The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

  • New article says happiness at work is impossible. I don’t buy it. Surprise :)

    An article called The Dangers of Viewing Work as Play by Zeesham Aleem makes some great points about shifting working conditions and the need for organized labor, but then goes on to argue that being happy at work is basically impossible.

    I found the article because I’m mentioned in it:

    Google is known for promising outstanding quality of life to many of its employees, from its cafeterias to its napping pods.

    Alexander Kjerulf, a consultant who calls himself The Chief Happiness Officer, wrote a book called Happy Hour is 9 to 5. Ideally, the knowledge worker is able to make play out of work.

    Sounds great, right? But no, that’s not how things are according to Aleem:

    But reconceptualizing work as fulfilling doesn’t alter its ultimate infringement on leisure.

    Enjoyable work at a desk still takes a toll on the body and the mind. The non-physical nature of labor masks the fact that on average, knowledge workers peak in productivity after their sixth hour of work.

    But most importantly, no matter how much you love your job, it’s time that generally isn’t under one’s control — time that could be spent on health, family, friends, community and doing things that can alter the conditions of society.

    Got that? No matter how you dress it up, at the end of the day work is hard, unpleasant, out of your control, bad for you and takes time away from all the other things you would rather be doing.

    This is presented as just the way things are and even worse as the way they should be with Benjamin Franklin as the role model:

    Franklin represented an attitude toward work that coupled industry with frugality, the signature sign of grace according to Calvinist doctrine. Hard work was an end in itself…

    This attitude towards work is all-pervasive in the Western world and has been for thousands of years. Just yesterday I mentioned it as a prime example of some of our most pernicious work-related cognitive illusions. But it’s still wrong for two reasons.

    First, it’s factually wrong.There are and always have been plenty of people who love what they do, who come home from work fulfilled and energized and for whom work is a beneficial influence in their lives.

    Secondly, this attitude is morally wrong because it’s hurting people. This attitude towards work is one of the main reasons why so many people accept stressful jobs, jerk bosses and bad working conditions.

    Let me say this very clearly: If your work brings you down, drains your energy and makes you stressed and frustrated then something is wrong. This is not something that should be accepted or (even worse) idolized and sought out.

    Work can make you happy and it should make you happy. Why anyone would argue otherwise is beyond me.

    Your take

    What do you think? Is work ultimately a draing on your time and resources? Or can it actually be a net-positive influence in your life? Please write a comment, I’d love to hear your take.

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  • Spooooooky for halloween…

    What The Heck Is Arbejdsglaede!? Find out on November 30.

  • Much of what you know about business is wrong. You will continue to believe it even now that you know it’s wrong.

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    “Cognitive illusions can be more stubborn than visual illusions”
    – Daniel Kahneman (Source)

    This quote explains why many workplaces are still unhappy even though we all should know by now, that happy workplaces are not only more fun but also make more money.

    In the image above, every horizontal line is perfectly straight. Don’t believe me? Hold up a ruler to your screen and check.

    OK, now you know the horizontal lines are straight. What does your mind see? Bendy lines.

    And in the same way, managers and employees alike are clinging to cognitive illusions like:

    • Work is unpleasant but that’s normal and there are no happy jobs.
    • The more hours we work, the better.
    • If you’re enjoying yourself, you’re not getting enough done.
    • Managers can never be friends with their employees.
    • It’s a dog-eat-dog world and everyone is just out to screw everyone else over.

    The list goes on… you can add your own in the comments.

    Kahneman also notes how hard it is to change your beliefs, even when you know better:

    When my colleagues and I learned that our leadership assessment tests had low validity, we accepted that fact intellectually, but it had no impact on either our feelings or our subsequent actions.

    So how do we overcome our cognitive biases in the workplace (and in general)? It can be done, but it takes work. Here are 5 steps that help.

