Finding Ways to be Happy at Work

Finding ways to be happy at work matters because as we discovered in "what causes happiness?" there is evidence that we can choose to be happier and that there is also growing support for the view that a happy person is likely to be more successful in the workplace. So what choices are likely to help us become happier and more productive at work?

Here we suggest 5 areas to explore:

Strengths

Service

Relationships

Performance

Balance

Ways to be Happy: Build on Strengths

Firstly, from our article, "what causes happiness?" we highlighted the need to intentionally build into work practices activities which we enjoy, that engage our strengths and lead towards meaningful results. The research on happiness suggests that it may be far more effective if we concentrated on strengths and helped people to get better at what they are good at rather than concentrating on weaknesses.

The work of positive psychology especially has brought attention to concentrating on our strengths as human beings and on what helps to build a good life.

Ways to be Happy: Serve Others

Secondly, there is also growing evidence that happiness is more likely to be evident when people do things in a giving way to others. When our strengths are used to serve others we are more likely to cultivate happiness. Imagine this kind of approach adopted more in our organizations. How would it impact our customers when real concern to help them is demonstrated? How would it help colleagues to develop and grow? Serving others is not just good for your happiness, it's good for business.

Ways to be Happy: Create Good Working Relationships and Connections

There are a number of sources and surveys that suggest that we are all far more affected by the relationship we have with our immediate manager than with the wider organization. We can more easily suffer a company we don't particularly like if we have a good manager, than working for a good company with a bad manager. So the relationship people have with their manager really matters.

But it is not just with our bosses that relationships matter. If you were to ask what is most likely to help people finding happiness in life and work, the answer is surprisingly clear. The big winner is our relatedness and connectedness with others. The bonds we form with others make a big difference to our happiness.

Happy people seem to have better social connections. Creating the conditions for good relationships at work is perhaps more important than we think.

Ways to be Happy: Perform

What we chose to do in life and work has been found to bring significant performance benefit when the activities we do combine challenge with our strengths (what we are good at) to do something we love. We talk about being "in-the-zone" or "in the flow", when things seem easy to us and we feel very productive. Mihalyi Csíkszentmihályi (pronounced: Chick-sent-me-high-ee), who developed the idea of "flow" states that we're happiest when absorbed in activities that balance challenging tasks with appropriate skill levels (our strengths).
He found that when people say they love what they do, they are often engaged in work or other activities which they find intrinsically rewarding. They are in a state of effortless concentration which he calls "flow" - an easy metaphor with which to identify.

Ways to be Happy: Balance

Our final suggestion is perhaps the most important. It is to make sure you build balance into what you do. Happiness at work should flow from being happy in life. For many reasons it is important to not let yourself become defined by your work. Happy people, it seems are more able to cope with difficulties at work often because they are rounded people, with a strong social network and have other roles outside of work.

It is all too easy to let a long hour culture masquerade as a productive workplace. We often need to be reminded that it is not the quantity of time you spend at work that matters, but the quality of work you do with your time. There is much to be said for John Ruskin's wise words:

"In order that people may be happy in their work, these three things are needed: they must be fit for it; they must not do too much of it; and they must have a sense of success in it."

It seems that where our strengths are engaged in serving others, where camaraderie is cultivated and activities where the challenge matches our skills then people are happier and happier people contribute more to the success of an organization. So being happy is definitely worth it, and looks like it has good potential for producing meaningful results in the workplace.

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