Happy Hour is 9 to 5: How to Love your Job, Love your Life, and Kick Butt at Work (Your Best Self)
Alexander Kjerulf
Language: English
Pages: 180
ISBN: B00IL1XYPS
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Hard day at the office?
We should expect more from the 9 to 5, argues entrepreneur and happiness expert Alexander Kjerulf. Managers should make it a priority too: this book is packed with data that shows that happier people are more productive, more innovative, more motivated, deliver better customer service AND handle change better.
Happiness at work may sound a pipe dream but achieving it is actually quite possible. First, we need to understand what it’s not. It’s not about high-fiving and cheerleading (although it could be for some people). It’s not about eliminating all the bad stuff from our job – it’s about being happy at work even though some of those bad things are present.
Research across 30 countries shows that happiness at work rests on results and relationships. Happy Hour is 9 to 5 gives detailed, practical advice on building the skills and energy to improve both.
Here you’ll learn how to deal with everything from nightmare bosses, bullies, miserable co-workers, long-running conflicts, stifling bureaucracy and management who refuse to see anything beyond the bottom line.
It’s also full of inspiring real-life stories: of a temp worker cheering up her co-workers with small, random acts of kindness. A group of nurses rebel against the hospital’s sour mood and turn their ward into a happy place. A programmer at a bank learns what it takes to turn his department from boring to fun.
Alexander speaks from his own experience, both as co-founder of the Danish IT Company Enterprise Systems and as an expert on workplace happiness for clients including Hilton, Microsoft, Lego, Ikea, Shell, HP and IBM. His work has been featured in the Sunday Times, New York Times?, and BBC Radio 4’s In Business. www.positivesharing.com
Happy Hour is 9 to 5 is an outstanding book because it reminds us of the importance of our health and wellbeing. Read this book!’ Professor Cary L. Cooper, CBE
employees’ happiness the company’s top priority. But, if you’ve put your people first, how can you fire them? CEO Hal Rosenbluth did not see this dilemma. To him, putting your people first entails a responsibility to fire people who don’t fit in. Employees shouldn’t be fired at the first sign of trouble — training, coaching, guidance, or a new position inside the company could help to motivate them. However, when these things don’t work, a commitment to your employees’ happiness means that you
profitable less than a year after Alfred took the reins. Today Irma is the fifth-best workplace in Denmark and the best retailer to work for in Europe. Irma’s employees say things like: “Working for Irma is an honour.” “We take care of each other. If a person seems to be doing badly, it isn’t just ignored.” “Management has faith in us, that we can function independently.” “Irma is the best place I have ever worked.” Additionally, in February of 2006 Irma proudly announced its best financial
let me tell you this: no one in this family would trade our current situation for what we had a year ago.” Once you’ve decided to be happy at work, here’s the most basic choice you must make: Should you try to become happy in your current job, or is it better to switch to a new job? Can you make things better where you are? Have you tried? How did it go? There are two possible options: Change is realistic. It may not be easy or fast, but things can get better at my current job.Change is not
at your results and add up the savings in time and money — this will give you your business case for happiness. Now it’s time to commit to happiness at work. Without this commitment, any action is likely to be hollow and ineffective. Put happiness first Google recognises that the key to their success is to consistently attract and hold onto the best people, and a web page listing “Top 10 Reasons to Work at Google” included these wonderful points: Life is beautiful. Being a part of something
Or, you could make some small “Thank you” cards to thank people for a job well done, which they can then pass on to others. Go for something where your initial effort only needs to be very small but involves a lot of people, each of whom gets to contribute. Give to get It seems to be a universal principle that when there’s something you want, it pays to give it to others. Would you like to receive more praise? Start praising others and they will start praising you more. Want to be surrounded