and living a positive, happy culture. Their values are:
    1. Deliver WOW Through Service
    2. Embrace and Drive Change
    3. Create Fun and A Little Weirdness
    4. Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded
    5. Pursue Growth and Learning
    6. Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication
    7. Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
    8. Do More With Less
    9. Be Passionate and Determined
    10. Be Humble

    That’s your recipe for happiness right there.

    2: They pay new employees to quit

    At the end of your training as a new Zappos employee, the company offers you $2000 if you quit right away. This means that the people who stay are committed to the company and the culture.

    Here’s an interview where Bill Taylor (formerly of Fast Company) talks about it.

    3: They behave like human beings. Great human beings

    The fact that people are happy at work (yes, even the ones answering the phone) means that they give incredibly good customer service.

    And often that service goes above and beyond. I dare you to read this story and not shed a tear.

    The upshot

    Zappos gets it, as do more and more companies. When a business puts its people first (not the customer and not the investors, but the people) you increase happiness, creativity, productivity and profits.

    This is not rocket science – and companies like Google, Southwest Airlines, SAS Insititute, Disney, Pixar and many many others will testify to the fact that it works.

    So how does your company prioiritize? Are employees at the top of the list – or is that spot taken by profits, growth, customers, or..?

  • What would you do?

    How to Handle a Bad Boss

    What would you do if you had a really bad boss? That’s the situation one reader of this blog is in. He read my post on How to Deal With a Bad Boss and left this comment:

    I have a unique situation. All but 2 people in the office are treated nicely by my boss. Yes you guessed it I am one of those 2 people.

    Recently I have had all my duties I was hired for taken completely away from me under “restructuring of the program” meanwhile everyone else has the same duties except my other colleague in the same boat as me. My boss avoids all attempts I make to communicate with him. In fact I have been reduced down to what my former assistant, who was incredible at her job, did all day.

    To make matters worse the person with my old responsibilities does not have a graduate degree. I have my Masters and she micro manages me. Nothing I do is OK. I am completely miserable here and I hate that everyone else is treated with respect, they love both my boss and the lady with my old responsibilities.

    My colleague is in a similar situation with a different person who has her responsibilities. We are treated like second class citizens here and I really need advice what to do especially since to everyone else my boss is perfect including his supervisors and upper management..

    Oh I forgot to mention my former director here everyone hated. She was a great manager but lacked all people skills and came down with an iron fist on everyone. My current boss who has her old job was responsible for her being promoted out of the area. Any advice would help! Thanks for reading this post and writing this article :)

    That’s a tough one. What do you think this reader could do? What would you do?

  • Why your company should be a rock band

    Free e-book: Your company should be like a rock band.

    There are many metaphors for the workplace. A company can be like a ship, sailing uncharted seas. Some workplaces aim to be like a family. Many organizations want to be like well-oiled machines.

    The most traditional metaphor, that unfortunately still informs much of our thinking, is the company as a military unit with lines of command, enemies, battles and strategic objectives.

    Metaphors have power. If you see your workplace and career through a certain lense it will affect your thinking and your decision-making.

    Now Henriette Weber of Toothless Tiger has come up with the coolest metaphor I have ever seen for a business: The company as a rockband.

    Click here to download her awesome free e-book which explains the idea in detail. It’s a quick, fun and fascinating read.

    Our company is already a lot like a rock band. We do drugs, trash hotel rooms and drink tons of alcohol. And don’t even get me started on the groupies.

    JUST KIDDING!! It’s more that:

    • We allow ourselves to be different.
    • We do work that we and our clients think is really cool.
    • We inspire people with what we do and who we are.
    • We have a great time and give our audience a great time.

    What about you? Is your workplace like a rock band? Do you get to feel like a rock star on the job? Does what you do create admiring fans?

    Or is there a different more apt metaphor for your workplace? Write a comment, I’d love to know what you think.

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