Happiness at Work: 10 Tips for How to be Happy at Work
How often do you consider quitting your job and feel that you are not getting paid enough for the dedication and service you offer your organization?
Happiness and satisfaction are subjective concepts – while for some of us monetary benefits can be equated with job satisfaction, some might strive for recognition of their hard work and lose motivation on failing to achieve so.
For some people, having a friendly environment at work is an essential requisite for deriving pleasure. No matter what the standards are, being content with our careers is crucial for maintaining the ‘work-life’ balance.
The University of Warwick, UK, in one of their studies revealed that happy workers are up to 12% more productive than unhappy professionals. They are more likely to be the proud owner of good health, have smooth flowing professional and personal relationships, and prove to be more beneficial for the organization as a whole (Oswald, Proto, & Sgroi, 2015).
In this article, we will take an in-depth look into the aspects of happiness at work, understand why it is vital to maintaining work motivation, and discuss some of the essential and cutting-edge techniques for deriving the maximum happiness at work.
Tom Miles
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What is Workplace Happiness?
Have you heard of the word “Arbedjsglæde”?
Arbedjsglæde means the happiness that we derive from ‘doing’ something. It is an emotion, a sense of well-being that comes when we feel good about the work we do when we feel involved in the ‘professional commitment’. Arbedjsglæde is a common word in Denmark, which means happiness at work. In a fundamental sense, workplace happiness comes when:
We enjoy doing the tasks assigned to us
We feel right about the people we are working with
We are happy with the financial benefits we get from the job
We have the scope of improving our existing skills
We feel respected and acknowledged at work
Happiness at work is not the sum of proper investment and good returns; it is more than that. Individual factors like personality traits, level of perception, underlying psychological stressors, and emotional intelligence influence the degree to which we feel comfortable in a professional situation.
In the book, “The Happiness Advantage” author Shawn Achor (2011) stated that a company with happy employees could increase their sales by 37%, productivity by 31%, which directly contribute toward building a high-performance work environment and improves the quality of life for all people involved with the work.
The Importance Of Happiness At Work
The concept of happiness at work was not there until a few decades ago, and there is a reason for that. In the last few years, we have seen drastic changes in the industrial sector – we now work in positions that did not exist twenty years ago.
Who could have thought of designations like Social Media Manager, SEO Expert, Chief Happiness Officer, Motivational Coach and Speaker, Career Counselor, or Project Coordinator in the 40s and 50s?
With such a wide range of complex tasks that we have to choose from today, it is only essential that we can extract the true happiness from the work we devote ourselves to. Happy employees are compulsory for a growing business.
The iOpener Institute, in one of their studies on organizational success, revealed that employees who feel happy in the workplace are 65% more energetic than employees who don’t (iOpener Institute, n.d.). They are two times more productive and are more likely to sustain their jobs over a long period of time.
Workplace Happiness Matters
Being happy is the first step to anything that we want to do successfully. Going to the office, mechanically performing all the duties assigned, and coming home to spend the rest of the day with a drink in hand and the TV in front is an ideal picture of an unhappy life.
A happy worker will reach office on time because he respects his punctuality and will perform all the daily tasks because he enjoys doing it. He will work out of love, not out of compulsion.
1. Happiness Multiplies Success
Happiness at work can spread like fire. Employees who feel pleasure in doing their work form a great example to others who are less motivated.
For example, when a team leader is happy with his position and work, he can influence his team with more positivity and maintain great functionality in the group. Happiness in the workplace is directly correlational to increased productivity and better group performance at work (Oswald, Proto, & Sgroi, 2015).
2. Happiness Builds Positivity
A troubled mind can be the storehouse of negative contemplations. When we work out of compulsion and don’t feel passionate about the contribution we make to the organization’s success, our mind starts wearing.
We become stressed, lose focus, and indulge self-deprecating thoughts like “I have to quit”, “I cannot take it anymore”, “I am not worth it”, etc. On the contrary, a professional who has strong positive feelings about his job will undoubtedly be more enthusiastic and focus on building himself. Rather than focusing on the problems, he would look into ways of solving it.
3. Happiness Reduces Stress
Annie Mckee, an International Leadership advisor, and writer, in one of her publications in the Harvard Business Review, mentioned that when employees are unhappy, their brain starts to disconnect from the positive emotions, and damages their power of creative thinking and reasoning (Mckee, 2017a).
She further said in her article on the link between our thoughts, feelings, and actions (Mckee, 2017a). If any of these breaks down, it is sure to hamper the others. If we feel happy in the 8 hours that we spend at work, if somehow we can hit the strings of positivity that will keep us uplifted, it can remarkably improve our responses to stress and redirect our focus to the positive aspects of the work-life.
4. Happiness at Work means a Healthy Life
If we allow the work stress and disappointments to enter into our personal space, there is no way that we can get rid of them.
Successful professionals who can optimize their work are less likely to suffer from hypertension, cardiac arrests, substance abuse, and other stress-related disorders (Frone, 1999; Kivimäki & Kawachi, 2015; Rosenthal & Alter, 2012).
When we are happy from inside, we get that power to fight diseases and the will to recover and get back on track.
Remaining physically or mentally sick can bring unprecedented hurdles even at work. We lose the energy to give it our best shot, become less focused on work and more focused on the woes, and consequently, kill our productive soul.
