While the English and Danish languages have strong common roots there are of course many words that exist only in one language and not in the other.

Cheerio, elevenses and stiff upper lip are examples of highly British phrases that have no direct Danish equivalent.

But here’s a word that exists only in Danish and not in English: arbejdsglæde.

I know that to most English-speakers this looks like a random jumble of letters you’d get if you tossed a bunch of Scrabble tiles on the floor, but there is meaning behind it.

Arbejde means work and glæde means happiness, so arbejdsglæde is happiness at work. This word also exists in the other Nordic languages (Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish and Icelandic) but not in any other language on the planet. I’ve checked!

For instance, where we Scandinavians have arbejdsglæde, the Japanese instead have Karoshi. Which means “Death from overwork.”

And this is no coincidence; there is a word for it in Danish because Danish workplaces have a long-standing tradition of wanting to make their employees happy. To most Danes, a job isn’t just a way to get paid – we fully expect to enjoy ourselves at work.

I’ve recently been doing some work for Hewlett-Packard in England, helping them promote their mobile products (laptops and mobile phones). The idea is that mobile technology gives employees flexiblity at work and flexibility makes us happy.

This means I’ve been talk to a lot of Brits and appearing in the British media, and I think I can safely say, that the British approach to work is quite different than the Scandinavian one.

Few people in Britain seem to expect to be happy at work. Their focus seems to be on putting in the hours and getting paid. To most Britons, a job is just a job – and work is not compatible with any notions of enjoyment or happiness.

One BBC radio interviewer even asked me if it wasn’t fine to be miserable, if being miserable makes you happy.

No. No, no, no!

Being miserable at work, or even just being sort of OK but not really at work is no longer enough, for three very specific reasons.

First reason: time. We spend more of our waking hours at work than on anything else. We spend more time at work than with our friends, families and children combined. If you’re unhappy at work, you’ll spend a large part of your life being miserable.

Second reason: health. Hating your job can make you sick. Worst case, it can kill you. Studies show that people who hate theirn jobs run a much higher risk of contracting serious diseases like cancer, heart disease and diabetes.

Third reason: money! Happy companies make more money, because their employees are more creative, productive, service-minded and innovative.

The results of these two different attitudes is clear: While the Danes have the highest levels of happiness at work, Brits are… not happy. Recent studies have shown that up to a third of all Brits actively dislike work, while still more neither like it nor loathe it.

Interestingly, you might think that since Danes like their jobs so much, they’d be working more hours. You’d be wrong. Britons are the workaholics of Europe putting in more hours per worker than even those industrious Germans.

And seeing as Brits work so hard, you’d think they’d get more work done than those annoyingly cheerful Danes. You’d be wrong again. Worker productivity is in fact higher in Denmark and Denmark has the world’s best business climate according to the Economist.

So here’s my challenge to British companies, managers and employees everywhere: Put happiness at work first. Realize once and for all that life’s too short to spend so many hours in jobs that are at best tolerable and at worst hell on earth.

In short – let’s see some more arbejdsglæde in Britain.

Stephen Hopson interviewed me by email for his excellent blog Adversity University and the interview is now up in 2 parts. Part 1 - Part 2.

Stephen’s focus is on overcoming adversity and some of his questions forced me to re-think stuff. Damn you, Steve :o) Also, Steve adds some great comments to my answers. Check it out.

I have some very interesting gigs coming up - including some international ones.

Here are the ones I look forward to the most:
May 21st: Personal Innovation, Copenhagen
I’m putting on a half-day conference right here in Copenhagen about being innovative on a personal level. I will speak and so will Steven Shapiro, Gareth Garvey and Lotte Heise.

Read all about it and sign up here.

June 16+17: Festival In The Workplace, Nassau
This conference is about introducing the experiences, methods and energy of the world’s festivals (like carnivals) into the workplace.

See their brochure and sign-up info here: page 1, page 2.

Yes - my work forces me to go the Bahamas. I have it tough :o)

October 16+17: WorldBlu Live, New York
This one is going to be amazing! It’s all about making our organizations democratic and freedom-based rather than command-and-control and fear-based.

