How to Work Happy

We love our Fridays, but they are inevitably soon followed by Mondays.  39% of workers tell Forbes.com they are stressed out over their workload and 31% can’t stand their coworkers. 

Office furniture and design firm Haworth has come up with some basic suggestions to make your office area a happier one.  Happiness, the company believes, comes from improving employee engagement and productivity, and the real winner is the company, because happy employees produce better work.

“You can make someone happy quite simply by making equipment work easily,” suggests spokesperson Julie Smith.  “It takes a little bit of time and investment, but to be able to walk into a room and have a connection happen creates happiness.”

Suggestions by Haworth global researcher Dr. Mike O’Neill also include workers taking responsibility for their own happiness by bringing chaos and organization to their work areas and keeping up with advances in technology.  “Happiness in the office can sometimes be as simple as technology when a conference call really comes together easily, and sometimes that just means evaluating the services you use or having the right equipment in a room.”

But Smith reminds that employer’s responsibility can begin with providing an open workspace conducive to happy productivity.  “The more access to daylight, and knowing what’s going on in a bigger environment, we find the happier employees can be,” she says.  Providing personal storage in open work spaces is also important.

We spend at least a third of our lives working.  We might as well work at making it happy.  Dr. O’Neill’s tips for workplace happiness include:

  • Legibility – ensure your employees can see and find each other, they understand the layout of the space and that workspaces and furnishings convey their intended use.
  • User Control – increase the control your employees have over their primary workspaces (i.e. adjustability of primary workspace features)
  • Technology – ensure that your employees have the right technology in their individual workspaces.
  • Daylight – ensure your employees have sufficient access to daylight from their workspaces.

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