Jessica Pryce-Jones was taking her lunch-time run around St James’s Park in
London when she realised just how unhappy she was in her job. “I wondered if
I could get gently hit by a bus because then I wouldn’t have to go back to
work,” she said.
Fortunately there were no buses in the vicinity but the thought itself was
enough to spur her into action: she quit her job, studied psychology and
went on to found iOpener, a consultancy that specialises in improving
performance by making people happier.
“There’s a really strong link between happiness and productivity,” she said.
“People who are happy at work do, in effect, one day more a week than their
unhappiest colleagues.”
But boosting productivity through happiness is not a simple matter of offering
pay rises or bringing in an interior decorator to feng shui the office. In
fact, Pryce-Jones’s research suggests that neither of these things will make
the slightest difference.
What people actually want from work is to do something they feel is both
valuable and valued, she said. Managers can make a difference by taking
simple steps such as acknowledging good work and giving people more control
about how they manage their tasks. “The big thing everyone wants is to
fulfil their potential and do interesting things that stretch them.”
However, individuals also have to take responsibility for their own happiness.
Pryce-Jones couches it in terms of self-awareness and attitude, not an
expectation that every moment will be ecstatic: “It’s about recognising that
lows are part of life,” she said. Another useful approach is to shape your
job to maximise the time spent on doing things you enjoy – many people
dawdle over tasks they dislike and thus find themselves less able to focus
on what they enjoy.
The biggest single step that individuals can take is to choose to be happy,
said Alex Kjerulf, chief happiness officer at the Happy at Work Consultancy
and the author of Happy Hour is 9-5. “Rather than settling for a job that’s
not too bad, say to yourself ‘I want to be happy at work’,” he said. “You
can be happy as a bus driver, as a mortuary worker, as a doctor . . . but a
lot of people don’t seem to want to be.”
Kjerulf, who is Danish, attributes this to an innate British tendency to see
work as something to be endured rather than enjoyed. “Danes have more of an
expectation that work should be fun, something that people should look
forward to in the morning. Yes, we want the salary and the benefits but more
than that we want to be happy.”
Finding the right job and the right employer is critical – as is a willingness
to leave an unhappy position. That’s what Lisa Blackshaw did when a lack of
training meant that she felt unequipped to do her work properly. The
knock-on effects were significant. “I used to hate getting up to go to
work,” she said. “And as well as being unhappy at work I was taking it home
and it started to affect the relationship I was in.”
She was shocked to discover just how much difference moving to a job in a
supportive environment made. The 26-year-old is now a receptionist at
Moneypenny, a telephone answering service, where she feels supported by her
colleagues and managers. “You get trained, you know what you are doing.
Everybody works together in teams where you bond with other people and if
you have problems one of your team members can help.”
As well as loving her job, she is much happier overall, she said. Her advice
to others who are unhappy at work is straightforward: leave and change your
life.
Kjerulf said that most people wait far too long to quit. Part of the problem
is that we are good at listing the reasons not to quit – financial risks,
trouble finding a new job and so on – but we rarely list the downsides of
staying in a bad job.
“You can lose your health, your marriage, your career,” he said. “It can grind
you down over the years to the point where you have no self-esteem, no
confidence.” It can also damage health.
“I talk to a lot of people who quit and I have never spoken to anyone who said
that they wished they had not done it, or that they wished they had waited,”
said Kjerulf. “Everyone says they wish they had done it sooner.”
What the experts say:
Concentrate on the parts you find most enjoyable
Bruce Stanley, a life coach with Embody, a creativity company
In the West, when we talk about happiness and unhappiness at work we tend to
use a remedial approach: we think that when we are unhappy the best thing to
do is to diagnose what’s wrong and then fix it. This can help people to move
away from what’s making them unhappy but it does not do anything to actually
create happiness.
The most effective way to do that is to make small steps based on spending
more time doing the things we enjoy, which we are good at. That in turn
means focusing not on what makes us unhappy but on embracing our strengths.
For example, this could involve reshaping your job so that you can spend
more time doing the parts you find enjoyable.
However, the other important factor is changing the way you think. So, rather
than saying “I hate doing accounts”, think “When I have done these accounts
I will be in a better position to advise my customers effectively”, or
whatever it may be that you most enjoy.
Build a wide network of supportive colleagues
Nic Sale, head of diversity at Pearn Kandola, the business psychologists
Most of us spend a lot of time at work and very often what we do is a big part
of our identity. That means that if we are not happy, the chances are this
will affect our psychological well-being.
All the research says that to be happy at work you need to enjoy what you are
doing and think of what you are doing as worthwhile. Critically, however,
you also need good links with your colleagues. One of the biggest factors
for people being unhappy at work is not having strong social relationships
with coworkers. That’s not to say everybody has to love everybody but you
should have as wide a network as possible. Simply relying on one or two
close colleagues isn’t enough because it can leave you vulnerable if they
depart.
Aim to develop the biggest possible group of contacts. The more people you
have in your network, the more sources of support you will have when you are
under pressure or when things go wrong.
Put people in the job that is right for them
Neil Wilson, managing director of Badenoch & Clark, the recruitment
company that publishes the Happiness at Work Index
Many businesses now acknowledge the importance of engaging workers: for a
start, the research indicates that engaged workers are more productive, more
innovative and less likely to quit. There is a strong link, also, between
happiness and engagement - people can’t be engaged if they aren’t happy -
but it’s not the same thing. For example, an employee who can get away with
doing a minimal amount of work might well be happy but an engaged worker
combines happiness with a desire to work hard.
Companies have to help all staff to develop a sense of purpose. People should
be able to see how what they do contributes. Staff also need to be given
clear expectations and support. Perhaps most importantly, companies need to
ensure they have the right people in the right jobs - a mismatch makes it
nearly impossible for staff to be happy.
Create a sense of freedom and autonomy
Stefan Wills, programme and client director at Ashridge Business School
The Chinese have a proverb that says people need three things to be happy:
someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for. I believe that
a person’s vocation can influence all three of these but it has a
particularly big part to play in the second, because for most people work is
intimately linked with their own sense of purpose.
Employers can also help by allowing people a degree of freedom and autonomy in
how they do their jobs; this in turn will benefit the business, as this
generally translates into a higher degree of creativity.
Interestingly, many people have far more freedom in their jobs than they
realise - often they imagine constraints that do not actually exist. Leaders
thus have a responsibility not simply to give people autonomy at work but to
help them see where it already exists. Some managers may feel that it is
their job to direct staff, but the best leaders realise that it is more
effective to act as coach and supporter.
Find out more
THE Sunday Times Recruiter Forum is a platform for employers and industry
experts to communicate with job candidates. They can share good practice and
discuss the issues affecting recruitment and retention in today’s market. To
have your say on the week’s topic go to timesonline.co.uk/ recruiterforum.
Firms wishing to get involved should contact brendan.jones@newsint.co.uk
Upcoming Sunday Times events for HR professionals: Beating the recession: 1
Organisational restructuring (June) Beating the recession: 2 Preparing for
the upturn (July)
For further details go to beatingtherecession.org.uk
or phone 020 7602 6655
