Richelle Delia: The secret to happiness (at work!)

When people ask about the secret to happiness at work, I’m reminded of the famous interaction in Alice in Wonderland between Alice and Cheshire Cat…

Alice: “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”

The Cheshire Cat: “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.”

Alice: “I don’t much care where.”

The Cheshire Cat: “Then it doesn’t much matter which way you go.”

Many professionals approach their careers much in the same way Alice approached finding her way through Wonderland. It can be helpful to seek guidance from mentors or managers at the start of our working journey. At the beginning of a career, we don’t have enough perspective on the options or wisdom to identify the pitfalls that lay ahead.

Leaders may find themselves with golden handcuffs of indecision if they did not transition into career self-direction. Following the advice of others can cause workplace unhappiness to take root. By no fault of the mentor, others can only advise based on where they have been or would prefer to be. They cannot, however, direct us to the best choice for ourselves. The problem that arises is that after a while, going “anywhere” just won’t do.

This leads to the crux of the problem – people are unhappy at work, because they never set out on a path to be happy a work (or much anywhere else for that matter…)

The knock-on effects can be impactful to organisations. The Social Market Foundation found that happy workers are up to 12% more productive in the workplace. Indeed this goes beyond pure platitudes and instead has a direct effect on the bottom line.

Which begs the question: What is the secret to happiness at work?

True happiness at work stems from aligning our career choices with our personal values and focusing attention where our personal satisfaction aligns with business targets.

To this end, much of the common workplace narrative is little more than an ill-fitting bandage that poorly dresses the issue. There is no shortage of evidence to this effect. Workplace popular culture is fixated on concepts of work-life balance, self-care and “quiet quitting”. All these concepts are designed to make the workplace more palatable to both workers and leaders and enable everyone to bring their whole selves to work.

How is it then, that in a time of maximum focus on employee wellbeing, flexible work schedules and eliminating unconscious bias are so many employees still disgruntled and disengaged? A 2023 study by Bamboo HR reports that the employee net promoter score is the lowest it has ever been and declining rapidly.

The answer lies in the fact that these tactics treat symptoms instead of the root cause of outsourcing ambition to others.

Of course being happy at work is hard!

It is common for professionals to seek purpose, meaning and significance as we mature in our careers. Leadership is much more about enabling others to reach their potential than necessarily reaching new heights yourself. The irony is that many reach milestone levels of service only to feel emptyhanded because they did not take the time to enter the drivers role in their career or its trajectory.

Here’s what leaders can do about it to engage their staff to lean into proactivity:

The first step for someone seeking to improve their happiness at work is to gain clarity on what an ideal life (work or otherwise) looks like. A simple way to do this is to outline an ideal day. Think about what would make an ideal day for your both personally and professionally.

Some questions to consider include:

• where do you live?
• what sort of industry are you in?
• what is your role and what are your responsibilities?
• who do you interact with on a daily basis?
• what does your schedule look like?

Reflecting on these questions are a telling indicator of what is important in your or your team member’s professional life. Based on what is or isn’t present currently in the work environment can evaluate how aligned your current career is with your ideal working situation.

Next, make a list of personal values they would like to see reflected at work. Do this by thinking about what actually makes them happy.

Some questions to consider are:

• Do you prefer to work autonomously where you deliver check-ins with stakeholders on your terms?
• Would you like a structured environment with lots of accountability so you only focus on executing your daily tasks?
• Do you prefer a collegial atmosphere where you can have tight relationships with colleagues?
• Would you rather keep your personal and professional lives separate?

Becoming happy at work is merely an exercise in determining their version of happy then cross-referencing that with what is currently present in their everyday experiences. Therefore the last step is to compare their ideal life and core values to the current employment situation.

As leaders, you may be hesitant to engage your team members in this way for feat that the team member’s satisfaction or personal alignment may no longer fit within the organization. In fact, employers should want staff members who take ownership over their careers. Proactive, engaged employees contribute more, have higher levels of satisfaction and boost enterprise morale. Harvard Business Review discusses how proactive employees help the organization maintain a competitive edge. There may be a small risk that, upon reflection, a person would move jobs but in all likelihood, the exercise opens the door for conversation and creativity for shaping the best fit next role for the person within the same organization.

Finding happiness at work is largely about honesty and acknowledging what each person does and do not want. By encouraging staff members – and ourselves – to ask yourself the questions that we do not want to ask ourselves we only avoid reality.

Ever present questions like “who are you?”, “what do you really want?”, and “who do you truly want to be?” create more space than they limit. Let this be your invitation to lean in and take a proactive role in the happiness you seek and encourage your team members to do the same.