Alexander Kjerulf is Chief Happiness Officer of Woohoo inc and one of the world’s leading experts on happiness at work. Alex is the author of 4 books including the international bestseller Happy Hour is 9 to 5. He is also a speaker presenting and conducting workshops on happiness at work at businesses and conferences in over 30 countries. His clients include companies like Hilton, Microsoft, LEGO, IKEA, Shell, HP and IBM.
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Everybody wants to be happy and that is why so many people work hard sacrificing today for happiness in the future. However, is this what we truly need to do to be happy? It is time to rethink about what is happiness.
I am the founder and CHO of Woohoo inc and we make people happy at work. We do workshops and keynotes for clients all over the world, to help them become happy workplaces.
The hardest part was obviously selling our services in the beginning. Many people and companies thought it was a strange idea, but slowly it started to gain acceptance and now we’re very well known in Denmark and around the world.
Our main tool for overcoming this challenge was to be ourselves and to be bold. To do things our way, and not become too corporate or too traditional. It’s an easy trap to fall into, but I feel very proud that we stayed true to our initial vision.
It seems that “work” is considered “exploitation” in the western cultures and “sacrifice” in the eastern cultures (totally opinion). Work does not make people make happy with these conceptions. How people can think to make their work happier and how they can behave differently to build an environment in which people can work and have happiness at the same time?
It’s true that many people consider work punishment and expect work to be hard and unpleasant and that for many, work is something you do only because you have to. But we’re trying to make people realise that it doesn’t have to be that way. Of course, we still need to work to make a living, but we can find work that we actually enjoy.
You make a clear difference between “satisfaction” and “happiness”. What people should know about the difference between these 2 words?
Satisfaction is what you think about your job. When you make a rational, logical evaluation of your work situation, are you satisfied overall? It’s an important concept, but it turns out that satisfaction doesn’t have much of an impact on us.
Happiness is what you feel about your job. When you are at work, do you experience mostly positive or negative emotions. And our emotions are so important because they have a huge effect on our health, our well-being and our job performance.
What would be requirements for creating a world where the majority of people can feel “they are happy” ?
So if raises, bonuses, perks and promotions aren’t the key to a happy work life, then what is? This has been the subject of extensive research over the last few decades, and it seems it comes down to two things: Results and Relationships.
Results are about making a difference at work, knowing that your job is important, getting appreciation and doing work that you can be proud of. Relationships are about liking the people you work with, having a good manager and feeling like you belong. In short, we are happy at work when we do great work together with great people. That’s is where you need to focus. Instead of choosing the job with the fanciest office or the loftiest title, you need to choose a job where you can have great results and relationships. That will ultimately lead to a much better work life and home life.
And please note that this does not mean choosing between happiness and career success. Research shows that people who like their jobs, do a much better job. They’re more productive, more creative, more motivated and more likely to reach their goals.
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