The WorldBlu conference two years ago is still one of the best business events I’ve ever attended!

Read all about this year’s conference and sign up here.

November 5: Thoughts on Happiness Symposium, Baarn, The Netherlands
Some of the premier European happiness researchers and advocates are speaking at this event and I can’t wait to be a part of it. It’s going to be fairly intimate with only room for 120 participants, which always improves a conference.

Read all about it and sign up here.

… and now the hint
And finally the vague hint: On Monday I will release a brand-new tool that is cool, fun and even (gasp!) potentially useful. Stay tuned! Further hinting: Facebook!

How’s this for happiness at work:

Made me smile, anyway :o)

I’m currently working to finish the first draft of my second book. In the mean time, please enjoy this guest post by Karl Staib.

One free paid day

Small companies are best positioned to offer the “one free paid fun day” perk. Let’s say you have ten employees and they receive three weeks off a year and they make an average of $45,000. You can add an extra day off and spending cash of $50 to each employee. This is a minimal investment of time-off and money for the amount of return received.

This investment will pay dividends because your company is willing to do more than the minimum to make its employees happy. When you give back to your employees they will give back to you. It’s what humans do. Smile at to someone and see if they can resist smiling back at you. They usually can’t because they understand the social cues that make a successful society.

The society that your company creates will determine the quality of work your company will get out of the staff. Let’s break down the numbers to see how realistic it is to implement the “one free paid fun day” perk.

Time-off

If you do give your employees one extra day off each year you’ll be adding 4.76% to their percentage of time off given, if they receive three weeks a year. Let’s say they average 250 working days a year; the company is giving up 0.40% of a working year. That’s less than half of 1%. It’s not a lot of time if you look at it over the whole year.

Pay

If you pay them $50 to go and have fun for that day you are only increasing their pay by 10% of 1%. It would only be 0.11% if they averaged a $45,000 salary in a year. That’s not much when viewed at from a whole year’s wages.

Overall

The big picture is most important. What will happen if your company gives a “one free paid fun day?” Your employees will tell their families and friends and they will probably inquire if there are any openings. Everyone likes working at a place where other people also want to work. There is a reason why good companies keep bringing in quality talent. They make sure that the employees’ friends know about the great perks of the company. If 60% of new hires are referrals, it means most of the hiring comes from friends and co-worker suggestions and this happens because the company is making sure that the work environment stays enjoyable.

Happy employees, as we all know, perform better. Giving a perk that doesn’t require much money or effort can separate you from the rest of your competition. Every company wants their good reputation to spread throughout the industry through word of mouth.

Here’s the Kicker

Each employee must give you a short report, no more than 300 words, about what they did. This is so you can learn more about your employees and what makes them happy. If they took their kids to the local amusement park then you may be able to raffle off free tickets at the company Christmas party. If they volunteered at the local recycling center then you may want to send out a survey to implement more green tactics. You may also want to put them in charge of saving the environment and the company money by conserving and recycling.

People want to work for a company that they feel has good values; they want to feel proud to tell people about where they work. I would imagine that not many people are proud to work for Phillip Morris, not because it’s a bad work environment, but because of the damage that cigarettes do to people’s lives.

Employees at Google wear their Google gear with pride. Friends are always asking them what it’s like to work there and if they can get them a job. Google works hard at work happiness because they understand the long-term effects that it has on the company’s bottom line.

It’s up to your company to figure out a plan that will have your employees telling their friends about the great company that they work at. You should start small. Implementing a “one free paid fun day” is a great way to learn more about the staff and separate yourself from the competition.

Do you think your company would ever implement a “one free paid fun day?”

Karl Staib writes about unlocking and kicking open the door to working happy at his own blog Work Happy Now! If you enjoyed this article, you may like to subscribe to his feed or read one of his most popular articles, The Five Most Important Things You Need to Know About Working Happy and 7 Tips to Process Your Stress Faster.

