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Workplace Happiness Matters

Each minute of our life is a lesson but most of us fail to read it. I thought I would just add my daily lessons & the lessons that I learned by seeing the people around here. So it may be useful for you and as memories for me.

Happiness at work is heavily surveyed and it is proved that an average human spends over 90,000 hours at work over his/her lifetime. People still figure out how to work on feeling happy or coming in terms with your work. Just like everyone, you may be also thinking that happiness should be the primary goal of having a good work-life.

Most people chase success at work, thinking that will make them happy. The truth is that happiness at work will make you successful. 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.

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.

“Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.” ~Dalai Lama

How to work toward happiness at work

So now that we know the essence and benefits of happiness at work, how can we foster, support, and build it?

There’s no single, simple answer to this question. However, in developing our course, we have identified four key pillars of happiness at work: Purpose, Engagement, Resilience, and Kindness—or PERK, as in to PERK up your happiness at work, or make happiness your company’s best PERK.

Studies report multiple ways to strengthen each pillar of PERK on personal, social, and structural levels at work—through individual exercises and activities, the development of key social skills, shifts in leadership style, organization-wide initiatives, or changes to company policy. While this field is young and ideas overlap, we offer PERK as a flexible, integrated framework to help guide thinking about how to increase happiness at work.

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.

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.

She further said in her article on the link between our thoughts, feelings, and actions. 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.

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.

His interactive chart (given below) represents the countries that have great work-life balance, starting with the one that has the happiest working population.

Happiness Workshop Ideas for Employees

Workshop Activities To Build Team Success – Access here
The Work Happiness Workshop – Access here
The Employee Stress Management Online Workshop – Access
Happiness In The Workplace Everyday – Access here
Team Building And Effective Communications Workshop – Access here
Happiness At Work In-depth Workshop by Alexander Kjerulf – Access here
Arrive At Happy Workshop – Access here

Finding happiness is as much about the decisions and actions you take as it is about having good things happen to you. And remember, if you don’t enjoy your life, change it! Doing the same thing today will create the same results tomorrow. Try some of these strategies and put yourself in a position for happiness.

Please feel free to share your story and any lessons you learned, you experienced, you came across in your life in the comments below. If you enjoyed this, or any other other posts, I’d be honoured if you’d share it with your family, friends and followers!

If you wish to follow my journey outside of my writing, you can find me on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/MunnaPrawin) Instagram(MunnaPrawin) and Twitter(@munnaprawin1).

Resignation is not a CRIME

22 Jan

Employee Resignation, we know it is inevitable in any organization. Sooner or later, even the best employer has employees resign. The reasons are endless for what causes an employee resignation. But, each employee resignation poses the employer with the same series of questions. Unexpected resignations present big challenges for leaders, managers especially those unaccustomed to dealing with them. It’s probably a frustration you haven’t had for a while — and if you’re a relatively new manager, you might not have ever experienced this before.

As our team members grow in their careers, they may branch out beyond what is available to them in their current role or company. Sometimes, what they are looking for next isn’t something we can offer. I agree, It’s a dreadful moment when a well-liked member of your team tenders their resignation. You experience a cocktail of emotions ranging from fear about how the rest of the team will react.

illustration-large-resignation-letter Read the rest of this entry »

Toxic Co-Workers

12 Jul

Article by an Annoyed Employee in IT..

You can pick your friends; you can pick your job. But you can’t pick your colleagues any more than you can the next assignment to come down from upper management. It’s no surprise, then, that not every colleague is a good one.

The first, and by far the best, kind of co-workers are the nice ones. You know, the ones who are always quick to offer you a hand whenever you need one. They’re friendly, helpful, and normal to your standards. With them, everything’s peachy! You have absolutely no complaints when it comes to the nice co-workers. Heck, they may be the only aspect of the workplace that’s keeping you sane!

The next category is toxic co-workers. They may be disguised as nice co-workers or even weird, annoying, or obnoxious co-workers, but they actually belong in a whole different category. Those co-workers are out to intentionally or unintentionally hurt your career, and you need to avoid them at all costs. 2013_bsl_CopeToxicWorkers_01

Greed, laziness, selfishness and backstabbing behaviors are an all-too-common part of many company cultures. Often, the people who personify these behaviors within organizations step on the colleagues who are just trying to put in an honest day’s work—so they can get ahead or get out of pulling their load—and it’s time to call them out.

The backstabber: Watch out for this one – he might appear to be on your side, but behind your back he will bad mouth you, lie about you and may be out to destroy you. The backstabber tries to make himself look good at your expense – by making you look bad. Pay attention to how you feel around this person and what you hear; seek clarification if you’re getting mixed signals.

The Politician. Promotions based on merit are not what these schmoozers believe in. Instead, they participate in office politics—popping in the boss’s office every five minutes, declaring their indispensable worth. The Politician is consumed with company politics. Her work life becomes a game in which she is constantly trying to “win” the next job, the next promotion, the next project. However, she spends little or no time fulfilling her current responsibilities.

The time sucker: This is someone who doesn’t think about the schedules and time of others. This employee will simply show up at your workstation to ask questions and go on tangents, with no consideration for your time, prior commitments, deadlines, etc.

The gossiper: Keep in mind that those who gossip to you will gossip about you. It doesn’t hurt to listen to what you hear – just don’t participate in the conversation. Often, the industry grapevine is true, but the gossiper tends to exaggerate, so beware. Some people feel they’ll make themselves look better by spreading information, especially about someone else. The good news is that most people catch on to this tactic, but not always before damage is done.

The Taskmaster. Have you ever come across someone at work who spends all of his time worrying about what everyone else is doing, while at the same time complaining that no one else in the company ever does anything and that he is saddled with all the work? This is the Taskmaster. Taskmasters are quick to assign tasks to other people to avoid having to do anything—and yet as soon as a task is completed, somehow the Taskmaster is there to take credit for getting it done. The Taskmaster constantly works to create the perception that he is so busy that he just couldn’t possibly work one more thing into his day.

The credit-robber: There are people who take credit for other people’s ideas in order to shine the light on themselves, no matter whom they steal from to do it. The credit-robber usually steals the spotlight when you least suspect it, and in front of others. Being caught off-guard makes it difficult to know how to respond and, by the time you catch your breath, you’ve lost your moment.

The unsupportive supervisor: This is a tough one: When you don’t have your supervisor on your side, you’re on your own. Many supervisors feel threatened by their staff; some thrive on the power they feel from making others feel small. You must be very careful when the problem is your supervisor – as with any negative scenario, you need to take a step back to evaluate the situation and do everything you can to protect yourself.

For most of us, working in an office can offer a pleasant, exciting, and motivating path to a successful career. However, sometimes we encounter unprofessional, unhappy, and downright hostile colleagues. When there are unhealthy people within your organization, you’re not just fighting the market and your competitors, you’re now fighting internal battles between teams and individuals just to get something done.

You can pick your friends, you can pick your job. But you can’t pick your colleagues. It’s all up to us how wisely we react and handle the Toxic Co-workers at work environment.

Please feel free to share your story and any lessons you learned, you experienced, you came across in your life in the comments below.

Thoughts To Inspire

Tag Archives: Work Place

Workplace Happiness Matters