Rate your happiness at work on a scale of one to ten

This is a question I've started asking employees at their regular one-to-one catch-ups.

I would never be so crass as to write the number down or plot it in a graph, but it is a great conversation starter.

Three things I've learnt from this, and from reflecting on my own level of happiness at work:

1. Happiness seems to fluctuate a great deal and having one bad thing happen in a day can undo a lot of good.
2. Some people are just naturally happier than others. A bit like luck, happiness is something you make yourself.
3. It's difficult to single out happiness at work from someone's overall level of happiness (for me, if I have a great workout a the gym in the morning then it sets me up to be happy all day, almost regardless of what happens at work)

I was amazed to hear the answer 'Ten' for the first time yesterday - I hadn't actually thought that it was really possible. This is where the hard work starts though - it's a big responsibility to support someone in maintaining that. Still, it's nice to see we're doing something right.

Aaaaaanyway, off to the gym then...

Comments

[Jenni Lloyd]

I think I know who would've scored the 10 ;-)...
I came across this article
http://thebrandbuilder.blogspot.com/2005/10/happy-employees-happy-customers.html
that explores the value of happy employees in terms of a company's customers. Particularly interesting is the inverse brand wheel - 'the wheel of customer service and brand/identity doom'. Worth a look!