Challenges to Happiness at Work

Dacher walks through a list of common problems that workplaces face—like 

  • stress
    • demands at work outweigh your resources
      • result?
        • disease increases
        • age prematurely  
    • 30% of workers declare that their work is a source of stress
  • physical & mental illness
    • less happy?
      • more vulnerable to illness 
        • compromised life expectancy 
  • disengagement
    • absenteeism 
    • boredom - wanting but unable to engage in meaningful activity 
      • mind wandering
    • excessive self criticism 

  • social disputes
    • incivility
      • bullying  
    • conflict 
      • 30 - 35% of stress caused by other people 
      • lack of trust and support at work 
      • adversarial 
      • Machiavellian types 
  • mistakes
    • increase in mishaps, failures, mistakes (when not happy) 

and explains evidence for how they tend to decrease with increased happiness at work.

  • cultivate happiness helps all of the above
    • It reduces stress, it reduces physical and mental health challenges.
    • It's related to job withdrawal.
    • It helps people with problems of disengagement and boredom.
    • It countervails self-criticism.
    • It's a nice antidote to incivility.
    • reduces the likelihood of workplace mishaps.


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