Apparently Working Long Hours Makes Americans Happier?

From Static.

Yeah, this one's just crazy enough that it might be true. The Daily Mail reports that Americans who work long hours are happier than those who don't, while in Europe, that trend is reversed. This information comes from a study at the University of Texas at Dallas. The study's authors could not conclude whether work actually CAUSES happiness in America, but they speculate that the results have more to do with worker expectations and the pursuit of income than with their actions.

American and European survey respondents were asked to rate themselves as "Very Happy," "Pretty Happy," or "Not too Happy." Results showed that "Very Happy" Europeans dropped from around 28% to 23% as work hours increased from under 17 a week to more than 60. American happiness, on the other hand, stayed the same as work hours increased, while their sense of "bliss" increased. This holds true despite other factors, such as age, marital status, and income.

Economics professor Richard Easterlin, who was not involved in the study, but comments on it anyway, theorizes that Americans believe more in the rewards of hard work. "It's not really that hard work brings more success in the U.S. than in Europe; it's what people believe in," he says.

You can read the actual study in the April issue of the Journal of Happiness Studies.

Shawn Achor Finds Great Return on Investment for Employee Happiness Training

"Yay, let's all go to a corporately mandated class!"
(At least that's what they'd be saying if they went to
Shawn Achor's class.) From Training Seminars
and Workshops.

We've long known that employee happiness affects a company's bottom line, but now PR Web reports that training in positive psychology may be even better than traditional employee training. Shawn Achor, author of The Happiness Advantage, conducted a study wherein a group of 77 managers was given a single class in positive psychology. Their moods were then compared four months later, showing that the managers had higher energy, life satisfaction, and stress management compared to a control group.

The study began in December 2008 with a 10-minute survey that looked at 14 different metrics, including stress, social support, and optimism. Then Shawn Achor conducted a single three-hour class entitled "Positive Psychology:  the Science of Happiness and Potential". In April 2009, the managers in the class and the control group took another survey, which found that even after four months, the class produced significant increases in life satisfaction. This is important for companies because previous studies have shown that life satisfaction is one of the most important factors in employee performance and profitability.

Shawn Achor says, "By testing employees over many months we can determine if there is a long term ROI (return on investment). This sets a new standard for trainings."

To read more about what various companies are doing to improve employee happiness, remember to click on my employee happiness tag.

People Who Change Jobs Are Happier

A completely undoctored photo of Sydney.
From Sydney-Australia.biz.

Today the Sydney Morning Herald reports on an Australian study that shows most people change jobs not to seek out more pay, but to seek out more satisfaction--and they usually find it. Around 17% of Australian workers (or 1.2 people) changed jobs in 2008, mostly for reasons of job security and job satisfaction. The National Centre for Vocational Education Research conducted the study.

Dr. Ian Watson, author of the study, says that most changes in jobs do not lead to an increase in pay or job security. "On the other hand," he says, "job changing does lead on average to greater levels of job satisfaction.'' This may occur because workers in new jobs get to learn and use new skills. The study also includes other interesting results, like how extroverts are more likely to change jobs than introverts.

Zappos CEO to Start New Company to Teach Happiness Principles

Tony Hsieh. From Fast Company.

Today Fast Company reports that Tony Hsieh, billionaire CEO of Zappos, plans to start a new company based on the principles in his book Delivering Happiness. The new start-up, also called Delivering Happiness, will advise businesses on value-based management and design a line of "motivational apparel." Hsieh (pronounced "Shay") says that his company’s root principles are to inspire, connect, educate, and experience. He suggests that companies adhere to their principles, even when they impact the bottom line.

In the future, Hsieh also wants to expand beyond helping businesses. He and his business partner Jenn Lim hope to publish educational literature for college students and provide "experience packages"--which include things like helicopter pilot lessons and foreign trips. Whether these packages will help longterm happiness or just create short-term pleasure is anyone's guess, but Zappos has an incredibly low employee turnover rate, even in its call center, so Hsieh probably knows what he's doing.

(You can read about Tony Hsieh at the Global Happiness Summit here, or see a video of a speech he made to Google here.)

Marketers Teach Happiness to Sell Products

One of the most well-known campaigns to sell "happiness."
From 2010 and High Heels.

Today I read this interesting Fast Company article about a consultant who specializes in teaching corporations how to market happiness. Her name is Jennifer Aaker, and she teaches a Stanford graduate marketing class entitled "Designing Happiness". She also consults with AOL, Facebook, Adobe, and other corporations.

