Happiness at work

Happiness at workSome questions are always pondering us when it comes to work, career, profession: How can we love our job, be productive and have better professional relationships at the work place? I believe that the answer to this question revolves around two aspects: one that regards the work environment, a variable that we cannot always control and our own strengths, that we can observe, control, measure and change so that we can be better at what we do. Here are some factors that can modify employee’s well-being that encompass the variables of work environment and personal traits:

 

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence refers to our own ability to regulate our emotions, control them and identify them correctly in other people. Now what’s the link between this ability and work performance? Research shows that emotional intelligence is essential in order to work well with other co-workers because positive affect leads to positive intrinsic motivation for completing a task, combining freedom of choosing a task and maintaining positive affect will have better results regarding the performance. Furthermore it increases the perception of autonomy and responsibility.

Altruism, hope and optimism at work

Hope and altruism usually provides a positive work environment that influences the moods and attitudes of workers. Hope can help the employees make better decisions in creating more realistic plans for completing the required task, reduces the fear and anxiety of not completing the task. Optimism is important because it encourages productivity on individual and organizational level, so being more optimistic helps you make better and smarter decision. Optimism enables you to make more accurate and safe decisions regarding your tasks and responsibilities, increases your auto-efficacy and decreases self-doubt.

Safety

The employees must be protected emotionally and physically so that it could prevent burnout, a negative psychological impact on the emotional wellbeing, depression, anxiety, stress. Like every functional thing in life it’s good to avoid extremes, so it’s important to encourage competition and high performance but at the same time decrease the probability of the occurrence of any emotional state that can impede the company’s mission and objective. Intimidation is not the answer, punish the behavior not the employee, the person.

Fun

Combining activities that are both enjoyable and pleasurable facilitates responsibility and makes workers better team players, so they will be more engaged in their work, will take on more leadership roles and experience less stress. Making fun promotes positive emotions that determine increased job satisfaction and organizational commitment. If you work in a relaxed and open environment that promotes fun activities you will be more productive, satisfied with your work, have better work relationships at the office and more engaged in your daily activities.

The work environment, managers, CEOs, superiors will always represent a unpredictable variable in everyone’s professional life, if our expectations regarding the job are not completely met it doesn’t mean that all is lost, we can always count on our own abilities to cope with the pressure.

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