Your overall level of happiness can increase the ability to bring your best at work.

When we encounter the word “Emotions”, happiness is the first emotions sparks in our mind. Happiness is our all-time favourite emotion. Therefore, happiness at work plays an equally important role in our life. As our career start to take shape, we learn to find a rhythm between work-life balance. In other words, the work-life balance that leads to satisfaction and sense of happiness.

What is Happiness and Happiness at the workplace

Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of
life, the whole aim and end of human existence.

-Aristotle

Happiness is the emotion we pursue and also learn to live in the emotion of happiness. For every “Why” question, like, Why you want to buy a good car? or Why you want to be rich? The immediate answers are, we want to be happy. Which means, undoubtedly we pursue happiness. But to achieve the long-run happiness we even have to find “What” makes us happy.

In other words, ‘being happy’ is not the end goal, it’s a journey. Here we have to find what makes us the happiest and regularly engage in those activities to help us lead a more fulfilling life.¹

“Arbedjsglæde” is a Danish(Denmark) word pronounced as “ah-bites-gleh-he”, AKA = Happiness at Work! Which means the happiness we get from ‘doing’ something. We achieve a sense of well being from our professional work commitments and achievements.

Factors like emotional intelligence, personality characteristic, level of perception can influence comfort at the profession and so it can influence your happiness at work as well. Shawn Achor, speaker known for his advocacy of positive psychology and author of the book “The Happiness Advantage”, mentioned in his book that happy employees can raise their sales by 37%, productivity by 31%, which contribute in producing overall high performance at work and improve the sense of the quality of life of employees involved.

Being Happy at work matters

Compulsion at anything does not bring enjoyment and happiness. At work, if we perform with a compulsion for a long time we may lose our sense of well being and lower our productivity level. Instead, there should be ample of discipline and rituals towards your workplace. Discipline and rituals flow from inward to outward, which also means that this can drive employees inner self-generated feelings toward their work.

Neuroscientists Richard Davidson points to a simple fact that Happy people are better workers. They are “emotionally and intellectually committed” to their organizations.³

1. Happiness builds sensible optimism – Sensible optimism means to consider challenges as part of the process and does not get distracted by them. It also means, we can encounter with negative thoughts but not to get influenced by them and fall back to the positive zone. In conclusion, happiness builds positivity.
2. Happiness adds to great success – Happiness can enhance a sense of pleasure, feels motivated thus can increase productivity and performance persistence at work. Combination of success.
3. Happiness leads to Healthy work-life balance – With the understanding of emotional intelligence and self-awareness we can keep away work stress from our personal life. This can help us to find a healthy rhythm in our relationship as well.

Following factors are associated with happiness at work

According to The Work Design Questionnaire (Morgeson and Humphrey, 2006) factors associated with happiness at work.²

1. Workplace autonomy and the freedom to decide
2. Task variations and scope for creative ideas
3. Task significance
4. Recognition for work
5. Task difficulty
6. Professional skills and specialization
7. Social support within the workplace
8. Feedback from superiors
9. Environmental conditions at work
10. Business management and networking channels

In conclusion, we have developed an understanding that happiness in the workplace is very important for our personal and professional life.

Measure happiness in the workplace

The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire –

This test is easy to give and provide us with insight into how we are at our happiness level.

This Quiz to Figure Out How to Be Happier at Work by Annie McKee

This quiz asks you to reflect and deepen your self-awareness — that all-important emotional intelligence competency that enables us to learn and grow

Footnotes:

1. Vanessa Buote, Social Psychologist.
2. Madhuleena Roy Chowdhury, Psychiatric Counsellor.
3. Book- Happiness (HBR Emotional Intelligence Series)