• Ask the CHO: Overwork

    Here’s a question that came in an email on Sunday(!)Clock:

    Hi Alex,
    I’ve just being surfing your website after typing in ‘overwork’ in Google and found it most interesting.

    I’m an environmental consultant working in a medium size risk management consultancy. I’ve just been working on a report for a client on Sunday while my two kids and husband wait for me to finish.

    I am contracted to work 4 days per week but usually end up working 5-6 days. My company has an unstated policy of never ever saying no to work, no matter how small the job. We have won several large tenders lately which has resulted in massive increases in workload for everyone (I am currently on 216% of my target for the month).

    We deal with the clients ourselves (which is usually empowering) but if work isn’t completed on time or of the quality they require then we get the nasty phone calls or emails. I am usually known in the company as having good client relationships and lots of repeat business but I don’t answer the phone anymore.

    Sorry for the sob story but could you offer any suggestions?

    Cheers

    Kirsten

    This is an interesting follow-up to my previous posts on working at home, flexibility at work, The Cult of Overwork and this question from another reader.

    I asked Kirsten if I could post her question here and ask for your input and she agreed and is looking forward to reading any input we can give her.

    So what do you think can be done in this situation? Is this typical? What if the problem is more systemic to the way the the whole business is set up?


  • Still more book reviews. My book is STILL good :o)

    Happy Hour is 9 to 5Reviews of my book keep coming in, and people have been saying amazingly nice things about it.

    Eric Deniau writes:

    I discovered your website several months ago while searching the web when I finished reading another excellent book, “Peopleware” by Tom De Marco & Tim Lister. I loved it right away. I first read the online version of the book (very good idea indeed – I then purchased several paper versions) and found everything in it so true and well written, full of funny pictures and convincing contemporary examples !

    One of the brilliant things in the book is that it gives very practical and workable advice on what we can do to improve. Up to the point that I recently explained in a board meeting (I am engineering head in a high-tech company) what is a happy plan. I just started to implement one in my team, and believe me, the first feedback is extremely positive. I’ll provide updates about my experience on this site.

    Thanks Eric! I can’t wait to hear how this goes for you – keep me posted!

    Barry Egan wrote:

    I find your book very helpful in maintaining employee satisfaction. I think it’s great that you offer a free online version of your book. I’ve referred to it many times, when dealing with employee rewards and motivation. It truly is a great read. I’m constantly keeping up with new ways to make my workplace inspiring and just an overall great environment to work. I believe employee satisfaction is the key to happy customers.

    Thanks! And I could not agree more – happy employees = happy customers.

    More great reviews of my book here:

    Interested? You can read the whole book free online or you can buy it on paper or pdf.


  • Do you work at Google? Do you know someone who does?

    GoogleHere’s the deal: I’d love to speak at Google.

    I admire the way they do business and I’d love to get a chance to speak at the happiest company in the US.

    I know they have these Authors@Google talks all the time, and I’ve been told by my new pal Alan Gregerman who gave one recently, that the way you get to do one is by having a Google employee sponsor you.

    I just happen to be an author myself so if you work at Google, or know someone who does, why not get me over there.

    Hey – this approach got me to India. In May 2007 I wrote this post about how I’d love to go to India and speak. Regular reader S. Nand happened to know some of the right people and in December I spoke at a management conference in Indore and gave two workshops to leaders at Tata, India’s biggest corporation.

    So… next stop Mountain View?


  • Quote: Numbers don’t lead

    FiveNumbers and money follow; they do not lead.
    From the Quicken Loans web site

    That is absolutely brilliant – and beautifully phrased.

    If you let the numbers lead you end up with management by spreadsheet in which all decisions are made for short-term gains with no regards to the fact that workplaces rely mostly on the thoughts, feelings and reactions of human beings who are inexplicably difficult to get to follow the stats.

    Humans lead. Numbers follow. I like it.


  • Happy link collection weekly roundup

    Links by you!Here are this week’s highest rated links from the Happiness at Work Link Collection:

    25 Ways to Improve Your Mood When People Around You Are Miserable. Includes 2: Make friends, 3: Do things you love, 6: Take a walk, 11: Smile, 25: Get out of the office

    Learn How to Take Criticism. “Criticism is your friend. Love it, embrace it, cherish it, cultivate it, and most importantly, never fear it.”