    1: Be aware of your biases
    This is where it all starts. We all have cognitive biases (Wikipedia has an exhaustive list) but as long as we are not aware of them, we are slaves to them. The first step to overcome a cognitive bias is to know that you have it. And you do :o)

    2: Follow the facts
    What conclusions do the facts actually support? For instance, if you look at productivity studies, permanent overwork leads to lower productivity, not higher. This is what the research shows. This is fact.

    3: Be willing to acknowledge that you have been wrong
    If you believe A but the facts support B then change your beliefs. Everything else is stupid.

    4: Don’t be afraid to stand out
    But this means going against the flow, since everyone else still believes A. Tough! Truth is not decided by majority rule, and it’s absolutely possible for 90% of any group to be dead wrong.

    5: Use stories
    Possibly the best tool for changing peoples’ minds is stories because stories speak to our emotions not just our intellect.

    The upshot

    Much of what you know about business is wrong. If you don’t do something about it, you will continue to believe it even now that you know it’s wrong. This is bad.

    Your take

    In your opinion, what are some of the most stubborn and pernicious beliefs in the business world? What beliefs have you changed personally? What helper you change? Please write a comment, I’d love to hear your take.

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  • What The Heck Is Arbejdsglaede!?

    Find out on November 30th where you can join us for a free half-hour teleseminar. Sign up right here.

  • 3 simple ways to hack your to do list for happiness

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    Do you keep a to-do list at work? And if you do is it a source of happiness at work or an endless source of frustration, overflowing with unsolved tasks – as it is for many people?

    One blog post sums it up like this:

    I hate my to-do list because

    1. I feel so overwhelmed when I see this long list of to-dos.
    2. Items not crossed off on the to-do list are a reminder that I didn’t finish what I set out to do and that I could have done more with my day.

    If you feel the same way, here are 3 simple tips to help you use your to-do list in a way that creates happiness at work rather than frustration.

    1: Change your to-do list to a could-do list

    We got a tip from a reader who had been feeling the pressure of an endless to-do list and had come up with a simple but brilliant hack. She wrote:

    This is something I’ve been doing for several months now when I noticed my ‘To Do’ list was generating a sense of frustration.

    Now, I write a ‘Could Do’ list, instead of a ‘To Do’ list. When I draw up my daily lists of tasks I refuse to see it as stuff I have to get done. When I did that in the past, I’d feel a sense of dissatisfaction at the end of the day when I didn’t have everything ticked off, despite the fact that I knew when I wrote it, it was highly unlikely I’d get to everything.

    It’s a tiny shift, but by viewing it as a list of things I could do today, I’m relieving the pressure to get them all done. It feels like there’s more of an element of choice around how I spend my time – I don’t have to do x today, I could leave it till tomorrow and focus more attention on y today instead.

    Now, at the end of the day, I don’t mind how many ticks I do or don’t have against the items on my list, and I feel better about my day’s work because there is no shadow from what I should have done and didn’t.

    I think that’s a fantastic idea. It’s a subtle shift inside your own mind that is likely to help you get started. In my experience, taking the pressure off yourself makes you more likely to get stuff done. Which is of course a sharp contrast to traditional business thinking which holds that greater pressure = greater performance.

    2: Add everything you do to the list

    Let’s face it, most of what you do during the day probably isn’t on your to-do list. Many tasks just arise during the day in an ad hoc manner. So add those to the to-do list as well.

    For instance, after writing this blog post (which was NOT on my to-do list, inspiration just suddenly grabbed me) I will add an item to my list that says Blog about to-do lists, set the deadline for today and immediately cross it off my list.

    It may seem redundant, but there is actually a sense of accomplishment (and a release of dopamine, the brain’s own motivation drug) from crossing it off the list) even if I’ve just now added it.

    This also makes sense in light of the third tip:

    3: Once a week, look at all the tasks you’ve completed

    In my opinion, the major problem with most to-do lists software is, that they only show you what you haven’t yet completed. As soon as you finish a task it disappears from the list forever.

    One of the major sources of happiness at work is getting stuff done and seeing the results of your work. A to-do list that only shows you everything you haven’t yet done, is likely to make you less happy at work.

