We asked this important question to our Happiness at Work Expert, Aurelie Litynski – Founder of Happiness at Work and she shares with us her expertise on the topic:
Does happiness matter at work?
Maybe the first question we should be asking ourselves should be:
Does happiness matter in our life? Well, for most of us – YES!
We are all trying to do our best to be happy in our lives. But let also remember that work is a huge part of our lives too. Most of us spend approximately 70% of the year working (=260 days/year). That’s an impressive number, don’t you think?
So we should be as well focusing on being happy and enjoying what we do during this 70%. However, we tend to complain and not act on changing the situation at work if we are not happy. It’s hard to get out of our negative wheel. We should take action and make the situation better.
Happiness at work matters for many reasons. Your happiness level has an impact first on yourself, then on the people around you, and then on a larger scale.
Happy Employees = Happy Teams = Happy Customers = Happy Company = Happy Employees
It’s a loop!
Need some facts to convince you?
Its a proven fact that positive emotions can transform our behaviors, relationships, and productivity at work. Studies carried out by researchers at Harvard University and the University of Warwick show that happier employees are more creative, engaged, and motivated, and that they perform better as a result.
Furthermore, our happiness has a positive knock on effect for our staff, teams, customers, and the company as a whole. Researchers call this the “service-profit chain”.
It’s a win-win situation: happiness is good for YOU and your BUSINESS. A meta-analysis of 339 independent research studies (2019) found that employee wellbeing is consistently positively correlated with the company’s performance.
So, with many companies still working remotely, it’s more important than ever that you make time to check in with your teams. We can also see the positive impact of a positive attitude on the stock market. Companies that prioritize employee wellbeing see an increase in customer satisfaction, reduced staff turnover. Therefore the companies are financially stronger than those that don’t.
Happiness is a skill you can train!
Happiness is an inside job, you need to work on it on a regular basis for sustainable results.
Happiness is a skill as well as empathy, resilience or communication. We can learn how to master these skills. We can learn to be happier. However, there is no magic formula to increase your happiness as it’s very personal. What makes someone happy, might not be the same for someone else because happiness triggers more of your emotional state than the rational one.
You might think that you need to accomplish big things to be happy in your personal life or at work (such as having a great partner, kids, great salary, good title…) and still, if you achieve them you might still don’t feel happy…
Well, the reality is that Most of the things we think make us happy, dont make us as happy as we think as explained by two experts Daniel T. Gilbert and Timothy D. Wilson from the University of Virginia.
Many experts in positive psychology and happiness at work (such as Martin Seligman, Emiliana Simon Thomas, Sonya Lyubomirsky, and Alexander Kjerulf …) are sharing in their research that having good relationships, a purpose, a feeling of achievement, and positive emotions will help us to be happier in what we do.
Aurelie Litynski tackles these important topics and gives many tips on how to be truly happy at work in her TEDx Talk which just reached 100K views!
Written by Aurelie Litynski
Our Happiness at Work Expert, she supports teams to create a positive work environment which translates to better productivity and performance.
Check out her profile on WeWent
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