Ten tips to make your workplace happier

Post date: Mar 11, 2013 5:40:19 PM

If you want your workplace to be a happier, more productive and more creative environment, here are some tips from the psychology of happiness and wellbeing.

Ten tips for individuals who want to help create a happier workplace

1. Connect with others – make the most of opportunities for social interactions (even brief ones engender positive emotions and help build resilience to stress).
2. Surround your desk with reminders of what's important to you (eg family photos).
3. Spend more time around positive people that make you feel good (and less around negative people that make you feel bad).
4. 'Reframe' how you deal with unavoidable negatives – you may not be able to change the situation, but you do have control over how you react to it.
5. 'Recraft' your work so that you can use your strengths every day, engage more fully, and experience complete absorption in what you are doing.
6. Make it a habit to remind yourself of good things that have happened during the day, and during the week – savour your best moments.
7. Experiences contribute more lastingly to your wellbeing than a pay rise (as long as you have enough money), so spending on experiences with others, rather than on material things, gives you lasting memories and increases wellbeing,
8. Try not to compare yourself with those who are better off financially – value what you have and how it makes you happy.
9. When you feel stressed, take a moment to recover . The techniques of 'mindfulness meditation' (including one-minute meditations) can be very helpful for managing stress . If meditation is not for you, then just going outdoors for a short time, surrounded by nature, can be very restorative.
10. Find out about more actions for a happier workplace at www.actionforhappiness.org
    1. 'We're encouraging people to take simple actions to create a happier environment at work and encourage others around them to do the same. The potential benefits for both people and organisations are huge.' (Williams, 2012, online)

Read the full article at https://sites.google.com/site/howaboutwellbeing/about-me/abetterwayapplyingthescienceofhappinessinthefesector

Key sources

Achor, S. (2011) The Happiness Advantage. (UK) Random House: Virgin Books.

Action for Happiness (2012) New year resolutions to make your workplace happier [Online accessed 8-2-13 at

http://www.actionforhappiness.org/news/new-year-resolution-to-make-your-workplace-happier

Csikszentmihalyi M. (1990) in Seligman, M.E.P. (2003) Authentic Happiness. New York: Nelson Thornes.

Fredrickson, B. (2009) Positivity. Oxford: Oneworld Publications.[2011]

ILM (2013) The Pursuit of Happiness: positivity and performance among UK managers. London: ILM.

Mindfulness Meditation (2012) One Minute Mindfulness Meditation [online accessed 25-2-13 at http://www.mindfulnessmeditation.org/2012/02/13/one-minute-mindfulness-meditation-exercise/

Seligman, M. E. P. (2003) Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfilment. London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing

Williams, M. in Action for Happiness (2012) New year resolutions to make your workplace happier [Online accessed 8-2-13 at http://www.actionforhappiness.org/news/new-year-resolution-to-make-your-workplace-happier ]