My first book came out in Danish last week and the very first review gives it 5 stars out of 6 and has this to say besides:

…will certainly inspire employees and managers…

Alexander Kjerulf gives a clear picture of what happiness at work is and how it happens when we get great results and surround ourselves with pleasant co-workers.

The book’s strength lies in the enthusiasm and sincerity it is obviously written on. A quick and useful read.

I’m incredibly proud of the review by new Danish career magazine for Women CV. They. Not only do they warmly recommend the book but they understand and appreciate the light (dare I say happy) tone I chose for the book.

If you’d like to read my book in Danish it’s in the shops now or you can get it online for 199 DKK.

The book is also out in English and in Spanish:

• English: Happy Hour is 9 to 5
• Spanish: La Hora Feliz es de 9 a 5

Dutch, Indonesian and Chinese translations are coming in 2008.

I’d like to see the book published in even more countries and especially in more English-speaking countries. Do you know any publishers in, say, Australia, New Zealand, India, Canada, or…? Write a comment or contact me if you’d like to help me with this.

… I’m on it :o)

Update: Aaaaand it works again.

If you’re unhappy at work, I’m sure that the thought “Man, I really should quit!” crosses your mind occasionally.

So why don’t you?

Even if you long desperately to quit, to get away from your horrible workplace, annoying co-workers or abusive managers, you may hesitate to actually do anything about it, because right on the heels of that impulse come a lot of other thoughts that hold you back from quitting.

Each of these excuses may sound to you like the voice of sanity, offering perfectly good reasons why it is in fact better to stay and endure that bad job just a little longer, but look a little closer, and they don’t really hold up. What they do instead is keep you trapped in a job that is slowly but surely wearing you down.

Here are 10 of the most common bad excuses for staying in a bad job.

#1 “Things might get better”

That jerk manager might be promoted out of there. That annoying co-worker could quit.That mound of overwork could suddenly disappear.

On the other hand, things might also get worse. Or they might not change at all. If you’ve already done your best to improve your job situations and nothing’s happened, just waiting around for things to improve by themselves make little sense.

#2 “My boss is such a jerk but if I quit now, he wins.”

Who cares. This is not about winning or losing, this is your life. Move on, already.

#3 “I’m not a quitter.”

Well guess what these somewhat successful people have in common: Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Tiger Woords, Reese Witherspoon, John McEnroe and John Steinbeck?

Yep, they all dropped out of Stanford.

The old saying that “Winners never quit and quitters never win” is just plain wrong and leaving a bad job is just common sense.

#4 “I’ll never get another job”

Well not if you stay in your current job while it slowly grinds you down, you won’t! Move on now while you still have some self-confidence, motivation and energy left.

#5 “If I quit I’ll lose my salary, status, company car, the recognition of my peers, etc.”

Yes, quitting a job carries a price and that makes it scary. We all know this intimately.

But few of us ask this question: What is the price of staying in a job that makes you unhappy?

That price can be very high. It can ruin your work life but also your marriage, your family life, your health, your self-esteem and your sanity. Not all at once, but a little bit every day.

#6 “Everywhere else is just as bad”

That’s just nonsense. There are plenty of great workplaces in every industry.

#7 “I’ve invested so much in this job already”

You may have sacrificed a lot of time, energy and dignity already in attempts to make things better. This will make it more difficult for you to call it quits.

I’m reminded of how Nigerian email scammers sucker in people. At first it’s a small investment, but then the amounts grow and grow. At each step the victim is reluctant to stop because that would mean losing all the money he’s spent so far.

Quit anyway. Staying on is just throwing good time after bad.

#8 “I’ll lose my health insurance.”

I have a lot of sympathy for this argument. Where I live (Denmark), everybody gets free health care regardless of their employment situation so I can’t imagine the leverage this must give employers.

One answer: Start looking for another job with similar health benefits.

Also: Ask yourself what good job related health insurance is if your job is actually making your sick - which bad jobs can absolutely do.

#9 “My job pays very well”

I have zero sympathy for this argument. I don’t care how well your job pays; if it makes you unhappy it’s not worth it.

