Start Smiling: It Pays To Be Happy At Work

NOTE: this article has been taken from www.forbes.com

For Jackie Donovan, director of marketing and merchandising at Fairway Market, coming to the office every morning is a joy, despite the long hours. Donovan manages 30 employees and fields approximately 600 e-mails every day. Although she's never worked harder in a role with "no typical hours," she's also never been happier. This happiness, she notes, trickles into her team's productivity and morale as well.

"There's a definite correlation between happiness and productivity on the team," says Donovan. Jessica Pryce-Jones, author of Happiness at Work and CEO of iOpener, says Donovan isn't alone in her assumptions.

"Happiness at work is closely correlated with greater performance and productivity as well as greater energy, better reviews, faster promotion, higher income, better health and increased happiness with life. So it's good for organizations and individuals, too". The research Pryce-Jones conducted with her team at iOpener showed the old adage is true: The happy worker really is the productive worker.

After building questionnaires, conducting focus groups and compiling results from 3,000 respondents in 79 countries, her findings proved that happiness has a distinct advantage over unhappiness. "What's the evidence that people who are happy at work have it all? The happiest employees are 180% more energized than their less content colleagues, 155% happier with their jobs, 150% happier with life, 108% more engaged and 50% more motivated. Most staggeringly, they are 50% more productive too."

The least happy workers reported spending 40% of their week doing what they're there to do, compared with happy workers, who reported spending 80% of their week on work-related tasks. "This means they are putting in only two days a week of real [work], while their happiest colleagues are doing four". Her results also showed the happiest employees taking 66% less sick leave than those who are least happy.

As for pay and promotion, Sonya Lyubomirsky, Ph.D., professor of psychology at the University of California, has researched happiness and how it pays off, showing positive outcomes when you're happier in the office. According to her faculty website, benefits of happiness include higher income and superior work outcomes (i.e., greater productivity and higher quality of work).

Pryce-Jones adds, "People who are at the top of organizations are significantly happier--about 20%--in all our key indicators like goal achievement, resilience, motivation and confidence". On the other hand, if you're unhappy, you'll be "less creative, less able to solve problems, and you're likely to be spreading your misery too."

Gretchen Rubin, New York Times bestselling author of The Happiness Project, refers to this as "emotional contagion" by which people can catch the happy, sad or angry moods of others. A happy employee will boost the mood of his or her colleagues so it makes sense that "happy people are good for teams." This is "particularly important when that person is engaged with customers, clients, patients or a work team."

A Happy Worker is a Productive Worker
Of course, not everyone can work within the confines of a 9-to-5 schedule, and in instances like this, a little flexibility can go a long way. For Ford employees Julie Rocco and Julie Levine, flexible arrangements like job sharing add to their happiness quotient. As managers of the Ford Explorer, "the Julies" each work from home two days a week and in the office on Wednesdays.

Rocco, the mother of a three-year-old son, says, "The job-share arrangement enables me to be 100% program manager on the days I'm at work, and 100% mommy on the days I am home." "I think that happy and fulfilled people are far more efficient and productive. They can be focused and deliver without the distractions of guilt or regret."

Such productivity is a boon for Ford, notes author Pryce-Jones. "The happiest employees focus 80% of their time at work on what they are there to do; the least happy only 40% of their time. That's a difference of more than two days a week per person, so you definitely don't want unhappy workers in your team."

Salaries Don't Buy Happiness
Job arrangements aside, a 2007 University of Chicago study revealed that the happiest occupations are not necessarily the highest-paying.

Sandra Naiman, the author of The High Achiever's Secret Codebook: The Unwritten Rules for Success at Work, points out that many of these happiest occupations, including special education teachers and actors, involve interaction with others and the majority of them provide a service.

For instance, for Elizabeth Kemp, chair of the acting department at the Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University, happiness at work is all in the creativity. "One is an artist not for fame or fortune, but for love and passion. I am always in the work, whether teaching, coaching or directing."

Vinjaya Selvaraju, on-air presenter and blogger for ProjectExplorer.org, says that her collaborative work environment adds to her happiness. "Working in a collaborative environment means being able to share my ideas openly without judgment, and being able to see how my contributions help shape the outcome of the series. I wake up every morning excited to work, and go to bed every night anxious to get up and do it all over again."

Ultimately this sense of happiness will boost your magnetism and increase the recognition you receive for your work. Pryce-Jones remarks, "Who wants to work with a pessimist? Everyone is drawn to energy naturally, and that's because it's a secret indicator. People who are happiest at work have 180% more energy than their least happy colleagues." And that definitely translates into increased productivity.

My 2 cents to Management & Managers

Can we think of a large company with just top management and technical geeks? Not exactly. That's why middle-level management is needed. This is the most important link between everyone in the company, and companies can't afford to have this link weak. So, what makes this link strong. Any magical formula; yes/no/can't say? But there are some qualities which managers can have to be strong link.