    2008 Sick Day Calendar. “A new year is upon us and that means it’s time for the Official Sick Day Calendar from your friends at Jobacle. Get your excuses ready now! Remember, only a sucker loses days at the end the year!”

    Do What you Love and Money Will Follow. A study of business school graduates tracked the careers of 1,500 people from 1960 to 1980. From the beginning, the graduates were grouped into two categories. Category A consisted of people who said they wanted to make money first so they could do what they really wanted to do later after they took care of their financial concerns. Those in category B pursued their interests first, sure that the money eventually would follow. After 20 years, there were 101 millionaires in the group. Only one came from category A, 100 from category B.

    Work-Life Balance: A Conspiracy of Optimism. “Work-Life balance is, at best, a fabrication. At worst, a cruel hoax. It’s time to stop believing all the hype. As adults, we well understand that it’s never been a question of balance. It’s always been a question of choice. As the Spanish proverb reminds us: “Take what you want, says God, just pay for it.”

    You can find more great links about happiness at work here – and you can vote for your favorites. You can also contribute great links yourself.


  • Death to job titles at Quicken Loans

    Death to job titles

    Matt Cardwell used to be the Web Marketing Director at Quicken Loans. Not any more.

    He came across a post of mine called Who cares about your job title – tell me what you DO! and was inspired to kill of all the traditional job titles.

    He explained it further in an email to employees:

    If you are concerned about someone not recognizing how important you are because you no longer have a standard title, then here’s your chance to create a title for yourself that will convey exactly how important you are. And because you are creating it, it will be all yours. No one else will have that title. Think of the conversations your new title will start with complete strangers. Think of the opportunities it can create for you in terms of expressing who you are, not what someone CALLS you.

    “But what if I don’t like my description in three months …” you ask? What if what I do CHANGES? Well, then you can change your description. It’s that simple. No one ever stays the same … we are all growing … so let your “title” do the same when it’s time.

    Here’s your chance. You have until the end of the day to let us all know who you are. Have fun, be creative, be humorous, but above all, be real and true. Remember, this will be on your e-mail signature, so please be aware of that.

    I can’t wait to see what all of you come up with.

    DEATH TO TITLES!

    So what titles did people come up with? Well, as I said, Matt is no longer the Web Marketing Director. He’s now the Idea Salesman, Energy Focuser and People Unleasher. Some other new titles are:

    • Royal Storyteller & Propaganda Minister
    • Supreme Challenger of the Status Quo & Wicked Web Site Innovator
    • Innovation Maven and Revenue Raiser
    • Mastermind of Possibilities, Visual Linguist, and Czar of the High Fiber Revolution
    • Art Juggler
    • Flasher
    • Idea Launcher
    • Conceptologist
    • Head Brother In Charge of Chat
    • Reality Check Provider
    • Sentence-smoother-outer with an Ad Girl twist
    • Pixelardo da Vinci

    Woo-hooooo!!

    I know the whole choose-your-own-wacky-job-title things has been done before, most notably during the dotcom days, but I still love it. And I still marvel at the fun, creative titles people come up with.

    Death to business titles, indeed!

    A great big thank you to Kelly LaVaute for blogging about this!


  • Really?

    I passed this sign on my way to a meeting today:

    PC Fixer

    You don’t say…


  • Top 5 reasons to let employees telecommute

    Work from home

    Should a company let its people telecommute? Is it good or bad for productivity? Does working from home make employees more stressed because it blurs the boundary between work and private life? Or is it good for families because it cuts down on time commuting and gives people more time at home? And is it true that most of the employees who work from home do so in the nude?

    Pennsylvania State University have just published a meta-study that looks at these questions. It’s called “The Good, the Bad, and the Unknown About Telecommuting: Meta-Analysis of Psychological Mediators and Individual Consequences.” Catchy, huh?

    The study analyzes the results of 46 other studies on telecommuting involving a total of 13.000 employees. The overall conclusion? Telecommuting is good for both employees and for the workplace. You can find the whole study here (pdf).

    Main findings

    Here are the findings that struck me as being the most interesting. For some reason, the study completely neglected to look at the nude/clothed aspect of telecommuting. On that one, your guess is a good as mine.

    1: Telecommuting gives employees a sense of freedom at work
    In other words, you feel that you have more control over your work environment. In fact, this turned out to be the root cause of many of the other effects found in the study.