Quite the contrary, if you make a lot of money now, use that financial security to quit and find a job that’ll make you happy.

#10 “Quitting will look bad on my CV”

Whereas staying for years in a job that grinds you down and goes nowhere will look excellent.

The upshot

Many of us would be much happier at work if we quit bad jobs sooner. I’ve talked to many people who have finally managed to quit a bad job and only wished they’d done it sooner. I have yet to meet a single person who quit a crappy job only to wish they’d stayed on longer.

You may have perfectly good reasons to stay in your crappy job - all I’m saying is that it pays to examine those reasons very closely to make sure that they hold up.

‘Cause it may just be the fear talking.

Your take

What do you think? Have you ever been stuck in a lousy workplace? What kept you from leaving? What finally made you quit? Please write a comment, I’d love to hear your take.

Related posts

• Find your quitting point
• Never stay in a bad job. Fix it or leave.
• How to find a job you’ll love
• Top 10 signs you’re unhappy at work

It’s Friday. Take a moment to enjoy a couple of these epic office pranks.

Here’s my favorite:

Jørgen Larsen just finished reading my book and has blogged some of his favorite quotes from it. Thanks Jørgen!

Also, Billy Waters just updated his fantastic mind map of Ricardo Semler’s book Maverick. Mind mapping an entire book is an excellent way to preserve the salient points for yourself and Billy gets all the important stuff in there.

Semler’s two books Maverick and The Seven-Day Weekend are some of the best and most important books I’ve ever read about happiness at work and they’ve been a huge inspiration to my work.

Billy has also promised to do a mind map of my book and I can’t wait to see it.

And there’s more great news on my book:

• The Spanish version is alive and kicking.
• It’s coming out in Danish next week!
• It’s currently being translated to Dutch and Indonesian!!
• I just signed a contract with a Chinese publisher!!!!

My post on why “The Customer is Always Right” is wrong has generated an amazing amount of attention. It’s been read by 100,000s of people and been mentioned all over the blogosphere. It even got picked up in The New York Times.

But most of all, it gets a LOT of great comments. Here are some examples.

Chris wrote:

I run a small company with about 20 employees. One day I heard commotion coming from the reception area. I hear a man yelling “I am the customer, you work for me and the customer is always right!”. I immediately went up and said, “No sir, you can’t get away with what you get away with at Walmart here. This young lady works for me and no matter what you think you were right about, you raised your voice and are no longer welcome.”

He needed our services and wrote a letter of apology for his ‘cranky mood’.

You raise your voice and you are out. No exceptions.

That’s it in a nutshell.

Grant wrote:

I read this post the other day and it was hiding in the back of my mind then this past Thursday I had a job interview. The interviewer asked me, “What do you feel about the statement, ‘The customer is always right’?” I remembered this post and mentioned these points as well as embellished to make it more appropriate to the job description.

After I answered that, the interviewer told me that I was the first person all day to answer that question correctly (she had already interviewed 6 people). Today I got a call offering me the position. I’d like to think that it had something to do with this blog post.

Thanks :)

SEE MOM! BROWSING THE INTERNETS IS A GOOD THING!!!

I’ve told Grant that I take full credit for him getting the job and given him an account number where he can deposit 10% of his first year’s salary :o)

Marie wrote:

We recently had a customer who bounced a check, and had the audacity to call my customer service manager with a tirade of yelling & profanity (before she could explain what had happened). She was calm and waited for him to settle down and tried to explain… He continued to use profanity, only to stop when my CS Manager politely told him that if he didn’t quit, she would hang up… Later, he emailed a complaint to the corporate office stating how rude and unprofessional she had been…

The customer DOES NOT have the right to harass my employees. I just happened to be in the office that day and could hear him screaming at her over the phone. I think she handled it WONDERFULLY; I took her out to lunch!

I don’t believe that a customer has the right to verbally assault my employees and I have trained them not to take that type of abuse from anyone.

