The latest World Happiness Report, which ranks 156 countries by their happiness levels, was released on 20 March 2017 by the United Nations. It is co-authored by Oxford Saïd’s Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, who has focused on happiness at work.
Here he explains the most important findings.
It’s official – my next book, Leading With Happiness, comes out on November 21st.
Robert Sutton, Stanford professor and author, calls it “Compelling, useful, well-researched, and downright fun to read.”
Preorders are already open for the Kindle e-book version – get it here. Paper books will become available on the publication date.
I am REALLY excited to announce that my next book “Leading With Happiness” comes out on November 21st. Read all about it here.
You are hereby cordially invited to read it completely FREE and before it goes on sale. The only thing we ask in return, is that you review it online when it is published. Click here to see how it works and sign up to The Early Reviewers Secret Club :) Access is limited to the first 500 people and you must sign up no later than November 2nd.
Sign up is closed.
There is currently huge interest in the 30-hour workweek in many workplaces . But is this just a pipe dream or could it actually lead to better results, happier workplaces and less stress?
In this video I talk to Lena Rübelmann and Juliana Wolfsberger who have written a masters thesis called “The 30-hour Workweek -A Promising Alternative for Knowledge Workers?” at Lund University School of Economics and Management about their findings. My favorite: Switching to a 30-hour workweek does not reduce output. People get as much work done as they did before, even though they work fewer hours.
If you want to know more, Juliana and Lena are happy to share their findings. You can reach them here:
Other companies are finding the same thing, including Toyota Center Gothenburg, who 12 years ago, went from a normal 40-hour work week to only working 30 hours a week – and found that employee happiness, productivity, customer satisfaction and profits all went up. At our2015 Happiness at Work Conference, CEO Martin Banck explains why they made that weird decision, how they did it in practice and what has happened since then:
“Without self-respect genuine happiness is scarcely possible. And the man who is ashamed of his work can hardly achieve self-respect.”
– Bertrand Russell
The New York Times has a great article called “In Silicon Valley, Working 9 to 5 Is for Losers” that examines workaholism in startups. It even quotes one entrepreneur as saying “I rarely get to see my kids. That’s a risk you have to take.” I wonder if he asked his kids if that was a risk they were willing to take.
The piece also quotes from this excellent article by David Heinemeier Hansson, where he points out that startup investors are the main driver of this culture:
There’s an ingrained mythology around startups that not only celebrates burn-out efforts, but damn well requires it.
It’s not hard to understand why such a mythology serves the interest of money men who spread their bets wide and only succeed when unicorns emerge.
There’s little to no consequence to them if the many fall by the wayside, spent to completion trying to hit that home run. Make me rich or die tryin’.
…
It’s bullshit. Extractive, counterproductive bullshit peddled by people who either need a narrative to explain their personal sacrifices and regrets or who are in a position to treat the lives and wellbeing of others like cannon fodder.
These two articles do a great job of exposing the toxic overwork culture in many startups but I just want to add five few quick points on the topic:
1: If hours are all that matter, an entrepreneur working 80 hours a week will be beaten by one working 90 hours a week. Where does it end?
2: Many of the mental qualities that make a startup successful are lost when people are overworked, tired, stressed and unhappy, including networking, creativity and effective decision making.
3: Permanent overwork kills people. For instance, those working a 55-hour week face 33% increased risk of stroke.
4: Permanent overwork doesn’t result in increased output.
5: Pointing to successful startups that worked 80 hours a week proves nothing. What about all the startups that worked 90 hours a week and failed?
Imagine starting your own company and ending up creating a workplace where you hate to work. How stupid is that?
On the other hand, employees of a startup where people are happy to work and have full lives outside of work, will be more productive, motivated and innovative, boosting the startup’s chance of success.
Even if working crazy long hours did enhance a startup’s chance of success (which it does not), it would still be wrong because it hurts employees physically and psychologically.
“I do not deny that the feeling of success makes it easier to enjoy life…. Nor do I deny that money, up to a certain point, is very capable of increasing happiness.
What I do maintain is that success can only be one ingredient in happiness, and is too dearly purchased if all the other ingredients have been sacrificed to obtain it.”
– Bertrand Russell
OK – that’s new. At 8:30 this morning I was in a café going through my tasks and emails, when I got a call from a client asking if I could do a speech for 100 people at their offices at 9:20 the same morning. The speaker they’d booked had called in sick.
To make matters even more interesting, I’ve already spoken to the same group last year, so I couldn’t just do our standard presentation. But who doesn’t love a challenge!
I started to put together some slides that fit their current situation then got on my bike and rode over. While their leaders presented I sat in the back of the room and finished my slides just in time.
And even if this is the least notice we’ve ever had, I do believe I rocked.
I am incredibly disappointed in Lego’s recent decision to lay off 1,400 staff even tough they have near-record profits. Here are the facts:
Normally in a situation like this, I’d suspect leadership of doing layoffs to placate stockholders, but Lego is privately owned, so that’s clearly not the case here.
Crucially, the company is not losing money. In fact, even though sales have fallen slightly, profits are essentially constant and at near-record levels for the company, so it’s hard to see exactly what motivates this move.
What has really surprised me is that there has been no pushback or criticism from the financial press. It makes you wonder: What kind of a business climate are we living in when this kind of decision is met with nothing but approval from all observers?
I’m sure no one at Lego or in the financial press cares the slightest bit what I think, but I thought it was important that someone speak out against this kind of leadership. Hence this article.
Lego´s chairman of the board and former CEO, Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, says that the layoffs come because the company has become too big and complicated:
The way we do business, the way we do our marketing, the way we do our market management, but also how we run the whole administration of the company unfortunately has become too complicated as we’ve grown the company massively over the past 12 to 13 years.
That’s what’s really hindering us in executing in a strong way – as we used to – and therefore we are finding it harder to grow in some of our very well penetrated and established markets.
But if the organization has become too complex, you don’t fix that just by laying people off – you do that by fixing the organization. In that context layoffs may even be counter-productive. Trying to streamline your organization becomes a lot harder when you’re simultaneously laying off 8% of your staff and dealing with the ensuing organizational and psychological fallout.
Mostly I’m disappointed with the attitude towards employees revealed by this decision. Layoffs carry huge psychological costs for both those who lose their jobs and for those who remain and therefore they should be a last resort when all other options are not sufficient. In this case, lego clearly had many, many other options.
I see this move as a huge lost opportunity for Lego. They could have cemented their reputation as a good workplace that can handle a minor drop in sales and profits in a way that doesn’t make staff pay the price.
As a consequence, I have removed all mentions of Lego from my next book, Leading with Happiness. I’d included them in a couple of places as an example of a company where leadership cares deeply about its people – this is clearly not the case any more.
What should they have done instead? In my next book I share the story about a tech company that lost half their revenue and found a way to come out stronger and more profitable without laying off a single person. If a company can do that when it’s very survival is threatened, Lego could definitely have done something similar when they’re still incredibly profitable.
At the World Happiness Summit in Miami I gave a 15-minute speech on Leading with Happiness – the same topic I’m covering in my next book.
In the video I share what’s wrong with traditional leadership and its relentless focus on business results and give some great examples of leader who create more happiness for themselves, their employees, their customers and the world.
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