    2: Telecommuting is good for the family
    A lot of people fear that telecommuting harms family life because it blurs the boundary between work and private life and pressures people to work when they’re at home.

    This study found that the opposite is true and that telecommuting reduced conflicts between work and family.

    Telecommuting
    From the study: The main effects of telecommuting

    3: Working from home 1 or 2 days a week does not harm relations to co-workers or managers
    However, working from home 3 days had a positive effects on the family, but also had a negative effect on workplace relationships.

    The study also says that managers must adapt to accommodate telecommuting, or it won’t work:

    4: Telecommuting makes employees more productive
    The study looked at both self-perceived efficiency and how efficient managers thought their telecommuting employees were.

    And while employees themselves did not feel more productive, the study did find a positive link between telecommuting and the manager’s rating of employees’ efficiency.

    The study also looked for signs that spending less time in the office would harm employees’ career expectations by giving them less time to demonstrate value to managers. The study found no indication of this.

    5: Telecommuting makes people happier at work
    There was a positive link between telecommuting and job satisfaction. The study also showed that employees who can work from home are less likely to quit.

    My take

    All of these findings make a lot of sense to me, and it just underlines what I always say: Who knows better than you, when and where you do your best work?

    I’ve always assumed that the employees of any given company are responsible adults, capable of making decisions for themselves. If they’re not, why were they hired in the first place?

    The great thing about this study is that it clearly suggests that even though the effects may not be huge huge, telecommuting is good for both employees and for the workplace.

    Your take

    What about you? Do you work from home? Would you like to? How would working from outside the office a few days a week affect you?

    Related posts


  • More accolades

    Top HR bloggerYaaaay: HR World has named me one of 2007’s top HR bloggers.

    The funny thing is, I don’t consider this to be an HR blog – but it’s obvious that happiness at work is if interest to HR professionals. I mean, the ultimate goal of HR has to be to make employees happy at work, right?

    Some previous accolades for the blog:


  • HP and I team up to make the UK happy at work

    HP

    I am proud to announce one of my most exciting projects ever: I’m teaming up with HP to make small and medium sized companies in the UK happy at work.

    The project is officially launching today, and up till now I’ve been under strict orders not to reveal anything. Finally, I can blog about it!!

    From the press release (pdf):

    As part of its ongoing ‘Happy People’ marketing campaign, HP will be providing free consultancy to UK businesses on how to improve ‘happiness’ within the office through the use of HP mobility technology.

    At the same time, HP has launched a nationwide competition for small to medium-sized businesses, giving them the chance to win a £10,000 office makeover – including HP products, ‘happiness’ workshops and free consultancy from an independent expert and an HP team of experts.

    “We’re absolutely thrilled to be working with Alexander, one of the world’s leading experts on happiness in the workforce,” said David Wright, vice president and general manager of HP Personal Systems Group, UK & Ireland. “Over the coming months, HP will be addressing the areas where technology can help make some offices throughout the UK happier places to work.”

    The idea is that HP’s mobile products (laptops and mobile phones) allow us to work more flexibly – and flexibility, ie. having more choice over when and where to work, makes us happier at work.

    The main elements of the campaign are:

    I’m especially excited about the contest. UK-based companies with 100 employees or less can sign up and the grand prize is an office makeover by HP and a full-day happiness workshop with yours truly! Four other companies get the runner up prize: Full-day workshops with me.

    So if you’re working in a small UK business and you’d like a little more happiness at work, go to the campaign website and sign your workplace up. Right now!

    I’m incredidbly happy to be a part of this project. First of all because it gels so well with my take on happiness at work; giving employees their freedom is a prerequisite for happiness at work, as I also wrote in my book.

    Secondly, my talks with HP have convinced me that they are genuinely committed to happiness at work. This is not just a PR exercise for them – this is about creating more happiness and thus more success for HP’s customers.

    And finally, this gives me a great opportunity to work with some UK companies for the first time. It’s funny that I’ve been hired by companies in America, Estonia, Croatia and India (just to mention a few of the places I’ve gone recently) – but none in the UK so far…

    So all in all, a great project with the potential to create a lot of happiness at work.

    Full disclosure: HP are paying me to participate in media activities related to this project and to do the workshops for the winning companies.

    Related:



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