SueBob writes:

I worked at a print shop where my manager would occasionally fire customers. In four years, I think it was 3 people. He told one person, “I won’t have you abuse my employee.”

I would have crawled through broken glass for him. It was one of the best employment experiences of my life.

These comments show that there are many companies out there that realize that putting the employees first actually results in better customer service. The formula is simple: Happy employees = happy customers.

But of course not everyone gets it. Yet.

Anonymous writes:

I work in a call center and showed this article to my boss. I’m told that senior managers view the ideas presented here as “silly.” Is it any wonder employees think our company is out to get them?

Customers are allowed to verbally abuse our employees and this is supposed to be a sign of great customer service. All the while, lower level managers are directed to keep turnover down. The company doesn’t understand that people are not satisfied in a job where the company supports abuse towards them.

Get a clue.

Sheeesh!

One of the regular readers and commenters on this blog is Eric Deniau, who’s VP of Engineering at Enensys in France. The really cool thing about Eric is that he doesn’t just stop at reading about happiness at work - he does something about it, and has tried a lot of things to make himself and his employees happy.

Eric recently told me about some of the things he’s been up to:

Some news about what is going on in my company.

Let me first say that I do have your book on my desk, and I refer to it quite often in my day to day activities. I must confess that while I adhere 150% to its content and look permanently for ways to make people happier in their jobs, I still feel some difficulty to implement concretely a happy plan. Putting in place concrete actions to make the workplace more fun is not that easy: work can be a fun place, it is still work and too far-fetched ideas could be seen out of place given our culture, in my opinion. But I may be too shy and can be wrong on that point…

That said, I have some interesting things to mention that happened recently, without a « real » happy plan in place:
- most employees bring eating or drinking stuff (we are in France, after all) for their anniversary and employment birthday: croissant, home made cakes, crepes, etc… I personaly offered a drink and buffet before lunch for my first year in the company; this creates regular occasions to gather everybody in a friendly way;

- small and soft rugby balls have been introduced in the lab following the world cup; when I see one around, I throw it to the next office as everyone else would do;

- a lot of people have a lunch break onsite, and some like to play to a network game after. Instead of looking with a black eye at the screens I see when walking around, I smile and asks who wins (I do not personally enjoy network game player).

- when coming back from a business trip to Switzerland before easter, I brought back easter eggs;

- Our IT manager is the last one to present during company meetings: as he is a fun guy (unusual for an IT manager, I know, but it happens !), it is now the tradition that he displays a joke at the end of his slides and hence the monthly company meeting, ranging from funny YouTube videos to an automatic tool generating weirdo product names.

Also, it has become a joke to say « happy plan ! » when a fun or simply nice idea comes to the mind of my close collaborators, as a kind of motto.

Now, when the situation is more tense due to unhappy events occuring (it happens!), this kind of things have to be handled with more care: it’s not easy and sometimes not fair to have fun in that occasions. Recent exemples I have include stopping a contract of an under-performing employee, or the announcement of poor financial results. The good point I noticed is that this kind of “happy plan” behaviours comes back quite rapidly after several days, when re-initiating the thing a little bit.

I will soon poll people again to know if they are happy at work. Personnaly, I am definitely Yeah++.

More to come…

As I wrote in my book (and constantly harp on in the blog) happiness at work comes mostly from doing a lot of small, easy and fun things regularly, preferably daily and Eric is definitely on the right track with easter eggs and foam rugby balls.

But notice that he doesn’t stop there - he’s also not afraid to tackle difficult situations, like terminating an underperforming employee.

That is a fine balance for a leader to walk - and a great way to create a happy workplace. Kudos, Eric!

Bay Jordan, the CEO of Zealise, (go read his excellent blog) sent me this quote:

“Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one’s values.”
- Ayn Rand

I’d love to hear your opinion on it. Do you agree? Are values (personal or corporate) making you happy or unhappy? Are they an important part of being happy or more peripheral?

