Can the workplace be a happy place?
By: Jessica Ehizogie Marymartha Agbonlahor
Tags: Fun At Work, Workplace, Employee Engagement, Mwc Work, Workplace Culture

Are you happy with your current job or work? Do you feel the Monday blues like 78% of Americans reported feeling, or are you one of the 22% who loves their job and workplace and can’t wait to get on with work on a Monday morning?

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I used to wake up with so much excitement to get to work even when I went to bed the night before with my bones aching, my muscles and mind sore from the rigor of the day’s work — this was when I used to be a farm owner. Right out of undergrad, I started my own poultry farm and had three contract workers. It was both fun, scary, and stressful. If I didn’t make any sales, that meant I could not pay my employees, and I would have no salary for the month either. It was a continued race to find off-takers when the birds were mature and get reasonable prices with restaurants and resellers. It involved planning for the many instances of unforeseen issues — like canceled orders and sudden rise in temperature that could impact the conditions and health of the birds on the farm.

When I transitioned into the corporate world, it was supposed to be a stopgap until I could return to my entrepreneurial pursuits. It is now over 7years since I made the switch, and I am still in the financial services industry. I’m I as happy as I was, honestly No. However, there have been times when I felt the rush of blood like I used to feel in the early days of my farm journey. As a young analyst in the Treasury operations of an international bank, I found myself restless and yearning for more beyond what had become the routine requirements of my role. Walking through the banking hall on different occasions, I would see the long queue of customers waiting to be served. And I couldn’t stop thinking, what can we do differently? Mind you; I did not work at or with the branch. It wasn’t long before I found myself leading a team of analysts across different departments to address the problem. Conducting discovery calls with customers and stakeholders across other teams, making presentations, and seeking executive sponsorship to launch an online self-serve platform for merchant transactions to find an effective solution to customer experience situations. Those were exciting times too.

How I create my happiness at work

When I was not finding problems outside my department, I was looking inwards beyond my primary job function, asking why this and why that. Why do we do it this way? Why does it take so long? Why do we have to print on paper for this process to be completed? Yes! I was one of those annoying colleagues always asking why! The whys often led to brainstorming sessions, reaching out to colleagues with the expertise needed to make an informed business case for the situation. These ad hoc tasks broke the drudgery in my day and gave me the same jolt of excitement that I missed from working on the farm.

Over the years, it has become clearer that it was not necessarily the farm work that made me excited. It was the environment in which I carried out my daily activities and the opportunity to do something that felt meaningful. I was at a happy place in my workplace and with my work.

A school of thought advocates for quitting your job if you are not happy with what you are doing or with your current employer. However, where our work and our source of livelihood are the same, it can be a tough decision because other areas of our lives depend on this source. Five factors impact our state of mental well-being. Our workplace environment significantly affects these factors (career, finances, community/safety, social interaction, physical environment). For example, quitting a job that is the only source of income will impact your financial situation if you have not prepared a financial buffer to tide you until you renew your source of income. Still, I often wonder how many times we must keep quitting if the same scenario persists at the next company and the next and even the one after. Little wonder that people will end up settling for whatever they find once this cycle keeps repeating. At this point, it is both a loss to the company and to the individual. Being miserable, bored, stressed, demotivated, and doing the bare minimum to keep earning your paycheck. For the company, it is person-hours lost to non-work-related activities or mediocre output if you do not get the best out of your employees. Demotivated employees cost the company an estimated 34% of the salary paid. A company with 1000 employees and an average of $100,000 in salary amounts to $34 million in annual productivity losses — Source Gallup Research, Forbes 2019, WHO.

As a coping mechanism, many people will choose to stay at the job and create their own happiness either within or outside of work. The source of happiness could be using tools and technology to have the same dopamine rush. Watching YouTube videos, online games, etc., are some ways my colleagues find their 5mins of happiness. For others, it will be volunteering, indulging in a hobby or side hustle that brings fulfillment, or a combination of all of these. For my hyperactive self, it has been a combination of all these options.

How can companies make the workplace a happy place?

The easiest way to create this happiness is whatever makes the workplace more fun, no matter how short-lived the fun lasts. When employees engage in these non-work-related activities during paid work hours, there is a loss to the company. However, we are not machines, and the chances that we are 100% productive and working from 9 am to 5 pm is stretching the truth. Some companies try to address workplace fun by creating sports centers (table tennis etc.) at office locations. The pandemic, however, introduced a new normal that impacted the use of those facilities. With remote work now being considered a viable alternative for most companies, how can employees create a happy workplace and reduce the mental stress associated with work? If employees choose to employ non-work-related social interaction tools, how can companies benefit from the social energy created from these employees’ paid hours? What if employers can provide the enabling environment that is location agnostic and helps employees achieve happiness at work while this created happiness translates to “Cha-ching happiness” in the company bottom-line and a highly motivated workforce? That is a win-win situation for all. Research shows that “happy employees are 12 percent more productive than the norm, and 22 percent more productive than their unhappy peers”. Whether working remotely or in-person office locations, work can and should be a happy place for all.

Well, I did warn you at the start of this article that I am one of those people with lots of questions! This challenge of creating workplace happiness is the problem that has found me. Or should I say the new opportunity that has nestled itself in my restless heart, and I will be working excitedly hard to bring you that happy workplace you crave for yourself as an employee or an employer — WATCH THIS SPACE. Until then, do not stop creating your happy workplace in whatever small doses you can find. Life is too short to be miserable at anything.