According to Aaker, "The idea of brands enabling happiness and providing greater meaning in the world is powerful. People have an aversion to anything that feels overly manufactured." The article also mentions John Kenny of the ad agency DraftFCB saying that nostalgia and other "safe emotions" can create happiness in an ad campaign, making happiness into a commodity used to sell products.

Students in Aaker's class create a photo project by taking pictures of happy moments for a month, then rating those moments on a scale of one to ten, thereby allowing themselves to discover moments that they didn't realize could make them happy. They apply the happiness principals they learn to a fictional company.

How do YOU feel about this corporatized streak in happiness research? We've seen before that when corporations take employee happiness seriously, they increase productivity and stock price, so everyone benefits. Happiness classes can also be a great experience for students, and Jennifer Aaker sounds like a great teacher.

HOWEVER, I sort of feel like using those principles to sell products steps over the line into creepiness. Does Coca Cola actually make people happy? No, it doesn't--at least in the longterm, after the sugar and caffeine leave your system. Coke is flavored high fructose corn syrup that will harm your body and actually ruin your smile if you drink too much, so why pretend that it causes happiness? It's the same thing with these other companies. I'm sure marketers love creating emotional links in consumers, but in the real world their products invite no emotion whatsoever. Now they seem to be explicitly using happiness as just another cynical tool used to manipulate consumers instead of a worthy goal in itself.

Maybe people will know the difference between the short-term pleasure that comes from a newly-bought item and the longterm happiness that comes from meaningful social connection and personal action. Hopefully?

One in Four British Workers Unhappy with Their Job

From Marc's Leadership Lessons.

Today the Press Association reports on a new survey that shows around 25% of British employees are unhappy with their job, while around 30.5% are merely "ambivalent," with employees in finance and law being the unhappiest. These results come from the recruitment firm Badenoch & Clark, who surveyed around 1,000 office workers.

Heidi Waddington, associate director of Badenoch & Clark, says, "Economic uncertainty over the past year has put tremendous pressure on employees. This trend is particularly evident in professional services, which has resulted in heightened intensity in the workplace and increasingly poor morale."

I would be interested in seeing figures like this for lower class workers (not in an office), but we may have to wait until Britain completes its happiness study. I'd also be interested in results for America and other countries. You can read more stories about employee happiness by clicking here. Corporations may especially want to pay attention to this one, which shows a correlation between higher employee happiness and higher stock value.

Costco Tops Employee Happiness List

Who would have thought that spending
all day here could make you happy?
From TCMnet.

Just in time for the holidays comes this story from The Globe and Mail. According to a new survey from CareerBliss, Costco has the happiest employees among retail chain stores. Rounding out the top three are Nordstrom and Old Navy.

CareerBliss's Happiest Holiday Retailer list combines data from almost 100,000 independent reviews submitted to their website. The reviews rate each company on a scale of one to five in these eight categories:  growth opportunity, compensation, benefits, work-life balance, career advancement, senior management, job security, and employee recommendation of the job. Costco has the best salary and benefits on the list, which contribute to its high happiness rating, but other companies made the list because of work-life balance--even with lower salary than the companies below them.

It's an interesting list because I never thought working in a mega-store could make ANYONE happy. Also, Wal Mart, the biggest corporation in the world, doesn't even make CareerBliss's top ten. All is mystery when it comes to employee happiness! Go to the news story for the full list.

Australians: Shorter Working Hours May Bring Happiness

Beneficiaries of a shorter work week. From molly in oz.

Hey, it's more news about jobs and stuff. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that four out of five Australians want different hours at work. The survey covered 1,786 people, with 80% of full-time employees wanting fewer hours, while 60% of part-time employees want more.

The results are so striking that many are considering a government-mandated 30- to 35-hour cap on the work week. Adam Bandt of the Greens party says, "People who want to work less should have a right to do so...It's time for government to start ensuring a fairer spread of working hours, so those who want to work more can, and that those who don't, don't have to."

Some businesses disagree with this, saying that a government mandate would act as a "straight jacket." On the other hand, as I've said time and time again, happy employees are more productive and ultimately lead to more profitable companies, so if shorter hours lead to happiness, that would in fact be good for business. As Richard Denniss, executive director of The Australia Institute, says, "Having happy, productive, retained workers is far more important for the productivity of the country…than short-term attempts to keep wages bills down by relying on lots of unpaid overtime, burning out your employees."

