Are we striving to be romantically happy at work?

Being happy at work has become the most powerful and desired goal of our time.

Creating happier workplaces by making available positive and rewarding experiences has become good practice, and no longer nice to have, but need to have in organizations.

One major result we find in stress and psycho-social risks assessments is that people tend to like and enjoy the work they do. Their relationship with their work seems positive, but they often have difficulties with some leadership, communication and other organizational processes/practices (not just HR).

Understanding work as an experience that must be designed as enjoyable, challenging, and positive on a consistent way is a very ambitious goal that seems desired and deserving for every professional and organization.

Through my professional experience, but also my personal experience, I’ve realized that we often confuse the idea to foster meaning, purpose and mastery at work with excitement, branding and the display of positive emotions in the workplace.

Sometimes I feel we are now romanticizing work relationships as perhaps we did before about marriage. It seems that work experiences must be entirely positive, and that people must strive to become super powered, with a robust motivation, and to have high impact and tangible recognition. All the time.

We are constantly talking about making people happy at work by engaging them in unique and impressive branded onboarding, teambuilding and wellness experiences, but we are forgetting that work is by clear definition a demand or a need you reply to and something you provide to others.

If you think that by having positive interactions with peers, fun and playful branded experiences you’re going to achieve happiness at work, I’m sorry you’re wrong.

I leave you with some ideas and important lessons I’ve learned and saw people learning about being really happier at work:

We are happy at work, when we believe that what we do is important.

That doesn’t mean you are important, it means that your clients (internal/external) value what you do. Your manager just checks that, and should help you develop the skills to improve your performance to your clients.

We are happy with our work if we are engaged in defining it.

If you are not engaged in what you do, where you can add value and just reply to any or some demands, it will be incredibly hard to become and feel successful. Something you are not engaged with will never give you the happiness, reward and recognition you think you deserve. The same in other relationships. You need to walk the talk, you need to do your work, and most of all you need to give first and reciprocate.

It’s the difficult moments at work and in your career that truly develop you, it’s not the easy and star moments of it.

It takes time and all your energy to really grow and develop the professional and personal competencies that you need in order to move a step forward. It’s not something that others can give you, because even if someone promotes you, or offers you a better job, you need to be ready, otherwise the entire experience will be negative and unfulfilling.

You’re not going to make it alone, so be grateful for others on your track.

No one that you meet in your professional path is unimportant. You always learn from others you worked with. Instead of focusing on doing your way, and grab about it, it’s important to be grateful for those who inspired you, disappointed you and collaborated in every project or operation.

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