My sister once told me that “you can shovel sh*t for a living and be happy, if you like the people you are doing it with.”
I was in the latter end of high school at the time, fretting about what I was going to “do with my life,” and this idea was a lightbulb moment for me that I have never forgotten.
“What” you specifically do for a job is oftentimes not as important as the environment you do it in.
Experiencing happiness at work isn’t a matter of stumbling upon the profession that is ‘perfect’ for us and then riding that wave of joy into retirement.
Rather, like wellbeing, happiness is made up of a bunch of different components that can be experienced in many different occupations and workplaces.
So what are the key factors that we can apply to different jobs to have a better chance at finding happiness at work?
First, let’s take a look at what it means to be happy.
What is happiness?
Happiness is subjective.
The way in which we experience happiness and the value we attribute to those feelings will depend on our culture and our personal values.
Take a moment now to reflect on times in your life in which you felt ‘happy.’
What makes you feel happy?
You might notice a distinction between moments of euphoria - say, swinging your kid up in the air at the beach for the first time or listening to your favourite song at a gig - and times when you found joy or a sense of purpose in an activity that was not always pleasurable during the process.
People who engage in adventure fitness activities call this second type of happiness ‘type 2 fun.’ That is, activities which might feel difficult in the moment but rewarding afterwards, like getting caught in a howling gale during a hiking trip and laughing about it at the finish line.
Parenting and running a business might also fall into this category (at least some of the time).
We can also find happiness in the happiness of others (this is called compersion) and then there’s the small, gentle moments of happiness that come from life’s small pleasures. Walking a dog on the beach, the first lick of an ice cream on a hot day, winding the window down on a long car journey just as “Little Red Corvette” comes on the playlist.
Eudonic vs hedonic happiness
Psychologists and philosophers distinguish between hedonic happiness (moments of pleasure) vs eudaimonic happiness (experiences that give us meaning and purpose).
Eudaimonic comes from the Greek word ‘Eu’ (good) and ‘Daimon’ (spriit). It means, essentially, striving to reach your purpose.
See here for an excellent and interesting expansion on this idea.
Happiness is made up of multiple components and there isn’t one answer to what makes us feel happy.
Nor should we expect or desire to feel happy all of the time.
As Helen Keller said, ‘everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn whatever state I may be in, therein, to be content.’
Without the antagonist emotions, happiness would have little meaning.
How would we know what joy was if we hadn’t experienced its absence?
What does it mean to be unhappy?
Just like there’s more than one type of happiness, unhappiness also comes in different flavours.
There’s the sheer misery of being stuck with a task we dislike.
And then there’s times we have in our lives where everything appears on paper to be going swimmingly and yet for some reason we feel a bit ‘meh.’ We lack purpose, our get up and go has got up and left. We have all the ingredients for ‘happiness’ around us and yet for some reason we are not feeling it.
How to find happiness at work
Earlier on, I asked you to reflect on what makes you happy.
Hopefully, you were able to come up with a mixture of hedonic and eudonic activities that make you feel good.
Now, try the same activity, but reflect on what makes you feel happy specifically at work.
Try splitting the results into two columns - pleasure in the moment and ‘type 2 fun’ or things that you find rewarding in the longer term. Consider also what brings you contentment.
How to find hedonic joy at work
Figure out what you’re into.
What has given you happiness at work in the past? What new activities give you a little bolt of anticipation when you think about them?
Find the time to do them.
If you don’t have time for basic wellbeing activities such as a chat with a colleague over a cuppa, a lunchtime walk or gym trip, why is that? Finding time might involve a discussion with your manager about workload. Check out our WorkFit Webinar where workplace psychologists Bridet Jelley and Jay Barrett discuss how to find the sweet spot with workload here.
Develop a pre-work routine that puts you in a good mood.
Moods are contagious, and tend to follow us around. If we are feeling out of sorts at work, we will likely bring that mood home with us. Conversely, if we feel good at home we can bring that into work. Do something before work that makes you feel good.
