It’s fairly commonplace to hear the gentle rumblings of ‘Ugh, not ANOTHER Monday’ amongst friends, family and colleagues.
In the UK, it seems as though we’re conditioned to dislike our work. The few occasions that I’ve told others that I truly love my job, I’ve been met with several reactions. Some show utter disdain – “how on earth can you love what you do? You’re not saving lives, you’re just doing a job!” Others react with disbelief – “how can you love going to an office every day?!” And then there’s those who think my job must be a piece of cake – “you love what you do? Well, trust me sweetheart, if you had my job you wouldn’t be smiling!”
Despite these reactions, the love I have for what I do won’t be changing any time soon. I love my job, because of the many challenges it brings and because it quenches my thirst for learning something new every day. There’s always a new piece of research to read or contribute to, and there’s always new challenges thrown up that need to be resolved. I love working with people, and embracing the changes as they occur. I love that even if things don’t quite go to plan, there’s always something new to try and something different to discover.
However, many people I’ve met along the way are transfixed by their pre-existing notion of what work should be. Many of us are raised to think work is a dull, dark place that we drag our feet towards at 9am, and run screaming from at 5pm. As children, we witness our parents forcing themselves out of bed, tired and stressed by 7am, and doubly so by the time we’re collected from school. We see our grandparents’ glee as they retire from the long hard years of drudgery, looking forward to the ‘golden years’ of work free retirement.
Although organisations the world over are starting to focus on creating an engaged workplace, it doesn’t mean that all employees will suddenly develop a love for what they do, or become happy when they’re at work. In fact, recent research by Nic Marks and The Guardian discovered that many employees are still struggling to find their happy work place.
The Happiness at Work Survey was designed to give instant feedback on an individual’s happiness at work and a picture of a whole group’s happiness. Of the 500 contributors to the research, only 38% were found to be happy at work – less than the UK average of 40%.
[box] “Whether or not employees are happy at work has fundamental consequences for an organisation,” says Nic Marks in the paper’s introduction. “We now know that there is an important business case for happiness at work – and this applies to every organisation, however big or small.” [/box]
Those working for small businesses were found to be the happiest. 64% of contributors working for companies with fewer than ten people reported as being happy at work. The research also found that those who were most autonomous at work were extremely happy – coming in at 81%.
[box] “Autonomy is also great for happiness,” says Nic. “Being yourself at work, being able to influence decisions and shape your work are crucial to your happiness.” [/box]
Although the research showed some positive results and interesting findings, it also proved that there’s still work to be done on improving workplaces and creating great places to work. It’s what our work is based on, and we’ll keep working with organisations to make the world a happier place.