    But there’s an easy hack for that: Once a week go into your to-do list and look at everything you got done in the last week. This may be a good thing to do on a Friday afternoon. If you have trouble remembering to do it, you could even put this on your (yes) to-do list and then cross it off once you’ve done it :o)

    The upshot

    To-do lists are an effective tool to make sure you remember to do everything you need to do at work. However, they tend to make people unhappy at work because they only focus on what we have not done. Fortunately, we can hack that.

    Update… Here’s a bonus tip:
    When you’re deciding which task to do next, don’t necessarily pick the first one on the list or the most important one. Instead, pick one you feel like doing right now.

    This is not always possible and sometimes there are critical tasks that you simply need to do right now. But often you have the choice of what to do first and in that case, go with the one you want to do.

    That will make you much more likely to get it done and give you more energy to apply to the less fun tasks. If you start with the hardest, the most important or the most boring task, that may steal your energy and motivation completely.

    Your take

    What do you think – could any of these tips work for you? Do you have any other good ways to effectively and happily use to-do lists? Please write a comment, I’d love to hear your take.

    Related posts

    If you’re still not getting your could-do items done, you can also read my previous post on How to procrastinate effectively.

  • How to have a happy commute

    I just got an email from Jens who works at DSA, a Danish trade union where I did a happiness workshop some months ago.

    Jens writes that he has focused on happiness at work, but has also been trying to create some happiness in his daily train commute to work.

    One morning the train conductor announced on the loudspeaker that “If you have any questions just let me know when I come through the train.”

    When she passed me, I said I’d like to ask her something. “Sure,” she said, “go right ahead.”

    So I showed her my phone, pointed at it and said “If I have an X and a C in Wordfeud, which word can I write?”

    She was completely flummoxed, and literally turned once around herself on the spot. Then she said “THAT I don’t know” and left while the 10 nearest passengers cracked up. She was laughing too.

    The next morning she’d changed the wording of her announcement to “If you have any questions about the journey…”

    Both days it was a riot and I felt completely ready for my workday and my clients – even the negative ones :-)

    Way to go, Jens. That’s some great commuter happiness right there.

    This is interesting because studies show that long commutes are bad for you:

    One in three employees with a commute longer than 90 minutes say they have had recurring neck or back pain within in the past 12 months. Just about the same amount say they have been diagnosed with high cholesterol…

    The study shows a strong correlation between obesity and the length of your commute…

    Employees with long commutes experienced lower levels of enjoyment and higher levels of fatigue and worry than employees with short commutes.

    Your take

    Have you ever introduced some happiness in your daily commute? How did you do it? Write a comment, I’d love to hear your story.

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  • 5 ways to get the most out of your weekly Arbejdsglaede Tips

    We’ve launched a service at www.whattheheckisarbejdsglaede.com where you can sign up to get a free happiness at work tip a week for 10 weeks.

    If you haven’t done so already, go there right now and sign up – it’s a great way to be reminded to regularly do something to create more happiness at work.

    We want you to get the most out of these tips – here are 5 ways to do that.

    1: Actually do it

    It goes without saying that these tips work best if you actually do them :o) If you only think about it, plan to do it, talk about it but don’t actually do it, not much is going to happen.

    2: Enjoy it

    These tips are all designed to be fun, fast and easy to do – they’re not meant to be drain on your energy and time. Always adapt the tip to your situation so that you have fun doing it.

    3: Share it

    In each email there will be a link to where you can share your experience. Please do that for two reasons:

    • It’s a good way for you to reflect on what you did and why it worked
    • It’s a great chance to help others learn from what you did

    4: Repeat it

    If you did it once and it worked, then why not do it again?

    5: Spread it

    You can absolutely do all of these tips alone but it’s even more fun and more effective if you can get more people from your workplace involved. Could you get a co-worker, your department or maybe the whole company to participate? One way is to forward the emails you get to others or you can send them a link to www.whattheheckisarbejdsglaede.com where they can sign up to get the tips themselves.

