Category: Links

Here are this week’s highest rated links and stories from the Happy at Work Link Collection.

Stress kills. Though rarely this literally. (thx Lars).

Ricardo Semler: granddaddy of the democratic workplace. “Ricardo Semler’s employees set their hours, determine their salaries and choose their bosses. Meet the Brazilian businessman who does everything differently.” (thx Kareem).

The Danes are the happiest workers in Europe. Yaaaaaay! At the bottom of the list: Hungary, Russia, Slovenia, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic. And Japan.

How listening saved a company. “Dave began meeting with a different crew for an hour every Tuesday afternoon. Dave and his HR manager were there, but none of the managers or supervisors between him and the crew. Dave simply asked, “What do you want to talk about?” and then waited.”

A valentine’s day story of love at work. A sweet story from Southwest Airlines.

You can find many more links, vote on the ones you like and submit your own stories, articles or blogposts at the link collection.

I know it’s only February, but I would like to nominate this nifty little illustration from the Slow Leadership blog for the coveted “graph of the year” award:

The accompanying blogpost ain’t too shabby either:

If a thing is worth doing, it’s worth doing badly first. In the real world, doing something new almost always means doing it poorly the first few times… To do something new, you have to make a conscious decision to let yourself try things that you know you can’t do.

Here are this week’s highest rated links and stories from the Happy at Work Link Collection.

The best in the world
What the late great Jeff Newman had to say about playing a pedal steel guitar, and what that means for those who want to be good at what they do, and humble about it. (thx iwelsh).

Make “being of value” your first priority in customer service
“The lesson is that you can go farther by showing a prospect how you can be of value to them than by trying to sell them on how good you are. We should keep that in mind.”

Playing video games all day long may not make kids happy at work (video)
In “gold-farms” in China, kids work all day to gain gold and items in video games, that can then be sold for “real” money. MAN we live in a strange world!

Dutch professor is expert on happiness
Professor Ruut van Veenhoven (Erasmus University, Rotterdam) publishes interesting articles on happiness. Read abstracts or full articles on his homepage.
(thx Erno).

The Importance of ‘Know Why’ over ‘Know How’
“Let others play with ‘strategy’ and ‘tactics’ and ‘management.’ Purpose is the game of champions.???

5 Reasons Why Enthusiasm is Better than Confidence
Includes “Confidence is impressive – enthusiasm is infectious” and “Confidence is certain – enthusiasm is creative”. Brilliant!

You can find many more links, vote on the ones you like and submit your own stories, articles or blogposts at the link collection.

Here are this week’s highest rated links and stories from the Happy at Work Link Collection.

It Isn’t Just a Myth, Power Turns People Into Assholes by Bob Sutton. “Asshole poisoning is a disease that you catch from others. It is also something that happens — with shocking speed and intensity — when people are put in powerful positions.”

Trust Tip 16: Get Beyond Fairness by trustedadvisor. “To expect fairness all the time leads only to unhappiness, yet giving fairness is something we can do.” (thx iwelsh!)

Where did the Dreamer go? by Craig Harper. “Life has a great way of sucking the creativity energy out of you, if you let it. So how can you turn it around…” (thx spocia).

The Ridiculous Business Jargon Dictionary. Very comprehensive!

Do the right thing. A site to hold companies accountable for their actions. I like it!!

Office politics is about being nice by Penelope Trunk. “Here is a message for people who say office politics don’t matter: You will die a slow, painful career death. This is because there’s no getting around office politics, and mastering them is essential to being able to steer your own career. Don’t take that as bad news, though, because mastering office politics is good for your soul. Really.”

You can find many more links, vote on the ones you like and submit your own stories, articles or blogposts at the link collection.

Being nice helps you get customers. “When we asked our new client what put us over the edge, they said that of course they liked our work, but they also were impressed by the way we related to each other–cracking jokes, bantering, etc. “You guys just seem to like each other,??? they said.”

Slow Leadership on The Road Least Taken to Happiness at Work. “Most people make decisions about their life and work based on what is generally considered “right??? and “good.??? This is living from the outside in: letting others people’s expectations, rule your life. You do what you do because that’s what you have been told to do. It’s a good recipe for frustration and stress.”

Bob Sutton explains how The Billable Hour Turns People into Workaholics. “Once you’re paid by the hour,??? he says, “you start placing a monetary value on that hour. Lawyers watching their kids play soccer admitted to mentally ticking away lost income for each minute they stood on the sidelines.??? Ouch!

Paul English, the CEO of travel site kayak.com, on stuff I’ve learned at work. “Jim and i were struggling for many days making a difficult decision about a reorg which would probably hurt some people. We argued with each other about the options we had. Neither of us were really sure which one would be best, and one day he said since I am not sure which one will produce the best business result, let’s choose the path that does the best for the people, and let’s hope the world works that way; I would not want to participate in a system which worked another way.”

Ben at StartupSpark.com has posted an interview with me about happiness at work. Ben asked some great questions with a special focus on startups and entrepreneurs. And then there was this one:

Has anyone ever said to you, “Alex, you’re full of it. People just can’t be that happy at work!”

:o) Read the interview to see my answer. And congratulations to Bronwyn R. Lewis who won the contest Ben ran as a warm up to the interview. Bronwyn gets a copy of my book.

Say… would you like to interview me for your blog? I’d be happy to answer your questions about happiness at work – or whatever else you want to know. Send me an email with some questions and I’ll shoot the answers right back to you!

Previous interviews with me.

Learning Voyager thinks intelligent disobedience is important at work. “The ultimate application is in the field of organization development, where leaders are attempting to build a highly adaptive and successful organization. Unless the organization has a way to overcome its own blindness and detect a real and present danger, it may get run over.”

Slow Leadership has The Plain Truth About Work/Life Balance. “Achieving an acceptable degree of work/life balance is never going to be easy, but it won’t even be possible unless you first understand clearly what that balance is and how it works.” This blog has some of the most consistently great writing on leadership and work I’ve ever seen.

The Engaging Brand got great customer service – at the dentist! “I had a mother who gave me this HUGE fear of dentists…40 years into my life and the sweat rolls as I enter THAT room, and see THAT chair. But fear not, I have found a dentist who could coach you on turning an unhappy customer into an engaged one.”