Episode 308 Happiness at Work: Exploring Theories and Practical Applications

In this week’s episode, we celebrate the International Week of Happiness at Work. Anna asks the pressing question: are you truly happy at work? Drawing on her background in philosophy and positive psychology, she explores various theories of happiness, including hedonistic, desire, and objective list theories. Anna also introduces Martin Seligman’s concept of authentic happiness, which integrates elements from all these theories to help us understand how to live a fuller and more meaningful life.

Through practical insights and philosophical musings, Anna discusses how to find moments of pleasure, pursue subjective desires, and seek deeper meaning in our professional lives. Whether you are considering a career change or looking for ways to enhance your current work experience, this episode is packed with valuable reflections and actionable advice. Join us as we unravel the complexities of happiness at work and discover ways to cultivate a more satisfying and balanced life.

*Resources mentioned during the episode*
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Happiness at work

Are you happy at work? It is the international week of happiness at work, and I think it’s an important question to ask ourselves regularly, but certainly why not take the opportunity over this week to really reflect on this big question of are you happy at work? For me, this comes back to fundamental philosophy as to what is happiness? How can we be happy, what is meaningful to us as individuals? And it’s about being intentional in creating not just a career, of course, but also a life that will make us happy. So it’s life as a whole, it’s how you spend the big moments of your life, but also how you’re spending your time in the day to day of, I suppose you’d call it, reality. So how happy are you? What is it that makes you happy at work, and how could you be even happier? Those are some of the questions that we’re asking this week. So, okay, I do want to go back to philosophy and the theory of happiness now. I studied philosophy at university, believe it or not. So I do remember John Stuart Mill and utilitarianism that I’ll talk about in a moment. And more recently I’ve studied positive psychology and this idea of authentic happiness that I shall also, you’ll be pleased to hear, talk about in a moment. So, look, if you google happiness theory, because, let’s face it, despite my studies, I still have to remind myself of the academic theory behind all of this.

There is the hedonist theory, hedonistic theory, let’s say it. And that’s the John Stuart mill utilitarianism idea, that pleasure is the only thing that has intrinsic value. It’s the only desirable end. You want more pleasure, less pain, and we should make all of our social and political decisions with the goal of maximising human happiness. That’s the Bentham theory of utilitarianism as well. I believe so, really? All about more pleasure, less pain. That’s what it’s about. And you can hear in the name hedonism that it does sound a little bit hedonistic, it sounds a little bit selfish, a little bit too narrow, perhaps, in its definition. 

And certainly if you apply it to work, you might ask yourself, okay, how do I do this? Now, I did an episode recently on having more things that energise you and having fewer things that drain you. And I think a similar thing could be applied to more pleasure. Look for the things that give you pleasure in the office, within political, professional conduct. Not political, politically correct, I suppose, professional conduct, of course, more pleasure. And then look for things that are not so fun. Don’t give you so much pleasure and try to reduce those. That’s certainly a philtre that you could apply in general. But the truth is we’ll always have hard things.

We need to do less fun things, boring things. Right. So that might not completely apply the second theory, then. So that’s the hedonistic theory. The second one is desire theory, because you may not just want pleasure, you may also want pain. But if I think about this, I think about my recent training for a half marathon, for example. I do that because I want to do it. I mean, it’s a good question why exactly.

I like the challenge. I want to have something to train towards. I want to be fitter, stronger. I really enjoy it. The race I did was. It was amazing in Sweden and big party, lots of fun, music and so on. Right. But the training can be tedious.

I couldn’t walk for a couple of days afterwards. I guess I hadn’t quite trained enough. And certainly there are moments in the race that are not exactly pleasurable. Right. The more painful. So desire theory says that happiness is really what makes you happy in a subjective way. Meaning you might desire a bit of pain and that’s okay. Right.

So it’s your particular mix of pleasure and pain. I suppose so. That’s an interesting one. I also think of, you know, being in a romantic relationship, even knowing that love can be painful, we might still choose to want to be in that relationship with our spouse. And then the third theory. So we’ve got hedonistic theory, desire theory, and objective list theory. The objective list theory makes me think of my bucket list that I wrote many years ago that’s still on my website, like 100 things to do before I die. It’s a list of valuable things. 

It’s not about what we want. Certain things have intrinsic value, like career, accomplishments, friendship, freedom from disease and pain, beauty, love, so on. Right? There is a list, and arguably, I sort of sit in this camp in the sense that there are certain things that on paper could. Should make us happy. Right? But look, the truth is happiness, as everything else in life, is subjective. And if I gave you a list of, hey, here’s the things you need to do to make happy. I don’t make happy make you happy. I don’t think that’s going to be hugely effective.

It is subjective. Right. Now, I mentioned Martin Seligman and positive psychology. His idea is something he calls authentic happiness. And of course, we like to have our cake and eat it. That encompasses all three of the previous theories. So you have what he calls the pleasant life, which is the hedonism. You have the good life, which is the desire theory, and achieving your goals and so on.

And you have a meaningful life, which is kind of ticking off those bigger things that we know to be important and meaningful in life, like career accomplishments and friendships and so on. It’s not really ticking off friendships, but you know what I mean, the things that bring you meaning and that all together gives you a full life. So that’s the theory, which may or may not be useful, but I think it’s an interesting lens through which we can look at things again, is it more pleasure and less pain that we’re after? Because in that case, you know, I might just focus on never going to work, at least in the short term. That might be more pleasurable, eating the cake right away rather than perhaps exercising and so on. Right. But longer term, that’s not really what we desire. I’d say, on the other hand, there are certain things that are meaningful even if we don’t necessarily think that we want them in the moment and they can really contribute to our overall happiness. Longer term.

