Many organizations are willing to spend a lot of money to provide different perks/rewards or retreat vacation to employees to make them happy and stay motivated. Unfortunately, despite spending a lot of money, there are many employees who wake up dread going to work every day. It may be because of lack of motivation, personal problems or negative environment at the workplace.
Demotivated employees are unproductive and could sabotage the happiness of other coworkers. Unhappy employees prefer to take the easy way to quit and find another job, but there is no guarantee that employees will be happy in other organizations. On the contrary, happy employees are more inclined towards handwork and give their best to contribute to the company’s success. They are self-motivated, treat clients and customers with respect and patience. They find it easier to provide more than what is expected of them.
According to research by Safe Work Australia, Australians claim compensation for work-related mental disorders, each year and this sums up to approximately $480 million which is roughly 6% of the total workers’ compensation claims. Furthermore, workers with severe depression take 20 times more sick days per month.
Is it better to be happy instead of being miserable? Can’t find the reason to be happy in the workplace? Is it time to start by faking it and gradually try to be genuinely happier?
You’ve no doubt heard the well-worn advice that “if you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.” It’s a nice idea but a total myth. When we equate work we love with “not really working,” it propagates a belief that if we love it so much, we should do more of it — all of the time, actually. Who needs a day off when you’re not really working?! There’s a whole cottage industry committed to proliferating this mindset — from books to talks, and even kitsch stores selling piles of “Work is Bliss” quotes on merchandise. This type of mentality leads to burnout, and the consequences can be both dire and hard to detect, says HBR journalist Jennifer Moss.
We are social creatures and from an early age, we learned to hide our negative emotions and stay positive in the presence of others and especially in formal situations. You can regulate your emotions in three ways, either choosing, “ surface acting”, “deep acting” or “ regulators”.
Surface acting is about expressing happiness in front of others, but still very pessimistic inside. Regulators are people who show extreme fake emotions on both the surface and inside them. They might be experts at hiding their true feelings, but coworkers and get emotional cues and body languages about underneath emotions and thus such people get less support from their coworkers. Whereas, deep acting is about being happy and pessimistic in the presence of others as well as internally. Choosing deep acting is more beneficial for you as even if you have a bad day or you are in a bad mood when you reach the workplace, you prefer to be optimistic about handling new challenges at work. When you are genuinely happy at the workplace, it exhibits via your body language and vibes. This results in enhancing positivity within your team and they are inclined to support you and develop trust.
An article about the benefits of staying happy at work, states that instead of just faking happiness at work, you can reap better results by being truly happy from inside at work.
Do share with us, how you switch your frustrating attitude to a positive and happy perception while at the workplace?