For 18 years I have been in a conversation concerning
happiness in the work environment including leadership, culture, and ROI. I have seen this topic from multiple lenses
including the perspectives of university business students, management professors,
investors, C-Level, executive, middle management, entrepreneurs, Human Resources, training and development, employees,
spouses and children. I have seen
it across industries including, legal, finance, healthcare, architecture,
engineering, hospitality, non-profit, media, education and politics.
Problem - Stress has become an acceptable experience at work which compromises health, relationships and performance.
Solution - Learn and use happiness science to improve well-being, relationships and performance.
Let me share a few examples depicting the current state of happiness at work or lack there of in a 24 hour time frame.
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7pm I meet with a 31 year old start-up investor who
discusses how he wants to add wellness as a part of his offering in addition to
business and finance.
He told me he has seen too many 45 year old men cry from stress in the boardroom.
He has seen too many start -up CEOs burn out and lose
their mental and physical well-being.
He has decided to do something about it.
He has decided to do something about it.
He admits he too has an unquenchable thirst for success,
admitting he is always wanting bigger better more faster.
(He was not even born in America!)
We engaged in a fast moving 2 hours over happiness in the
work environment.
(From 7-9pm because this is his only ‘free time’.)
When I was encouraging the idea of speaking truthfully of
emotional experience at work, he countered with the notion, people would
rather die than share with their team a weak moment, a break down, or even a
tear.
I countered back with organizational values. If an organization espouses,
honesty, integrity, authenticity, or wellness in any way,
Honesty is the only answer.
These break downs at work happen every day.
Everyone has experienced that day at work where you
literally lose it, know someone who has or have witnessed it as a bystander.
I am a fortunate one in that people show me this side of
themselves day in and day out.
As a happiness expert, most of my time is spent in places of
need, in great unhappiness or stress.
The story of the investor is just one.
Here is another,
I know an architect who is working on global offices for many
of the top tech firms. She works
in a deadline driven environment and knows the stress she is walking into every
single day. Thus starting her day fighting anxiety before she even gets to the office.
In fact, she is the wellness advocate/leader and specialist in her
area of office architecture. Her
stress is so high, she smokes cigarettes for relief, and she suffers from
consistent shoulder pain. She had
a boss who was in the hospital for a stroke from stress at work in which she
visited him in the hospital. She
observes her team members unable to eat or take breaks due to insane
deadlines. The boss says things like, "We don't want you to suffer from burn out", while recognizing the insane consistent 14 hour work days yet nothing actually changes. Sometimes she gets home
at 2am only to go to work again at 7am. She wants a new job.
The firm she works with is consistently seeing an increase
in the client's desire to build in ‘wellness’ in the physical architecture, yet when it
comes to creating wellness in a mental or physical health manner in their own
firm, there is room for improvement.
Here is another story,
I know a restaurant manager who has barely had a day off in
weeks. She works day and night
because one of her coworkers suffered from an extreme health condition and went on
medical leave. When I suggested the hiring of a new manager to help her, she said the
corporate office doesn’t care and was not giving permission to hire someone. She is not the only one, several other employees are suffering from physical and emotional detriment from this overworking. This continued for months before someone new was hired and the employee under
medical leave was unable to return to work. Her personal life has been
compromised and her relationship is strained.
Here is another story,
In a work meeting a member of the team shed tears. A
psychologist was on staff and noticed something was ‘off’, with a simple, “Are
you ok?” She started crying. She had it with her family drama, absent boyfriend,
moving to a new city, being in career transition, and ill health. The team took a moment to hug and
console her before they started talking business. She is the CEO of a tech start
up and was about to make major decisions about future strategy.
This few moments of honesty, authenticity, and integrity
stunned her.
In her 15 years in the banking industry, never would she
have cried. She thanked her team
for making a safe environment for her to be herself and have real emotions.
If she held this emotion in then it would have compromised
her well-being and the productivity of the meeting.
With her sadness expressed instead of repressed, the meeting
continued for 3 hours of inspiring conversation based in a real life story and
human need.
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Leadership includes emotions.
It is impossible for work to be emotionless as long as
humanity is involved.
The mechanistic age of viewing workers needs to come to an
end.
Well-being
Wellness
Mental health
Physical health
Happiness
Stress reduction
Whatever it is your organization decides to call it, it
needs to be a priority.
No more can mental and physical health be compromised in a
work environment.
Research evidenced many benefits when it comes to mental
flourishing.
The time has come where organizations are espousing wellness
even more than ever yet it still seems it is treated as a ‘perk’ or ‘lip
service’.
I consider it a human right.
Happiness science to the rescue.
Dr Aymee Coget
Sustainable Happiness Doctor
Author of Forthcoming Book : Sustainable Happiness in 5 Steps
sfhappinessdoctor at gmail dot com