Not just that, happiness at work also makes us less prone to work-related stress and burdens.
5. Happiness at Work Increases Likeability
We all like to stay around people who have a positive attitude and look content with themselves. In a happy state of mind, people are more innovative and inspired. They are willing to improve their existing skills and contributes toward creating a fun and creative performance culture at work.
Finding happiness in work helps in building strong interpersonal relationships at work and encourage people to work together for the common welfare of the organization they are serving. It is the backbone for innovation, loyalty, responsibility, and success.
Happy workers can create a pleasant environment at work that is easy for others to cope in, and the more people get into it, the better the team grows.
Dyfed Loesche, an eminent statistical and data journalist, in one of his publications about countries having the best and the worst work-life balance, mentioned that the Netherlands is one of the happiest countries concerning the work-life balance (OECD Better Life Index, n.d.).
His interactive chart (given below) represents the countries that have great work-life balance, starting with the one that has the happiest working population.
The 4 Approaches To Life
Much like the famous saying that beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, positive psychology propagates that the way we see life is the way it becomes. According to Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar, a leading psychology writer and lecturer, there are four approaches to life (Fabian, n.d.):
The Hedonic Approach – Where a person is concerned more about his pleasures and means to satisfy them. An egocentric attitude, Hedonic followers cannot refrain from guilty pleasures (for example binge eating or oversleeping) even after knowing the detriments.
The Rat Race Approach – Where we are concerned about what is good for us and continue seeking selfish goals. It is an egocentric and competitive approach in the sense that the followers may choose to overlook the benefits of others as long as they are helping themselves.
The Nihilistic Approach – Mostly seen in depressed and stressed individuals, the nihilistic approach is entirely pessimistic and caters to indulging negative thoughts. A negative person fails to divert his attention from the worries and mishaps of life and lacks the motivation to reconcile from stress.
The Positive Approach – It is believed to be the way that leads to happiness and contentment. A positive approach is where people can uncover the right balance between ‘I want to’ and ‘I have to’ and focus on building their qualities. The positive approach is in all its essence, purely solution-focused, goal-oriented, and the direct pathway to ‘Arbedjsglæde.’
In The Work Design Questionnaire (Morgeson & Humphrey, 2006) they recognized the following factors to be associated with happiness at work:
Workplace autonomy and the freedom to decide
Task variations and scope for creative ideas
Task significance
Recognition for work
Task difficulty
Professional skills and specialization
Social support within the workplace
Feedback from superiors
Environmental conditions at work
Business management and networking channels
A Look at the Research
Making happiness a part of the performance culture, reputed organizations like Google and McDonalds have specific posts allotted for Chief Happiness Officers (CHOs). Their job is to spread positivity and work on maintaining the motivation of the workforce.
In 1999, before Google had employed their first CHO Chade-Meng Tan, a French fashion brand Kiabi hired a professional as the Happiness Officer. That was one of the earliest advancements in the field and after the massive success of Google and their motivational CHO Meng, recruiting happiness officers became a culture for companies in different sectors (Cooper & Robertson, 2018).
Dr. Christine Carter, a senior research associate at the University of California, mentioned in one of her research publications that happiness, whether at work or in life, is not just about deriving the feeling of satisfaction.
She said that happiness is not the feeling that comes from getting or doing what we want to, instead, it is the ability to access an array of positive emotions like optimism, gratitude, etc., and consciously choosing to implement them in life.
From her findings, it is evident that being happy at work doesn’t mean universal acceptance or the complete absence of negative stress; it is just the power through which we can widen our perspective and bounce back from negativities (Carter, 2010).
Happy employees are an excellent investment for successful companies. Studies show that when positive individuals run an organization, it is more likely to gain financially and flourish in the long term.
Research at the University of Warwick has estimated that workplace happiness increases productivity up to 12%. Happy workers are a guarantee for more productivity, more innovation, and less conflict.
Workplace Happiness And Personality Styles
In a study carried out by Robertson Cooper Limited, it was established that the ‘feel-good factor’ that an employee derives from his work and workplace is by all means dependent on their persona.
The study was conducted on a large sample of around 3200 employees from various organizations, and the results revealed that (Robertson & Cooper, n.d.):
Employees who felt good at work and had better working days scored high on positive emotions and low on emotions like loneliness, hopelessness, depression, and insecurities
The percentage of employees who had high scores on positive emotions were found to be more productive, more satisfied with their jobs, and healthier than others
People who scored high on positive emotions were more compassionate and empathetic towards their colleagues and subordinates
Employees who showed traits of depression, stress, and emotional vulnerabilities were less motivated, unwilling to improve their skills, and showed signs of unhealthy interpersonal connections at work.
That personality disposition is a major contributing factor in determining workplace happiness was the primary objective of this study, and the findings indicated the same.
Professor Cynthia D Fisher (2010), Ph. D. an eminent researcher in the Bond University, Australia, published an extensive report on her establishments about happiness at the workplace. She stated that what we regard as happiness at the workplace is dependent on constructs associated with socially acceptable judgment and consequences.
She defined happiness at work to be a combination of the level at which these constructs exist, the durability of their existence, and the specific quality of each construct.
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