Just to throw in another curveball here, I often talk about Viktor Frankl and his meaning of life book. He was a survivor of the Holocaust, and he does posit that it isn’t even about happiness, it is about meaning. And I tend to be in that sort of camp as well, but that’s sort of the purpose is finding meaning. And really happiness is a consequence. Right? It’s not so easy to pursue happiness. Or maybe it is easy. Maybe you just wake up in the morning and say, okay, what would make me happy today? I think the danger, as I said there, is that you might not focus on the things that are more long term. And that’s a big challenge in your career, in your business, when it comes to fitness, everything, right? The thing that will make you happy in the moment isn’t necessarily what’s going to make you happy longer term.

And that’s quite a challenge. The happiness paradox as well says that the more we try to pursue happiness, the less happy we become. So what on earth are we supposed to do? Do we even know what makes us happy? You know, if we’re always tracking am I happy, am I happy, am I happy? And if I’m always comparing myself to other people, that’s not exactly going to make me happier. And it comes back to that kind of New Year’s Eve naivety that we have around setting impossible goals, around these incredible standards that we’re never going to meet, and it’s not even our goals anyway, and so on. Right? If you know my body of work, I like to pursue and recommend a more balanced approach anyway, of pursuing meaning, relationships, well, being, fun. And again, if you know me very well, you’ll know that by my five l’s framework, which is live, love, learn, lead, laugh, which is around your health and well being, relationships and belonging, learning, developing, growing your career, yes, but in the sense of making a difference, making an impact, and finally, fun as well. And I say that in a very serious voice, taking all the fun out of it. But that’s the balanced approach, I think, which I talk about in the context of success.

And I would suggest here that it applies to happiness as well. Agree or not, answers on a postcard. So it comes down to the question again, how can we be happy at work? Right? It’s all very well to study philosophy at university and to ask these biggest theoretical questions. How can you be happy at work? Now, it could involve. It may need to involve changing job, changing career, leaving corporate altogether and so on, right? But it could also be possible to be happier where you are. I’m assuming if you listen to this episode, you might not be so happy. So there might be some shifts required if you apply those three theories, because let’s at least make the most of these people who are certainly smarter than I am, the hedonistic theory. How can you find those little moments of pleasure? By all means, eat the magnum, go for a dip in the sea, have sex, whatever that is, in the moment, right? Maybe not at work. 

I’m talking about work, aren’t I? Okay, how can we be happy at work? Find those little moments of pleasure. Go out for a walk and have that really lovely cappuccino from the coffee shop, decaf if necessary. Chat with your colleague that you really like. You know, find those little moments of pleasure within the office, do a fun team activity, and not like a horrible, tedious team building, but I mean, really, you know, have fun with your colleagues. Okay, find little moments of pleasure, then. Secondly, okay, we’ve got this desire theory. What is that you want from your career? What are the goals and things that you want to achieve? Okay, what is it that you want to get? What would make you happy at work? And some people come alive when they get to really nurture their team. Some love to speak on a stage and inspire. 

People, motivate. Others just love the work itself, you know? Love sitting there coding at your desk and whatever it is. You’re a designer and you love, the creativity and so on, right? Focus on the things that you subjectively desire from your career. Finally, number three, look for meaning. Yes, there are things that we know bring meaning and happiness, right? So find the meaning in the work you’re doing. Make shifts if needed, look for the things. And you could use my five ls if you want. If there is an imbalance, you know, with feeling, perhaps lonely and not having that kind of sense of belonging in the team.

If you don’t feel you’re learning and progressing and being challenged, that can really hold you back. If you’re not making time for fun, whether at work or outside of work, then that’s really important to address too. And of course, the work life balance is really important too. And it’s not just at work. So to be happy at work, we also want to look at outside of work to be happy overall. Not to mention the fact that of course, you know, bad work experiences flow into our life and bad life experiences flow back into work, of course. And again, in the moments, you know, how can we set positive intentions at the start of the day and then express gratitude at the end of the day? I think those little recommendations that are made that are in those journals you can buy and so on, are you, you know, they’re really, again, rooted in theory when I’ve done it consistently. Certainly the gratitude can be a game changer over time, and not that much time, actually, in terms of really helping you focus on the positives and what you have and so on.

Right. And depending on what’s happened in your life, they may be big things or they may be small things. It might be hard to find them. It might be super easy. So those are my ramblings on how to be happy at work in the context of international week of happiness at work. Hopefully, because I’m recording this in advance, I’ll be sharing more helpful content with you during the week. So keep an eye out for that on whatever channel where you follow me. Do get in touch.

You can always email me@podcastonstepoutside.com get me on the socials and I’d love to hear your insights on what do you think happiness at work looks like? How happy are you? What would you like to change? And of course, as ever, I’m here if you think I can help. Thanks so much for listening, and I’ll see you back here next week when we have our interview. We had a bit of a break over the summer, but I’ve got lots of amazing interviews lined up up for the next few months. So looking forward to sharing that one finally as well. I’ll see you then. Bye for now.

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