If your company is happy, why not put it right on the door:

This is the door to one of the meeting rooms (called San Francisco) at Serbian IT company Vega IT Sourcing.

Fantastic.

The beginning of a new year is a great time to take stock of your work life. Did everything going the way you wanted it in 2012? Were you happy or unhappy at work? What would you like to change?

Unfortunately, most people look back and think almost exclusively in terms of everything that went wrong. The things they should have done. They goals they ought to have achieved. The progress that didn’t come.

We think you can achieve much more by turning that around 180 degrees, so here’s our suggestion for a little new years exercise in happiness at work. Think back at your work life in 2012 and answer the following 10 questions. It works best, if you take some time to do it and if you write down the answers.

1. What went really well for you at work in 2012?
2. What did you do that you were proud of?
3. Who did you make a difference for at work?
4. What new things have you learned professionally?
5. How have you grown and developed personally at work?
6. Who has helped you out at work in 2012?
7. Who have you admired professionally?
8. What have been some of the most fun moments at work in 2012?
9. Which 5 things from your work life in 2012 would you like more of in 2013?

And last but not least:
10. What will you specifically do to become happier at work in 2013?

Have fun – and I wish you a very happy 2013 at work!

Rosa Finnegan is 100 years old and still works in a factory. In this hilarious video, she explains why she is some 30 or 40 years past retirement age but not retired:

Rosa works at needle and tubing manufacturing firm Vita Needle in Needham, Mass. The company is known for its elderly workforce. The average worker is 74 years old.

PBS did a report on them – watch it here.

There are a couple of great things here. First of all, I think it’s fantastic that some companies are figuring out that people past the age of 55 are also great workers. And secondly, I love the idea that you can be working (and happy about it) way past retirement age.

When you think about it, retirement really only makes sense if you don’t like your job. If your job gives you purpose, energy and happiness why would you just stop? It’s part of an old mindset that’s been called Slave, Save, Retire. You work really hard at a job you hate, struggling to save enough money that one day you won’t have to work any more.

I honestly don’t see myself ever retiring – at least not as long as I can still find work I enjoy. What do you think?

And here’s another hilarious clip with Rosa:

This TED talk by Nobel prize winner Daniel Kahneman is absolutely fascinating to me:

In it Kahneman points out some cognitive biases that affect our happiness and our thinking about happiness.

I’ll be taking some time to figure out the implications for happiness at work. I’ll be back :o)

Here’s a fun little thing we just released, that we’re kinda proud of:

More at whattheheckisarbejdsglaede.com.

Everyone in Scandinavia knows that SAS (the airline, not the IT company) is struggling. They almost went into chapter 11 3 weeks ago and were saved only by a new agreement with pilots and cabin crew who agreed to lower salaries and longer working hours to save the company.

So I was very interested to see how this would affect the mood among employees when I flew SAS to Tokyo 2 weeks ago for a speaking gig and a vacation in Japan.

Here’s the feedback i sent to SAS after:

Hi

My girlfriend Patricia and I recently flew to Tokyo and back and we have to compliment one of the cabin crew. I’m afraid we never got her name, but she was the only Japanese lady on the crew and she was AWESOME.

She was happy, smiling, cheerful and talked to a lot of people – us included. She also wore a badge that said “Hello Sunshine” on her uniform. She had an energy about her that simply made us happy and certainly made me want to fly SAS again.

The whole crew were good – even on the trip back when they were struggling because of missing crew members due to illness – but she was amazing.

But here’s the kicker: This Japanese lady was actually also on our flight out to Tokyo – and she remembered us on the flight back almost 2 weeks later. How she did that I have no idea. She also remembered that I didn’t have anything to eat on the flight over and was clearly concerned. Here’s one person who is very obviously committed to great customer service. Kudos!

11 hours on a plane is rarely a good experience, but she made it a happy one :o)

Cheers,

Alexander and Patricia

It always love to see someone who so clearly cares about their job and the people they serve.

Have you ever seen someone like that? And did you find some way to thank them after?

UPDATE: SAS replies:

Thank you for your compliments to our cabin crew.
I will be happy to pass along your compliments to her and the rest of the crew for recognition of their attitude and service level.

It is gratifying that you have taken the time to tell us of your satisfaction. Again, thank you for writing, and we look forward to welcoming you both onboard SAS in the New Year!

Your mission today is to perform at least one random act of kindness at work. A small, nice, generous, funny, surprising, silly, amazing, touching and/or kind act for someone else at work.

If you’re stuck for ideas, here are a few suggestions:

• Bring someone a cup of coffee, without them asking
• Leave a flower on someone’s desk
• Leave a nice, hand-written note for a co-worker
• Help someone carry their stuff
• Pass out candy in the hallways
• Do you have more suggestions? Write a comment!

For bonus points, do a random act of kindness to total stranger on the way home from work.

Have you done this? How was it? What happened? How was it received? Tell us all about it in a comment – we’re curious, dammit :o)

I just got this email from Kate Matcham from Stamford Global. I spoke at one of their conferences in Copenhagen for 120 project managers – and of course also mentioned the Level 5 Good Morning.

Kate has since used it in her workplace:

Actually the level 5 good morning is working a treat – which is why I’ve kept it up!

I have a new team member that I supervise who sits next to me, and Mihaly also sits with us in the same section, which can be a bitdaunting for a new team member!! The three of us collaborate really well together, and I think the level 5 good morning has helped our new team member feel comfortable…

In fact, the three of us just worked on an urgent roll-out of our new website, and we had a great team dynamic – everyone knew their role, trusted one another, communicated perfectly. It was great.

I think the level 5 good morning was a big contributor to that… It’s hard to measure though isn’t it, you sort of just ’feel’ the effect. Anyway, thanks for the invaluable advice!

Way to go, Kate!

I’m still fascinated that such a simple thing as saying “good morning” to your co-workers can actually make a difference. But it can :o)

Here’s how you do it.

Try it and let me know how it goes!

On Friday November 30 you can join us for a free half-hour teleseminar where we unveil a new cool little project we’ve been working on – and tell the world all about Arbejdsglaede. Sign up right here.