So what do you Internet people think? What are the working hours in your country and are you happy with them? I personally think Americans put too much focus on work, so a shorter work week might be good for this country, but maybe that's just me.

America's Ten Happiest Companies

Inside Google's lunch room.

Here's a Forbes story that lists the ten happiest companies in America. It doesn't have a number ranking, and also doesn't contain many surprises, but it's interesting nonetheless. As I've written in the past, happier companies are generally more profitable, even when their policies can seem counterintuitive. For instance, Google offers free oil changes, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks to its employees, while UBS has a nap room and Friday beer cart.

If you don't want to keep clicking "Next" on that Forbes site, you can get more info at this Yahoo link, but that only lists five of the companies for some reason. Here is the full list:

Adobe
American Express
Google
IBM
KPMG
PepsiCo
Southwest Airlines
Starbucks
UBS
Zappos

Interns Are the Happiest Employees!? WHA--!?

From Georgia Tech's Internship Fair.

Now this is unexpected. AsiaOne reports on a new survey by JobsCentral that says job happiness does not necessarily increase with salary. This in itself is not surprising (I've reported on that sort of thing before), but what is surprising is that interns are apparently the happiest employees of all. Out of 3,402 survey participants, the average happiness score was 55.5 out of 100, while interns scored 63.5. Temporary workers were the least happy, with a score of 54.3.

This is the second year that JobsCentral has conducted its Work Happiness Indicator survey. All respondents are Singaporean.

Since my coworkers and I are kinda sorta interns ourselves, this news hits close to home. Interning can be a tough and thankless job, depending on what industry you're in, but apparently that's not enough to get people down.

Have YOU ever interned anywhere (or are you an intern now)? Were you happy? Tell us about it.

Weekend Viewing: Tony Hsieh

Ah, the first weekend back after a long trip! Today I found an excellent speech that Tony Hsieh (pronounced "Shay") gave at Google headquarters. As I said in my previous post, Tony gave one of my favorite presentations at the Global Happiness Summit. This Google Talk is a longer version of that presentation.

Tony mostly talks about corporate culture and how to increase employee happiness. He emphasizes core values and bottom-up communication. The video is in widescreen format, which screws up the blog formatting a little bit, so I downsized it. Just use the fullscreen button if you want a bigger size, or click here if you want it directly on YouTube. I'll quiet down now so you can watch!

You Don't Need a Job to Be Happy!?

From NYDailyNews

Apparently not, as Jamie Doward of The Observer reports. According to a new study in The Economic Journal, unemployed people are less satisfied with their life in general, but on a day-to-day basis, they have the same level of positive feelings as the employed. The researchers explain that most people are happiest when at leisure and least happy at work, so in a way the results make sense because the unemployed have more leisure time.

But don't quit your job yet! Remember that money DOES buy happiness for people below the poverty line (just not for the middle class or higher). Unemployment can also add a lot of stress in today's tough job market. Still, though, this Economic Journal study may at least give jobless people reason to step back and be thankful for what they DO have as they continue down the difficult path to employment.

Those of you without a job, do you feel happy? How do you feel about this study? (Those with jobs can join in the discussion, too!)

Happy Employees = Higher Stock

From Metropolis. Image link from Blue Crab Boulevard

Today Cindy Krischer Goodman of Kansas City reports something that most people probably expect anyway:  companies with happy employees perform better. Hewitt Associates, a human resources firm, conducted a survey of employee engagement. The survey found that organizations with high levels of employee engagement (65% or higher) post shareholder returns 19% greater than average, while companies with less than 40% engagement have shareholder returns 44% lower than average. These findings may seem like common sense, but it's nice to have real evidence, because that's what companies actually listen to (if they listen to anything).

So here's a message to employers out there:  make sure your work environment is a happy place! Machine-like efficiency standards, such as scientific management, are outdated. Even if you only care about stock prices, it's still worthwhile to invest in happiness. Open lines of communication with your employees and actually LISTEN. Don't just pretend, like with a dusty old suggestion box that you never open. Read up on modern organizational communication, proven methods for happier employees and better companies.

I might go into detail about orgcomm in the future, because we all spend so much of our lives at work that it's important to be happy there, but the science of it can seem rather technical without an explanation!