INTHEBLACK April/May 2024 - Magazine - Page 39
TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING
Perhaps counterintuitively, the happiest
workplaces do not require employees to
remain constantly upbeat.
Burroughs says focusing too much on
happiness can, in fact, be detrimental
to employee wellbeing. “I know of one
organisation that insisted its people were
happy every day. It was one of the corporate
values – as you walked in, you needed to
exude happiness.”
Forcing employees to appear happy
denies their lived experience, he says.
“Happiness is great – you should aspire
to it, but if we expect to be happy all the
time, we’re going to make things worse.”
The organisations that do best are
those that address barriers to wellbeing,
satisfaction, purpose and meaning, and
good work-life boundaries, Burroughs says.
“That’s what really improves people’s
experiences at work, not one-off programs
and initiatives that focus on resilience
and optimism. Those things might feel
good, but they don’t have any lasting
impact on people’s wellbeing.”
Above: Bhutan in
southern Asia is
one of the happiest
countries in the world,
with 93.6 per cent
of its population
considering itself
happy, according to
the May 2023 report
from the country’s
unique Gross National
Happiness Index.
WHAT IS FINLAND DOING RIGHT?
For the last six years, Finland has topped
the World Happiness Report.
Just why the Finns are so happy is up
for debate.
It is not a matter of money. Finland
consistently outranks its neighbour Norway,
which is one of the world’s wealthiest
countries, due to its Oil Fund, a sovereign
wealth fund established in 1990 with profits
from the petroleum sector.
Rather, Danny Dorling from the
University of Oxford attributes the
Finns’ happiness to a variety of factors,
including low income inequality, “a highly
decentralised publicly funded healthcare
system”, a robust democracy and even its
reliable public transport system.
One area where Finland excels is
education. Small by global standards, the
Nordic nation has a population of 5.6 million
and boasts a highly equitable education
system widely considered the world’s best.
Benjamin Radcliff from the University
of Notre Dame ascribes Finland’s reign
as the world’s happiest nation to
the high levels of trust its population
has for individuals and public institutions.
“People lead better, happier and more
satisfying lives when people in their
communities share high levels of trust.”
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