By Eric Varin
Raising the question of happiness at work has become a necessity at a time when specialists and experts are also debating how work is distributed across our Western societies. Examining how companies are organised in order to move closer to this ideal of workplace happiness is a challenge for all employees. It means avoiding stress and burnout among those who are overstretched, while restoring hope and motivation to those who are out of work. Happiness at work is therefore a genuine quest for businesses, one that can also open up a new path for growth.
Human resources directors can define each employee’s productivity in an instant. By contrast, when asked whether those same employees are happy, they are, in most cases, unable to answer. The absence of objective criteria for assessing workplace happiness had until now stemmed from business leaders’ lack of interest in wellbeing issues.
That era is now over, as happiness in the broad sense is the subject of statistical studies, particularly with regard to its impact on worker productivity. This question of happiness is very much a societal issue, extending far beyond the narrow sphere of professional activity.
But while happiness has become a major issue for companies, it is increasingly also a source of questioning for each employee. Personal fulfilment has become a core value for everyone, and it comes through work too, though not only through work. Am I truly useful to the company? Am I made for this job? … These are all questions that call for answers, or else weariness may settle in, followed by demotivation. To help employees find those answers, companies themselves have brought in specialists whose task is to map out the path to happiness at work. These doctors of joie de vivre or happiness can now be found in corporate organisational charts.
Even if the foundations of happiness at work can be identified, it is also becoming clear that work on its own is not enough to make people happy. It is taking place in a world undergoing a profound revolution. Work is increasingly being shared, time devoted to leisure is rising year after year, and the very nature of work is changing, allowing entrepreneurship to gain ground on salaried employment.
What needs to be redefined is the place of work itself if we want it to become a source of joy and happiness. Do we live to work, or work to live? The debate remains as lively as ever, even if happiness has now become an unavoidable issue.