More than just Professional Relationship: Empathy is the key. It's not always professional problems, but personal problems also due to which employee feel dejected. Listening to the problems, appropriate response, respect to personal values are some of the key behavior to posses. At least in Indian context, manager should have friendly relationship with the employees.

Do Follow Favourism: Sometime, rather all of the time favourism gets bad name among people. But I must say that managers should favour his team. He should support his team no matter what. But there is thin line favouring a team and favouring individuals within it. It should not the case where manager is discriminating among team-members.

Planning is the Key: As I mentioned in my earlier blog, planning is always one of the key to success. Planning helps one to forsee the issues earlier in the cycle, which in turn gives more time to solve them. And who doesn't know that "Time is Money"?

Journey or Destiny

New day, new ideas, new work, new regrets, new friends. This is my journey and journey of most of us too. Everyday I put one step ahead in believe that it will bring me near to my destiny. But where is that???? They say, God created us and everyone in this world has their own destiny. But what is that destiny? When will we reach there? No one knows, even the best mind.

As most of us do, I also believe in destiny. But what is the use of destiny, when you can't enjoy the beauty of journey. In the hurry to reach there, if we don't appreciate the process, the path, the journey, the fellow travelers then what's the point in reaching there.

In our college days, not a single day passed without cribbing about the pathetic situation of the college, remote location, not-so-good faculty and so on so forth. But now I feel that in hurry to complete 4 years from our college, we missed the best part of those days. The serenity of the place. The beauty of the the hills. The view of the snow covered mountains. Now we miss the beauty of the place and die to go back, but is in vain. We have already ignored our journey.

This also can be referred

But that's the way world works. And being the part of the system, you are bound to do it, even unknowingly. Everybody knows Graham Bell invented the telephone, but they don't know how many failures he got during his journey towards telephone. Moreover, how many of us remember Elisha Gray? Everybody is so busy in looking at the results only, and that is how we consider the person successful or not.

But I decided not to follow this blindly. I decided to change. I decided to live my journey, not destiny. Yes, God has created everybody with destiny. But he also created the path which we need to follow and enjoy that. Only then, in true sense we can reach our destiny.

I am in Love

Unable to think anything else,
other than you these days.
I think I am in love with you.

The cleanest of the smile,
gives me new life.
Purest of the touch,
keeps me alive.
I think I am in love with you.

Those big eyes of yours',
two worlds I got.
When you show love with them,
It means a lot.
I think I am in love with you.

Now I know,
I found the love, true love.
Yes, I am in love with you,
my little sweet baby!!!!

Who Says, Stars are Uncountable?

Tomorrow when child will look towards the sky, he will wonder why people from our generation said that stars are uncountable? Children will discuss among themselves that there are 55 or 73 stars. One lucky child might say, "No, I've counted 127 stars in the sky".

I remember my childhood days when we used to go for a walk after dinner, we used to count the number of stars. Even after many tries we couldn't get pass through. Now if I see, hardly I can manage to find around 40-50 stars in the sky. The bright one may be 4-5 only.

This is combined effort of nothing but a metro phenomenon. We are growing in cities and villages are shrinking. Our cities also getting filled with pollution, either it is harmful gases coming out of vehicles, factories or dirt due to some construction going.

Today, we are ignorant to very basic thing i.e. whatever we have right now, it's our duty to pass on to next generation as is if not better. The time is not so far when the poem will be:

Twinkle, twinkle, where are the stars,
How I wonder where you are?
Up above the world so high,
Nothing is there in the sky.

When the blazing sun is gone,
When he nothing shines upon,
I was waiting for little light,
But couldn't get all the night.

I am awake(zen story)

I am Awake...

“It is said that when Buddha was first Enlightened he was asked,
“Are you a God?”
“No,” he replied.
“Are you a saint?”
“No.”
“Then what are you?”

And he answered, “I am awake.” “


The Great Crossing

The Buddha said:

“A man beginning a long journey sees ahead a vast body of water. There is neither boat nor bridge. To escape the dangers of his present location, he constructs a raft of grass and branches. When he reaches the other side he realizes how useful the raft was and wonders if he should hoist it on his back and carry it with him forever. Now if he did this, would he be wise? Or, having crossed to safety, should he place the raft in a high dry location for someone else to use? This is the way I have taught the Dharma, the doctrine – for crossing, not for keeping. Cast aside every proper state of mind, oh monks – much less wrong ones – and remember well to leave the raft behind.”

I'll be No More Tomorrow

Leelavati an elderly rather old and fragile lady. Lying on her bed as if just waiting for death to embrace her and take all her pain away. Without a blink, her eyes are stuck to the fan on the ceiling; perhaps to say thanks for its support and the comfort it provided throughout her life. Neither her pale face shows any expression nor her ears bothered of the annoying noise from fan. The fan too, old enough to hardly push air where leelavati is lying in the corner of the small room.

As her only son Manoj opened the door to leave for the work, she winced and said,"Take me to the bank". Manoj irritatedly replied,"Mother, these are the days we earn more due to the overtime we are getting", sighed and baffled,"Once the stadium will be constructed completely for commonwealth games, I will take you to wherever you want, but right now don't disturb me". Suddenly, from no where he lost his temper and continued,"You do not do anything other than lying there and eating. You disturb other also by your non-sense demands. But I've to go for work to earn living."

