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Home / Life at Work / Peak Performance

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What makes people happy at work?

By Laurie Tarkan |
April 20, 2011

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Peak Performance

Laurie Tarkan

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Author Bio

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Biography

Laurie Tarkan

Laurie Tarkan is
an award-winning health journalist who writes for The New York Times
and many national magazines. She is a contributing editor at Fit
Pregnancy magazine and the author of three books, Perfect Hormone
Balance for Fertility, Perfect Hormone Balance for Pregnancy and
My Mother's Breast: Daughters Ace Their Mothers' Cancer.. You can
follow her on Twitter at @LaurieTarkan.

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As a health reporter, I see so many studies of the causes and
symptoms of work stress. So it was refreshing to see a study about the converse:
what makes workers happy.

Focusing on social workers, a profession known for its high attrition, stress
and burnout, John Graham, Ph.D., a professor of social
work at the University of Calgary and his then doctoral student
Micheal Shier, now at the University
of Pennsylvania sent a survey out to 2,500 registered social workers in
Alberta, Canada.  Seven hundred people responded.

From that group they took 13 people who scored the highest in nine
areas of happiness and then followed them closely through in-depth
interviews about their lives at home, at work and through shadowing them at
work. Here’s what he found made them happy:

Flexible work schedules. The workers had the ability to
provide “selfcare” by having the flexibility to manage their personal lives. A
flexible schedule helped them to achieve a healthy work-life
balance.

A strong sense of engagement in their work. The researcher found that was
because of behind-the-scenes support the employees received
from their bosses and employers. This support included flex schedules as well
as the availability of superiors to consult with and bounce issues off
of.

A feeling of being appreciated and valued, which often stemmed from their
being included in organizational decision-making.

Having a high degree of freedom built into their jobs, meaning that
they wanted the ability to try new things and expand out of their immediate
area.

A pleasant physical workspace and good relationships with
clients and colleagues.

Having a diversity of responsibilities, which might include training or
teaching others, research, and policy development work.

Having a mentor to talk about their life, career decisions and their
day-to-day job.

Graham and Shier are currently researching whether these factors make
other types of workers happy as well, but the hunch is that these attributes
would be important to all workers. What improves your sense of well being
at work?

Related:

Is
Cutting Back on Sleep a Form of Torture

Working
at Home: 8 Tips to Stay Sane–and Productive

Sleep
Deprivation: The Surprising Causes and Solutions

7
Tricks to Improve Your Memory

Laurie Tarkan is an award-winning health
journalist who writes for the New York Times, national magazines and websites
including Health, Prevention, Ladies Home Journal, iVillage and the Huffington
Post.  Follow her on twitter.

Photo courtesy of flickr user  Worldizen

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Related Tags Health Care, Worker, Labor Relations, Human Capital
Management, Human
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Laurie Tarkan

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RE: What makes people happy at work?

The results are very accurate. If we come to think about it,
these things seem easy to achieve --- which naturally makes me wonder why most
people still could not be happy at work. Maybe, if only all managers are
completely aware of these things.

bev_manuit

04/20/2011 08:05 AM

Flag

Reply to

RE: What makes people happy at work?

Of course these people are happier, they have control!
Unfortunately, we do not know what their demographic is, how many hours they
work or how much money they make. For most of us, job control is not something
we control, but something we learn to live with.

stevew@...

04/20/2011 04:55 PM

Flag

Reply to

RE: RE: What makes people happy at work?

@stevew@... sad reality, isn't it?

bev_manuit

04/21/2011 12:32 AM

Flag

Reply to

BNET Blogger

RE: What makes people happy at work?

They are social workers so they probably don't make a lot of
money. I think the point is that even in high-burnout jobs, managers can do
small things that go a long way in making employees happy, like involving them
in decision making and allowing them to take on new and different
responsibilities.

Peak Performance

04/20/2011 05:17 PM

Flag

Reply to

RE: RE: What makes people happy at work?

@Peak Performance
Of course the flip side is that managers
can do small things that go a long way to making employees unhappy

TomGrinley

04/21/2011 04:29 AM

Flag

Reply to

RE: What makes people happy at work?

