Picture this:
Your alarm goes off. After a good morning stretch and rubbing the sleep out of your eyes, you start thinking about your day. A feeling of contentment washes over you because even though your bed is comfy and warm, you feel energized by what the day holds for you at work. The combination of what you are doing and the people you do it with makes putting your toes on the cold floor worth it.
We hope that this is your experience. Most of us work a long time. The satisfaction we create at work is part of building a happy life.
Between our psychotherapy practices and G2 Solutions Business Consulting, we spend a lot of time talking to people about work. We discuss the type of satisfaction people are looking to create. People want to find job happiness, but they often struggle to do so. We are going to spend our next few blogs talking about professional happiness.
Before we delve into the work world, let's talk about why happiness is important.
It seems like a no brainer. Being happy is better than the alternative and there is a lot of science to support this intuitive notion. Happy people not only report more optimism and reduced stress levels, but they also demonstrate improved problem-solving skills, stronger immune systems and lower blood pressures. Their overall sense of well-being leads to more meaningful relationships both personally and professionally.
Reporting high levels of happiness is not the same as toxic positivity. There is a place in a happy person’s life for negative emotions. Negative emotions can provide a balance, drawing attention to issues that need fixing. They can be the proverbial canary in the coal mine that spurs us to action. While no one wants negative emotions to hang around, they do provide the context for appreciating when things are good and lead to a deeper sense of purpose.
At work, happiness has been found to be positively related to performance, innovation and efficiency. From the management perspective, studies have shown that happier employees drive down costs. They take fewer sick days and are more likely to remain in their positions.
Again, a lot of this seems to be common sense. The trick is to take this information and apply it. But how do we cultivate environments that support happiness? It turns out that workplaces where people report high levels of contentment have some common characteristics:
Purpose:
Swarthmore professor Barry Schwartz explains purpose in the workplace this way: “We want to see how our progress is tied to meaningful, important, and self-transcendent impact in the workplace”. Purpose makes us feel a part of something bigger than ourselves which contributes to well-being.
Autonomy:
The word “control” can have a bad connotation. Think of the stereotype of the controlling mother-in-law. The reality is that we all want a level of agency in our lives. It makes us feel confident and safe. In the business world, autonomy means ownership over our schedules and the way that we do our work. This results in a feeling of confidence that those around us trust us to make good decisions.
Engagement:
Connection is essential to human development at all stages. Since we spend so much time at work, engagement is an important aspect of workplace happiness. Companies where people feel connected through common experiences report greater productivity. Infusing engagement with some fun, creativity and kindness support a culture where people look forward to coming to work.
Impact:
No one wants to feel like they are just a cog in a big corporate machine. We want to see the difference that our actions make. This is an important element of happiness at work. Impact is achieved when employees understand how their skills are integral to achieving company goals.
When a business has all of these elements in healthy doses, their employees are much less likely to continually hit the snooze button.
How do you assure that your company has a good mix of these ingredients?
Check out next week’s blog for some practical tips on how to infuse these elements into your company.
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