Here’s a recent question from CNN Money:

One of my employees is pretty capable, but she lacks people skills. No one in the office likes dealing with her. Recently she called me at home at 9 P.M. on a Friday, crying and saying she was typing up her résumé because the entire staff was against her.

I listened, and then hinted that it wasn’t the time or place to discuss this. Now office tension is high. Can I tell this woman that, because she said she was updating her résumé, I assume she’s given notice?
(source)

That’s a good question but here’s an even better one: if that employee’s behavior is so bad and her social skills so atrocious, why hasn’t the manager reacted a long time ago? This is one of the most important things we have managers for - to make sure that counter-productive behavior in the workplaces is stopped.

I read an interesting quote the other day (though I’ve forgotten where) that said that any behavior by employees that is not stopped by management becomes de facto legal.

Bad behavior includes gossiping, badmouthing co-workers, constant negativity, unconstructive criticisms, bullying, not helping co-workers and not sharing information. If managers see this and do nothing - it’s now OK.

And it shouldn’t be!

One manager from a company I’ve worked with, took this responsibility seriously. One of his employees, a lady in her 50s who’s been with the company for many years, had become habitually negative.

She’d end most phone calls by slamming down the receiver and blurting “Idiot!” whether she’d been talking to a customer or a co-worker. She would criticize all suggestions and plans she was consulted on. Co-workers respected her knowledge and competence but didn’t dare ask her any questions because of her demeanor.

Finally the manager had a meeting with her. He explained exactly how he viewed her behavior and why it was making him and her co-workers unhappy at work. He then gave her the rest of the day off.

When she called in sick the next day, he was pretty sure he was going to lose that employee. She returned to work the day after and asked for a meeting with him. And this is when she amazed him.

She’d spent some time thinking about this and talking to her husband - and she’d come to agree that her behavior had become much too negative. The scary thing is that she hadn’t done any of this consciously - it had become a habit. One she now wanted to break.

She’s been working on it since and both the manager and her co-worker have noticed a marked shift in her behavior. So, by the way, has her husband.

This is exactly how managers should handle this type of situation. Employees who exhibit this type of bad behavior need attention and help to break out of it. If their behavior improves - excellent. Then it’s time to follow up and make sure the change is lasting. If it doesn’t help, then it’s time to fire that person.

Letting people stay in jobs where they don’t fit in, where they’re not happy and where they’re not pulling their weight is a mistake. Managers may think they’re doing them a favor… they’re not!

Remember, just one unhappy, unproductive employee can pull down the whole department. And what’s worse - this attitude is contagious. It spreads and infects others and if you’re not careful, you’ll end up with a hard-core little clique of dissatisfied, cynical employees who make everyone around them unhappy.

Your take

What do you think? Have you seen a manager take responsibility and address bad behavior in employees? Have you seen this behavior ignored and be allowed to spread?

Related posts

• Top 10 reasons why constant complaining in the workplace is so toxic
• Top 10 reasons why happiness at work is the ultimate productivity booster
• How to deal with anger at work

Not only did my article on why “The Customer is Always Right” is wrong generate quite a stir last week (and a lot of great comments) - it also got mentioned in the New York Times!! Woo-hoooooo!!!

And there’s more: if you’re in New Zealand - tune in to Afternoons With Jim Mora on Radio New Zealand National on Tuesday April 1 - there will be a long interview with yours truly.

I think it’s fantastic to see how much interest there is in happiness at work in general and in me and my work specifically! Here are some more of my recent media appearances.

This year’s WorldBlu Live conference has just opened for registration. It takes place on October 16-17 in New York.

This event is about democratic workplaces and you will:

• Learn best practices and leadership lessons from the CEOs of some cool democratic organizations.
• Discover how running a business democratically is a key to being happy at work AND making more money.

For me, this is THE conference event of the year and I really look forward to both speaking and participating.

The last WorldBlu conference in Washington DC was one of the most inspiring business conferences I have ever attended - I have never seen so many cool, fascinating and fun people gathered in one place.

Read more about the event here and register here. If you register before May 1st, you save a cool $300.