You don’t need to go all instragram-influencer and get up at the crack of dawn to go through a series of complicated rituals. Bang on some tunes and dance on the spot for five minutes. Make coffee in a fancy mug. The little things will do.
If you commute to work, try to find joy in this time. Have conversations with friends. Listen to a podcast or audiobook that boosts your mood. Run or cycle to the office.
Learn how to re-frame (how to look at things in a different way).
We might find ourselves constantly frustrated by things we can’t control. In order to not spend the whole day miserable, we need to find a way to look at things from a different angle so that we can find some pleasure in what we are doing even if the environment isn’t ideal.
Check out this LinkedIn convo where Glia Director Bridget Jelley talks about re-framing working during the school holidays.
How to find eudonic joy at work
Figure out what your values are.
It might sound cheesy, but research shows us that living in alignment with our values is a consistent factor in avoiding burnout and in experiencing happiness. Check out our previous blogs here and here with links to the research.
Narrow your focus. Spend more time on the things that align with your values.
When working to our values give us a feeling of reward or joy, it tends to be consistent. If we are into nature, we don’t just visit a mountain once and that’s it. We will consistently find that activity rewarding. If we are into constantly learning or helping others then those activities will likely give us pleasure throughout our lifetimes.
Spend time reflecting.
Be proud of your achievements. If you are feeling like you’ve lost the joy you once had in your job, take time to take a step back and think about where that joy came from. Be proud of where you are and how you got there.
If you feel like you’ve really lost your way, check out this blog here on figuring out how to set your compass.
If you can’t find happiness at work, look for contentment, and find happiness in that. Consider how realistic your expectations are.
How much joy is there to find in a 4pm meeting about a topic that isn’t truly of interest to you? Maybe, none. But work doesn’t need to feel joyful all the time.
There’s happiness to be found in the sunlight outside the window, in the colleague you can share a joke with, in the satisfaction of finishing a project or seeing a positive review from a client.
Focus more on these moments and give less attention to the bits of work that you don’t like.
Workplace happiness and a Leader’s responsibilities
Thus far we have focused on how individuals can create happiness for themselves.
But, ‘if the pond is toxic, we don’t change the fish, we change the water.’ (To read more about organisations as ecosystems, read our blog here.)
Organisations have the opportunity to create environments that make their employees happy.
They also have the responsibility, under H&S legislation, to avoid causing harm.
Leaders can, (and should) organise workload in such a way that their team has time for social connection and activities away from their desk that bring them happiness.
Leaders can model ‘happiness’ behaviours such as taking lunch breaks, prioritising personal and family relationships and showing they care about others at work.
Leaders can help people identify what parts of work give their people purpose and help to drive them towards doing those things.
Leaders can help to create organisations that are engines of happiness.
If you would like to learn more, not just about how to control psychosocial hazards and avoid causing harm, but how to create an environment that makes people feel happy at work then check at our next hybrid workshop - Psychosocial Risk Management for Leaders: 21 March 09:00 - 12:00. See all the details and sign up here.
You can join in person (Hamilton) or online, in your pyjamas, whatever you roll best with. We will have a facilitator in person and online to make this work.
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We are Glia, a bunch of workplace psychologists who help organisations build better teams, effective leadership, and happier people.
We offer coaching for individuals, groups and leaders and strategic plans to address and manage psychosocial risks in organisations.
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Follow Glia Director Bridget Jelley on LinkedIn and join the conversation - Bridget regularly posts about topics relating to work-life and we would love to hear your thoughts.
Keep an eye on our latest zero-cost WorkFit webinars - these are monthly LinkedIn Lives with special expert guests where we cover a range of topics relating to organisational psychology and workplace mental health.
The next WorkFit webinar will address Neurodiversity at Work and is coming up soon on March 6th at 12 noon NZD with psychologists Bridget Jelley and Shaun Neville.
Follow Bridget on LinkedIn for the link to join.