This has broken her heart. She never expected these words from her son and hardly managed to skip her tears. She wanted to say that all her life she worked hard as domestic servant only for him. She thought that he can't even imagine how it is like to grow a son without father. She could have married to someone else but didn't. But still keeping her calm she said,"It's been 7 days I am unable to even get up from the bed. I know I am going to die today". She added,"Tomorrow you have to pay money for my last rituals and unnecessary you have to suffer to get money from the bank account once I am no more".

"I will not be here tomorrow. So, to help you one last time I want to go to the bank". With these final words, she stopped staring at the fan, closed her eyes. Her breath stopped and all her pain went away with her death. She is really no more as she had already said.

Language Is a Barrier

I looked into mirror. At that moment I do not know what was I looking for but I looked straight in my eyes. I bend down and washed my face again. Just then I heard a horn blaring. Ohh I looked into my watch. I was washing my face from past one hour. May be I was washing the hopelessness, the tension, the emotions from my face, but of no use. I was all ready anyway, I went out. Mohan was waving from backseat of the car, which was already packed. So I adjusted myself inside the car, greeted everyone and we set off. I started staring out of the window, until Mohan said, "Everything alright?" "Yes. Why?" I purred under my lips. "Everyone expecting your smile. Today is your best friends' wedding.", complained Mohan. "Oh Sorry. Hi everyone. I was just lost. And everyone is looking VERY nice!" Mohan is one of my good friends and I knew he was not satisfied by my answer. He felt it but was afraid to say what I was afraid to hear.

So I immersed myself into past memories again. Today was my best friend,Monica's, wedding. We were friends since I dont even remember when. Because of her name, everyday in class I use to tease her with a famous Helen number and then we use to fight. Slowly between all those fights the feeling of friendship crept in and those fights became a part of my day and we became a part of each other's life. Both of us, has been in and out of relationships but nothing shook our friendship. It grew with time. But today she was getting married and somehow I was not feeling very good about it. May be I was over-reacting or may be I was afraid that she will not be the same Monica or may be( I felt a lump in my stomach, and believe me it is a bad sign). As I was watching out of the window, the streets looked more lonely. These were the same streets where we use to roam. I mind was trying to associate everything with her and I was hopelessly forcing my mind not to do it. In no time we reached the wedding hall, Aashirwaad wedding hall.

Everyone was happy,smiling and cuddled to people they knew. As soon as we get out of the car, mohan lead us to the bride's, I mean Monica's place. As I was getting closer and closer to the place where Monica was, I was getting more and more nervous. I tied my hands together so that no one sees them trembling. I was doing my best you see. Then I saw her. She was standing on the porch, heavy with the bridal dress. I had never imagined she can look this beautiful but I was not able to take my eyes off her. She saw us, smiled and then she spotted me(I was at the end of the trail) and her smile faded a little bit. Although she maintained a part of it. Then one by one we wished her, I was the last. I wanted to say many typical things like congratulations, best of luck blah blah blah. But at the very last moment I lost my words, I forgot everything and was just staring at her face. Then Mohan dragged me away. We stood for a group photo. Then when no one was looking I left. I went out on the road, and walked towards my home. I realized Language is a barrier when it comes to love. We both waited for each other to speak the words for the feeling that was deep inside us. If only we have read each other emotions. I sat down on a milestone on the side of the road. A tear trickled down my eyes. I should have done this earlier, may be tears will wash off the emotions from my face.



P.S. : If you have not seen a north Indian wedding, you have not seen an Indian marriage at all(this is for foreigners :).). In an Indian marriage,specially North Indian, there will be a huge number of people of every age and they will be divided in groups. Old people will be sitting a corner discussing national issues or sometimes someone's household issues too. Elderly women will only discuss household issues. Young women will either be around bride or in between boys ;). Boys will be either drinking,dancing or flirting :).

Earth Hour - Any Sense?

Switching off lights between 8:30 and 9:30 PM!!!! Will it make any difference? No! if you are the only one to do it. But yes, if you'd be able to convince one more person to do it and of'course you do it yourself too.

Individually it might not affect anything but think when many people like you will do the same. Actually, Earth Hour is to create awareness among the people, so they can take this forward in there daily lives. Then it will really make a difference.

There is no point in discussing global warming and similar issues here. Much has been already said about it. But believe me, it's reality and standing on our faces. Call it ignorance or logic, but even now many (rather most of us) think that this is just an hype created and nothing is happening.

But I feel it is cruel but truth. Just take an example, there was not distant past when we never used to buy water but what's the situation now? We are buying the water not only for drinking but also for our daily usage (Remember, water tanks coming in daily in the morning!!!!).

Early, the better if we realize that we gotta do something about it. Everyone has to come together and pitch in. There is no time left to ignore it anymore for anyone.