  • Creating a happy kitchen

    This short video shows Paul Cunningham, one of Denmark’s most famous chefs, at work in his new restaurant:

    What really strikes me about this is how happy everyone looks – if you know the restaurant business at all, you know how unusual that is.

    Also, the food looks delicious!!

  • Friends or money?

    A new survey of 1,000 workers in the United Kingdom conducted by the job search website Jobsite showed that for 70 percent of respondents, friends at work is the most crucial element to a happy working life. This compares to 55 percent who said money was most important.

    I was a guest on Huffington Post Live yesterday as part of a very interesting panel to talk about this. You can see the segment here.

    What do you value most at work – good relationships or money?

  • My top 10 most popular articles ever

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    I started this blog on October 14 2002, almost exactly 10 years ago, and it may have been one of my smartest decisions ever. Not only has blogging taught me to enjoy writing (and led to me writing 3 books) but it’s also been a great way to spread the message of happiness at work to the world.

    Since 2002 the blog has had more than 10,000,000 page views from about 7,000,000 unique visitors. My most popular blog post alone, has over 1,000,000 page views. Not bad :o)

    It’s been quite a ride and it’s still going strong, but here’s a short stroll down memory lane with my top 10 most popular articles from the last 10 years.

    10: Top 5 reasons why “The Customer is Always Right” is wrong
    The phrase “The customer is always right” was originally coined by Harry Gordon Selfridge, the founder of Selfridge’s department store in London in 1909. Ironically it often leads to unhappy employees and bad customer service. Here are the top five reasons why “The customer is always right” is wrong.

    9: Ten seeeeeeriously cool workplaces
    Physical space matters. It’s easier to be productive, creative and happy at work in a colourful, organic, playful environment than in a grey, linear, boring one. Take a tour of 10 really cool, beautiful workplaces.

    8: How NOT to lead geeks
    The main reason IT people are unhappy at work is bad relations with management, often because geeks and managers have fundamentally different personalities, professional backgrounds and ambitions. See the top 10 mistakes IT managers make.

    7: Secret salaries are a baaaaaad idea
    It’s a golden rule in most businesses that salaries must be kept secret. Except for a few heretics, it is almost universally accepted that mayhem would ensue in the workplace if people knew what their co-workers, their managers or – gasp – the CEO was making. Making salaries open inside a company instead seems like a wild idea sure, but it makes a lot of sense and brings advantages for both the workplace and for its people.

    6: Top five business maxims that need to go
    Much well-known business advice is sadly obsolete but can still be found in articles, business books and, not least, in daily use in the workplace. The worst of these old maxims are not only wrong, they’re bad for people and bad for business. Here’s my pick of the top 5 business maxims in serious need of an update – with a replacement for each.

    5: Rewards don’t motivate. No, really, they don’t.
    Many people don’t feel motivated at work, and there’s a very simple explanation for this: The motivational techniques used by most managers don’t work.

    4: Top ten bad excuses for staying in a job you hate
    If you’re unhappy at work, I’m sure that the thought “Man, I really should quit!” crosses your mind occasionally. So why don’t you? Here are 10 of the most common bad excuses for staying in a crappy job.

    3: 12 ways to pimp your office
    I’m not going to claim that a fancy desk or a weird chair is going to magically improve your creativity and productivity – but I am damn sure, that all that sameness and eternal corporate grayness, does nothing good for your ability to come up with great new ideas. Here are some ways to spruce up a workplace that may actually inject some color and fun into your work environment.

    2: Top ten signs you’re unhappy at work
    How do you know that you’re unhappy at work? In my work, I talk to a lot of people who are not happy with their jobs. Here are the top ten symptoms of unhappiness at work that I’ve observed. How many apply to you?

    1: Don’t let The Cult of Overwork ruin your life
    I know it’s normal to view people working constant overtime as heroes of the organization. But still I think they would be more efficient and enjoy life more if they cut down their time at work. They may find that they become more open, less stressed, have more fun AND are better role models for their employees. This cult of overwork has got to stop.

    You can find more popular posts from the blog here.

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