The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

  • Don’t coddle me at work

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    Don't coddle me at work

    Some businesses seem to think that they must protect their employees from all the dangers of working life.

    Before people can be happy at work, the thinking goes, they must be shielded from all manner of ills: angry customers, unrealistic deadlines, unfair decisions, overwork, boring meetings, stress, annoying co-workers, insecurity, diffiult situations, hard choices – you name it.

    Wrong.

    The best and happiest workplaces in the world haven’t become so by shielding their people from problems, but by giving their people the skills, the energy and the freedom to deal constructively with problems.
    (more…)

  • Ask the CHO: What’s with all this happiness crap?

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    QuestionAllengirl4 asked how you can spruce up an otherwise boring workplace and Mack came back with this question in the comments:

    Sorry I just don’t get this!! Work is work play is play. I cannot stand it when people “decorate” their cube etc. this is not kindergarden it is a place of work treat it as such.

    Grow up! This constant moaning from people really annoys me. If you are not happy at your Job leave. How about this for a motivation to do your job, your SALARY!!

    Look at people in the third world and their plight and get some perspective! Be glad you have a Job!

    I believe there is relevance to Mack’s question. Why do we want to be happy at work? Why is it not enough to go to work and get paid for it? Why do we want work to be more engaging, playful and fun?

    What’s your take?

  • Monday tip: Learn 3 new things about a co-worker

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    The Chief Happiness Officer's monday tipsYour mission this monday is to learn three things about a co-worker, that you didn’t already know.

    That’s it: Over lunch or in a coffee break or something, take the time to learn at least three new things you didn’t already know about one co-worker. About their professional background, education, private life, etc…

    Simple, huh? :o)

    The Chief Happiness Officer’s monday tips are simple, easy, fun things you can do to make yourself and others happy at work and get the work-week off to a great start. Something everyone can do in five minutes, tops. When you try it, write a comment here to tell me how it went.

    Previous monday tips.

  • Ask the CHO: Spruce up your workplace

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    QuestionAllengirl4 saw my post on 10 seeeeeriously cool workplaces, and wrote this in a comment:

    What a beautiful, and inspiring environment to work in! However, some of us are not so fortunate – so I pose the question, If you live in a fairly regimented pod-based cubicle world, how do you make your own space creative?

    I guess you could always hang up some Dilbert cartoons, though that is probably more an expression of desperation than an actual attempt to create a better looking, more inspiring workplace.

    So I’ll pass the question on to you, dear reader: What would you do to a perfectly ordinary office or cubicle to make it more creative?

  • Quote

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    Fun is at the core of the way I like to do business and it has been the key to everything I’ve done from the outset. More than any other element, fun is the secret of Virgin’s success.
    – Richard Branson

  • Friday links

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    TattooSteve Farber on The Greatness Paradox. “There is no law of physics, no universal rule–that I know of, anyway–that says your succeeding requires my failing, your fulfillment requires my emptiness, your happiness, my grief.” Steve is looking for stories on how you make others great. Go give him one.

    Fred Gratzon on Weeds and Life’s Purpose. “The problem is that most folks, besides not believing they are special (a tragic oversight, by the way), are so dulled out or fatigued that their innate intelligence, creativity, and passion are encrusted with inertia and thereby rendered sluggish.”

    How not to apply for a job in banking. Funniest thing on the net this week. You can’t make this stuff up, but Aleksey Vayner has. You MUST watch the video!

    Our employees’ tatoos. The missing link corporate website has a page showing it’s employees’ tattoos? Btw: It would be kinda funny if this company has one guy who’s just different and refuses to fit in – because he doesn’t have a single tattoo or piercing anywhere on his body :o)

    And have an amazingly great weekend!

  • Part 2 of podcast up at The Engaging Brand

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    PodcastAnna Farmery has posted the second (and last) part of our conversation at her blog.

    In the second part we talk mostly about how you can create a happy business. Give it a listen and tell Anna what you think of it!

  • Ask the CHO: Implied overwork

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    ClockOffice Lady asks this question:

    I have a question, can anyone help? On our contracts, we are supposed to work 39 hours a week (excluding lunch hours).

    So we all come in at 9 am and leave at 6 pm. But since we are supposed to work 39 hours only, we supposedly can leave at 5 pm one day of the week.

    But of course nobody does and everyone works until at least 6 pm five days a week.

    According to instructions, “of course??? we can leave at 5 pm one day of the week….we just need to inform our supervisors first.

    I of course also work until at least 6pm everyday, but sometimes, there are things that I wanna do that I want to leave early for.

    Should I really not ask even though I am entitled to it? :(

    I’m fairly sure that this kind of situation is quite common. The rules say “work X hours a day”. Practically everyone works more or way more.
    (more…)

  • Journey into leadership: Introduction

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    New leaderThis post is part of a series that follows A.M. Starkin, a young manager taking his first major steps into leadership. Starkin writes here to share his experiences and to get input from others, so please share with him your thoughts and ideas. This post is the first in the series.

    Hi, I am a young manager who has very recently got his first Profit-and-Loss responsibility in a large corporation where I have to turn around a small and loss-giving company rather quickly.

    Would it be interesting and inspiring if I shared my thoughts and experiences with you on this task?

    A lot of us – statistically at least – work for big corporations that may or may not share our points of view and our ethics. We all have the choice whether we want to make the best of it, quit or just stay passive. How do you make a difference if you are just a pawn in a chess game with 100.000 pieces?

    That is what I want to explore and share with anyone, and that is why I agreed with Alexander to post those thoughts and experiences on his site, which is read and contributed to by a lot of inspiring people, who at least have in common that employees are real people, not “human resources”.
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  • Announcing: Journey into leadership

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    New leaderI’m totally excited about announcing the newest feature on the site: Journey into leadership.

    I was contacted by A.M. Starkin, a young manager who recently got his first profit-and-loss leadership position of a small company. He must turn this company around from loss to profits and must do so quickly.

    He believes that happiness at work is a major part of the solution, but is also a part of a larger organization that may not always share these beliefs.

    Starkin will be chronicling his journey, thoughts, ideas and questions about once a week, but not on a fixed schedule.

    This is real life, as it happens. Not a business case, edited after the fact. Not an anecdote from a “friend of a friend”. This is a real person in a very real situation, and I’m totally jazzed about following his journey and about seeing how the readers of this blog, as a community, can help Starkin.

    You can see all the posts about Starkin’s journey into leadership here.

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