Why not to try to be happy at work

Happiness makes us healthier, kinder, more productive. Happy people are happy to work and quickly go up the career ladder. This idea is now increasingly possible to hear at workshops on employee motivation.

CEOs have always been interested in increasing the productivity of workers. More back in 1920, researchers conducted an experiment in a factory Western Electric (known as Hawthorne), As a result of which wanted to understand what impact on productivity.

In pursuit of high-performance managers now spend money on team building, games, hiring consultants fun, the coaches to create a positive atmosphere in the team and general manager of happiness (yes, there is such at Google, eg). And all of this CEOs perceive quite seriously.

If we examine the question in more detail, it appears that the attempt to make employees happy at work is not such a good idea.

Happy employees are unlikely to lay off, they are helpful in dealing with customers, safe, willingly participate in corporate and urban activities. But the snag is that happiness at work can not be achieved. It is a myth.

Firstly, what is the happiness and how to measure its level? Is it possible, for example, measure the depth of sadness or to describe the color of love? Darrin McMahon (Darrin M. McMahon) mentions in his book "Happiness: The Story of" the saying of the sage Solon, addressed to the world's richest king Krozu more in the VI century BC: "None of the living is not happy." These words can be attributed to the joy, satisfaction or pleasure.

Critic Samuel Johnson (Samuel Johnson) believed that it is possible to be happy in the moment, but if you're drunk. And Jean-Jacques Rousseau said that happiness - is lying in a boat, rocking on the waves, and feel like a god. Nothing to do with productivity. Many great men gave the definition of happiness, and they are somewhat similar to the remarks of Johnson and Rousseau.

And despite the advanced technology, we are no closer to an exact definition of happiness, says author William Davis (Will Davies) in the book "The industry of happiness." He comes to the conclusion that, by developing better methods for measuring and predicting the behavior of emotions, we have simplified the concept of what it means to "be a man" and "pursue happiness".

Happiness does not necessarily lead to an increase in productivity

Study of the relationship of happiness as the job satisfaction and performance show mixed results. One study in the UK supermarket scientists even found out that there is an inverse relationship: the more unhappy the staff were, the better they work. Sure, there are studies showing that the sense of job satisfaction contributes to productivity. But the connection was very weak.

Happiness can be tedious

The pursuit of happiness may not work, but how can she bear the pain? Yes! The need to be happy - it is a heavy burden and responsibility because the problem will never fully implement the impossible. A focus on how to become a happier, on the contrary, makes us feel miserable.

Recently, it was demonstrated in the course of the experiment. Group of subjects showed a film in which the skater wins a medal. This film usually brings a sense of happiness after viewing. But before seeing half the group was given to read a note about the importance of happiness in life. After watching those who read the note, they were less happy than the other subjects.

When happiness becomes a duty, people feel unhappy when they can not cope with it.

It has become a problem now, when happiness is preached as a moral obligation. As said the French writer Pascal Bruckner (Pascal Bruckner), a misfortune - it is not just not happiness, it is even worse, the inability to be happy.

Happiness should not accompany you throughout the day

You know that for staff call-centers and restaurants to be in high spirits - duty. And it is quite tedious. If you try all day to be in this state, you will not leave feeling that you are dealing with a client.

But now more and more often, even those employees who do not communicate with clients, ask to look more cheerful. And it has unintended consequences. For example, people are not so masterly talks are in a good mood: they do not notice False. People in a bad mood, in this case, achieve better results. A happy employee is not everywhere and not always good. It all depends on the specifics of the work. Sometimes the good mood only hinders.

Waiting for happiness may damage relations with the boss

If you feel that the work - a place where happiness can be found, the boss becomes what is happiness brings. Those who hope to experience happiness from work, need emotional warmth. They want to receive from the leaders of a steady stream of recognition and encouragement. And when they suddenly do not get the usual emotions, they feel that they are neglected, and rapidly react to it. Even a slight remark on the part of the boss's employees are perceived as the fact that he completely denied by them and is going to get fired. Waiting for happiness in this case, it makes them emotionally vulnerable.

Happiness spoil relations with family and friends

In his book Cold Intimacies sociologist Eva Illouz (Eva Illouz) notice a side effect of the fact that people tend to be more emotional at work: they begin to relate to private life as a job. They bring it in technology and methods, which they have been taught by coaches happiness. As a result, the atmosphere in the family gets a cold, calculated manner. And it is not surprising that many of these people prefer to spend time at work and not at home.

Job loss produces a devastating effect

If we expect that the workplace will provide us with happiness and the meaning of life, there is a dangerous dependence on it. Sociologist Richard Sennett (Richard Sennett) says that employees who saw the employer source of meaning for themselves, were devastated when their fired. Losing jobs, these people are not just lost income, they have lost hope for happiness. They become emotionally vulnerable, it is dangerous in a time of economic instability, when you often change jobs.

Happiness makes you selfish

If you are happy, then, most likely, you are kind to others, right? Not really. In the latest study, the subjects were given raffle tickets and asked how many of them are willing to give to others, as well as for himself. Those who have been in a good mood, left to themselves more tickets. If a person is happy, he is not necessarily generous. Sometimes even vice versa.

Happiness - is loneliness

Psychologists asked several people to keep a diary for two weeks. And here's what they found: those who highly appreciated the desire to be happy always, were more lonely. The constant pursuit of a good mood removes us from other people.

So why, despite all the research, we continue to think that happiness helps you work better? According to the researchers, the answer lies in the aesthetics and ideology. Happiness - a convenient idea that looks good on paper. Aesthetics. And the pursuit of universal happiness help avoid more serious corporate problems, conflicts in the workplace - an ideology.

When it is assumed that a happy staff - good staff, all the other unpleasant questions can be hidden under the mat. Especially convenient to assume that a person is happy, if properly chosen work. It is convenient to deal with anyone who is not desired in corporate life, who do not like the policy of the company and the regime.

The theory that everyone should be happy, makes it easy to resolve disputes on dismissal. Barbara Ehrenreich (Barbara Ehrenreich) says in the book Bright-Sided, that ideas about happiness at work are especially popular in times of crisis and mass layoffs.

The results of these studies - a good reason to rethink our expectations of happiness from work.

When we are constantly looking for or expect happiness, we are tired, urgently respond to any changes that deprive the meaning of our personal lives, increases their vulnerability becomes too gullible, selfish and lonely. Consciously pursuing happiness, we stop to enjoy really good things - that's what is most striking.

A job like any aspect of our life, causes a lot of emotion. You can not always be happy. Happiness is necessary, but do not need to put everything on the altar of his achievements. The less you try to always be happy at work, the more sincere joy you experience. The joy of spontaneous and not forced on trainings and teambuilding. And it is important to look at the work of sober, to see the real picture, not the one that presented the leaders with the coaches of happiness.