Happiness in the Workplace

April 13, 2011 - PRLog -- The Cambridge Dictionary defines Happiness as “the feeling of being happy” and the word Happy as the “feeling showing or causing pleasure or satisfaction.”

Why is happiness so important in the workplace nowadays?  Ever since 1998 when Martin Seligman’s Positive Psychology became a formal body of science, research conducted has been extensive and the findings overwhelming.  While happiness is the main determinant of success at home and at work, firms with happy employees have a higher revenue, higher profits and higher levels of customer satisfaction.

Findings of the Positive Psychology research have highlighted that in the workplace happier employees:

a.  Are fifty percent more productive.
b.  Are more creative with a higher quality of work.
c.  Are more motivated than their peers.
d.  Provide higher levels of customer service.
e.  Rate better at Employee Performance Evaluations.
f.   Stay longer with their organisations.

Workplace happiness is one of the keys to an organisation’s success.  Organisations with happier employees have higher revenue, profits and customer service.  

Happy people are presented with the same challenges as unhappy people.  However how we stay happy is what we focus on.  Remember, what we focus on “grows”.  Happy people tend to focus on the positives while maintaining an underlying sense of reality.  Some techniques to develop a happiness mindset include:

a.  Keep a gratitude journal (even Oprah does).
b.  Seek the good in others and in challenging situations.  What are the learnings there?
c.  Take daily if not weekly time out.  Do activities that you love and make your heart sing.
d.  Develop goals e.g. career, finance, spiritual, physical, etc and take a daily step towards
     them no matter how small.
e.  Do a daily kind deed to someone.  This can be as small as a kind compliment or a
     smile.
f.   Maintain peace and harmony in your relationships including that with yourself. Meditation
     is very helpful in this.  
g.  Develop a sense of humour.  Remember “Laugher is the best medicine”.  Often humour
     is thought of being inborn i.e. you either have it or don’t.  However humour can be
     learnt.    Approach humour as a learnable skill.  Read, listen, watch, practise and try it.  
     You may stumble but in the end you will overcome it.  Humour improves morale and
     productivity, reduces stress and increases profit.  However you would need to be aware
     of other people’s sensitivities.  Avoid putdowns, racial and religious slurs or highlighting
     the mistakes other people.  Develop a style that is congruent to you.  

Regardless of who or what we are, we deserve to be happy.  Happiness is a gift that we can give to ourselves and to others.  It is our birthright.  You are meant to be happy, so enjoy the journey and live with joy.

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I am Aaron Adhikary, the Corporate Happiness King. Because organisations are suffering from loss of profits due to low morale, productivity and stress, my mission is to create a happy work culture for employees and increase the organisation's profits.