It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why work stopped being fun for me, but here are three reasons that have played a role:

• There are too many people in this field who attract attention by saying either platitudes or unverifiable nonsense. For instance, some recent bestselling books have claimed that positive feedback is bad for you, that we should resist growth and development, that we should ignore emotions at work or that work should be duty – not passion. It’s frustrating to have to refute dumb claims like this over and over again.
• For a long time business has been steady and we’ve been doing the same kind of work. I usually have more fun developing new projects rather than managing existing ones. This just doesn’t tickle my entrepreneurial funny bone.
• My previous longest stint in the same job was 5 years, so this has been 3 times as long. Maybe 16 years doing the same thing is simply enough for me.

Simply put, it’s time for me to take my own medicine. I took 6 months off (starting January 1st) to get some distance and think about my future and that helped me come to a decision: I am leaving the field and will no longer do speeches or workshops about happiness at work.

I still believe that this field is incredibly important. Workplaces and employees face huge problems, not the least of which is COVID-19, and still need inspiration and tools to create and maintain happiness at work.