Great comments - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Great comments - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog The best thing about writing this blog, are all the great comments it gets. As the blog gets more and more popular (and its totally getting out of hand right now, I love it), it seems that I get more and more great ideas, feedback, thoughts, input. Here are a few of my favorite recent comments. Mack asked why we want to be happy at work at all and a great conversation ensued, including this comment: I?ve seen businesses make drastic moves and have a groundswell of support from the employees regardless of the sacrifices they endure. I?ve seen businesses throw goodies at employees and they still complain. What it?s about is trust, and it?s more than just having an HR slogan of ?we will be trustworthy???. The problem is that corporations don?t want people working for them, they want human resources. Trust? If you?re arguing to make corporations see the bottom line from the long term picture (by promoting trust and human decency towards employees), you?re fighting the entire history of business in this country, buddy. Good luck! Jeremy Yes that is exactly what were up against about 200-300 years of tradition for doing the opposite. Call me an optimist, but I really believe that us happy people are so much more efficient and creative that we are the ones who will define the future of business. I wrote a post about why happines at work does not mean coddling employees. Frank had a poetic reply: Its like removing valleys that make the mountains disappear. Its like shortening the marathon.. Its like a lottery with a money-back guarantee. Its like a sponge hammer that wont hurt you when hitting your fingers. Frank Schophuizen Exactly! A.M. Starkins latest entry is about getting people to buy into some much-needed changes. Heres one thought: A dysfunctional team can?t be fixed over night. Use the energy of those who are willing, and once others start seeing results and improvements, they?ll either get on board, or they?ll stay in your way, but if you?re always showing that you really on their side, and want to help, then they should come around. The comment ?My seniors have all adviced me to use fear as motivation??? made me laugh. It sounds like a number of people are already on their way out, and putting the fear of getting fired/laid off over their heads probably won?t motivate them. It?s one thing to say that people need to get their acts together at this time when you?re looking at turning the team around and the business you?re in, but make sure that doesn?t come off as, ?do what I say, or else??? because that?ll only make people more disgruntled. -MyNameIsMatt I agree. This process is an invitation, meaning you can invite people to come along, but you cant push them. Thanks for all the great comments, people. I cant begin to tell you how much Im learning and how much Im enjoying this. Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related Great comments - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog I thought you should all see some great comments that have come in recently with stories and ideas from all over the world. First, this comment that Inkling left on my post about The Cult of Overwork: I used to work at a company with a strong ?overwork?? culture. After two years obsessing about getting in at 7, leaving at 7 (and then working even more from home), my wife had a baby. I took a week off, then felt justified in limiting my work to 40 hours for the next couple of months (due to my lack of sleep and need to help around the house). In that two-month period I realized I accomplished exactly as much and was exactly as busy as I was when I worked ~60 hours/week. From then on, I was in at 8, out at 5, aside from the occasional large project, and I completely stopped working at home. I was never happier, more organized or more successful in that job. With this peace of mind and free time, I was able to invest a few hours in learning the GTD system, learning more about my field and getting more involved in professional and community organizations. (This may have averaged about 3 hours/week at the max.) All that I learned in this time enabled me to get a new job and a significantly higher salary. Meanwhile, when I talk to employees at the old company, they?re bragging about the 75-hour workweeks and discussing which anti-anxiety meds they take. Great stuff!! Can we please all agree that its the results that count, not the hours? Tanuki reports on happiness at work in Japan: Conformity and obedience are ingrained in the culture and reinforced through the education system focused on mindless repetition, so they just dont know any better. What it gives you is a team of mindless, uncreative and unhappy drones contrary to the stereotype, Japanese workers are one of the least productive and effective ones I have ever seen, and this coming from an eastern European like me is saying something ;) To a westerner like me the situation is horrible, bordering on ridiculous. One example I like to cite in discussions like this is that many people in my office work longer than ATM machines (in Japan many ATMs do not operate 24/7) somehow soulless boxes need more free time than living people? Sounds horrible to me. I wonder if its ingrained to the point where people are happy with it because the expect it or if theres still a lingering dissatisfaction. Im hoping for the latter! A great way to schedule appreciation from Kris Lea: I really appreciate recognition for work well done, so to role model that for others at my workplace, I do the following: set aside time on Fridays to write notes of praise to the person and their manager. If warranted, I send a ?goody??, which is a gift card. Setting time aside on my electronic calendar reminds me to thank those who?ve helped me during the week, and it gets the weekend off on a great start! Wonderful idea! If praising others doesnt come naturally to you (and to many people it doesnt) heres a great way to do it anyway. And finally, Ben tells the story of a great initiative thats being shut down: A few months ago, I mentioned we started an initiative for the supervisors to walk around and speak to employees more. In the end, I was the only one doing it and I was basically told not to because if I didn?t say hello to every single employee, it may appear to be discrimination or preferential treatment. It was even suggested that talking to one or two people of the opposite gender could appear to be an inter-office affair. There are so many biases there that I can?t even begin to comment. End result, employees are now upset that I never come by to check on them, I was the only one that did and they want to know why I stopped. No good deed goes unpunished. Indeed. I gotta wonder what school of management states that contact between employees and managers is such a minefield that it can only happen under strictly controlled circumstances and must be held at a minimum. Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related