Michael Stallard has written a beautiful ChangeThis manifesto called The Connection Culture: A New Source of Competitive Advantage.

Connections matter at work. A lot. From Michael’s manifesto:

An organization with a high degree of connection has employees who are more engaged, more productive in their jobs, and less likely to leave the organization for a competitor. Organizations with greater connection also have employees who share more information with their colleagues and, therefore, help decision-makers make better-informed decisions and help innovators innovate.

It starts with the story of Michael’s wife cancer treatment at the hands of people who get the value of connecting:

[Katie began] high dosage chemotherapy at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. Our experience at Sloan-Kettering really surprised me. Every time we approached the front doors of the 53rd Street entrance in midtown Manhattan, the exuberant doormen locked their eyes on us and greeted us with big, warm smiles as if we were friends coming to visit. The receptionist and security people were equally friendly. During our first office visit with Katie’s oncologist, Dr. Martee Hensley, she spent an hour educating us, and, although the statistics she shared were sobering, Dr. Hensley’s warm disposition and optimistic attitude lifted our spirits and gave us hope. Simply put, we connected with the people at Sloan-Kettering, and it encouraged us and made us more optimistic.

I could not agree more. And these three point sum it up nicely:

Reflecting on these experiences made me realize three things:

• First, connection is a powerful force that creates a positive bond between people based on both rational and emotional factors.
• Second, connection contributes to bringing out the best in people—it energizes them, makes them more trusting and resilient to face life’s inevitable difficulties.
• Third, connection can vary tremendously across organizations depending upon local culture and leadership.

Feeling connected to the people we work with is tremendously important. If for no other reason, then for the simple fact that we spend a lot of time with them!

Read Michael’s manifesto at ChangeThis.

Related posts:

• My Happy At Work Manifesto

Check out this comment on Euan Semple’s blog:

I was - seriously - asked in my annual review last year to stop saying ‘I have a fantastic job’… apparently it’s not fair on those who don’t.

I told my manager that the freedom to say that I love my job was indeed a dealbreaker… he looked sheepish and the conversation ended.

Interesting approach - rather than make the unhappy employees happier at work, managers could just stop the happy ones from expressing their happiness. Sheesh!

Related posts:

• Euan’s excellent post on love at work.
• Why annual reviews are a big fat waste of time.

Participants at one of my workshops in a Danish company

I’ve been updating my Danish website, partly because it was getting a little outdated - but mostly because the server it ran on crashed suddenly and it turned out that no backups were available. Yikes!

You can find the new and improved website for Projekt Arbejdsglæde here, though it will be of limited use to you, if you’re one of the poor unfortunates who don’t speak Danish.

Best of all, the site now also features a blog about arbejdsglæde in Danish.

And if you’re wondering what the heck arbejdsglæde is, you can read all about it in a previous post called Karoshi vs. Arbejdsglæde.

When the customer isn’t right - for your business

One woman who frequently flew on Southwest, was constantly disappointed with every aspect of the company’s operation. In fact, she became known as the “Pen Pal” because after every flight she wrote in with a complaint.

She didn’t like the fact that the company didn’t assign seats; she didn’t like the absence of a first-class section; she didn’t like not having a meal in flight; she didn’t like Southwest’s boarding procedure; she didn’t like the flight attendants’ sporty uniforms and the casual atmosphere.

Her last letter, reciting a litany of complaints, momentarily stumped Southwest’s customer relations people. They bumped it up to Herb’s [Kelleher, CEO of Southwest] desk, with a note: ‘This one’s yours.’

In sixty seconds, Kelleher wrote back and said, ‘Dear Mrs. Crabapple, We will miss you. Love, Herb.’”

The phrase “The customer is always right” was originally coined by Harry Gordon Selfridge, the founder of Selfridge’s department store in London in 1909, and is typically used by businesses to:

1. Convince customers that they will get good service at this company
2. Convince employees to give customers good service

Fortunately more and more businesses are abandoning this maxim - ironically because it leads to bad customer service.

Here are the top five reasons why “The customer is always right” is wrong.

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