Another great article! I really resonate with the points on
"flexibility, freedom and engagement". I also think how your boss is like and
how he/she treats you can make a big difference on an employee's experience. I
recent wrote on 5 things one would want to see in his/her boss and I believe
this is very relevant to what your readers may be looking for, cheers.

http://anadviceaday.wordpress.com/2011/04/06/good-manager-and-more-5-things-you-wanna-see-in-your-boss/

danyewang

04/20/2011 07:04 PM

Flag

Reply to

RE: What makes people happy at work?

your stuff is getting more and more futile..

lynxauthentique

04/20/2011 09:25 PM

Flag

Reply to

RE: RE: What makes people happy at work?

@lynxauthentique<br><br>I might say that there
isn't much here that is surprising, but futile???? Maybe you should just stop
reading it. Duh.

clarkm

04/21/2011 07:17 AM

Flag

Reply to

RE: What makes people happy at work?

The findings are by-and-large correct. However, having these
expectations fulfilled would be wishful thinking in certain high-pressure
industries which take a toll on one's work-life balance. While some of the
factors will be great to have, such as flexible work-schedules, some are
inter-dependent on other factors. For instance, one will feel engaged at work
only if s/he is appreciated and valued at work. Also, having a diversity of
responsibilities is possible in certain functions (say, HR) but not so much in
certain other functions (say, Finance). These are a good set of factors which
make people happy at work, but one has to derive one's own set of factors at
work (based on one's profession, company employed with, etc.) to be happy at
work.

mail2ri

04/20/2011 10:43 PM

Flag

Reply to

RE: What makes people happy at work?

Uh... Money? Maybe the thought you are banking enough cheese to
retire or quit in half the time your parents did should be enough to make having
a crappy job tolerable no matter what the circumstances. Stop whining. Be happy
and grateful that you even have a job when so many others are starving. Spend 5
minutes just watching a fry cook at McDonalds or a cashier at Wal-Mart and you
will instantly be "happy" YOUR job is not that bad.

ctdavid1

04/21/2011 07:06 AM

Flag

Reply to

RE: RE: What makes people happy at work?

@ctdavid1,

That's just minimizing people's reality.
There will always be someone who is worse or better off than you. So while being
grateful you're not having to dig ditches or be unemployed, that isn't going to
make you a happier employee if your office culture is one of micro-management,
being treated as irresponsible or unimportant. Study after study shows that
money isn't the top thing that makes people happy. It's about feeling that what
you do matters, that management notices and recognizes your work, and about
enjoying your job beyond your daily tasks.

I would add that one thing
that makes me a happier employee is having really good technology and solid IT
support.

pamby

04/21/2011 07:37 AM

Flag

Reply to

RE: What makes people happy at work?

I own a business that provides "social work" services. Based on
my experience, happiness at work is person-dependent. You can have very low paid
workers with little responsibility and zero flexibility but they are happy and
very productive. You can also have highly educated people making lots of money
with all the flexibility and support in the world and they are absolutely
miserable. Sure, having a great working environment and lots of freedom,
flexibility and independence helps many people enjoy their jobs more, but
happiness is a choice-not a job perk.

Further, this study cannot be
generalized to the larger population for two reasons: one, there was no random
sampling, the sample was purposefully selected from one specific group of
individuals, and two, there were only 9 people interviewed. I assume this was a
mixed methods study, but the article did not indicate the results of the
quantitative portion (which would have been the results of the first 700
responses-those would be more insightful in terms of generalizations). Although
the study produced some interesting results that of course get people chattering
(myself included), no conclusions can or should be drawn from it.

kellygreen

04/21/2011 10:02 AM

Flag

Reply to

BNET Blogger

RE: RE: What makes people happy at work?

@kellygreen True this isn't a randomized study, but not meant
to be. The authors specifically chose 13 people with the highest self-rated
happiness scores and did in-depth interviews, not only about work, but about
other aspects of their lives. This study not only reported on work, but to a
point another commenter made, other factors in life that contribute or detract
from happiness. Still, studying just the happiest group does not invalidate the
study; it's a way of understanding better what contributes to happiness.

Peak Performance

04/25/2011 04:35 AM

Flag

Reply to

RE: What makes people happy at work?

This is not new. In fact it's very old. And applies to most
"office" type employees. See Herzberg's motivation-hygiene (aka two-factor)
theory - based on studies of engineers and accountants in the Pittsburgh area in
'50s. That's right. It's that old! Any manager who has taken a course in
organizational behavior should know this.

moshuptrail

04/21/2011 12:56 PM

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