The Happy Dance: Who is dancing in your office?

 

I would be very interested to get some feedback on this blog post to be sure. It’s “International Happiness Day”, the 3rd Annual, decreed by the United Nations. I took it upon myself to do my share of not only creating happiness in those around me, but for myself as well. I took it to my social media connections and challenged them to do their part in my #GetYourHappyOn movement for the day. The first part of it, born from a YouTube announcement asking to partake in sharing your happy song with the #HappySoundsLike hashtag attached to it. I also put that out there for my own networks. Mine is the old standby, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow”, the rendition by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole. It gets me every time.

So I started to think about some of the things that I have done over the years in one way shape or form to add some zest and happiness into the workplaces I’ve been in. That of course led to the age old question of, how many employees in your workplace actually FEEL happy there. Do they enjoy coming to work? Is the workplace conducive to creating happy employees? Are the business owners happy, or is it considered a luxury? Maybe people just don't care.

Right off the hop I must say, that if you are a business owner and you're not happy, then change it. You’ve got the power baby, if anyone can make a difference it’s you. Think about if your work culture in your own company even promotes happy employees? If you take a hard look at yourself and your company, or as an employee, your work culture, what do you see? Employees, look at yourselves, what are you doing to contribute to a happy workplace culture?

One of the places I worked at didn’t promote too much in the way of overall happiness. Sales people were told that their family lives came after work, and the expectation if we wanted to succeed, was to work 24/7. I gotta say, when those words came out of the mouth of my VP to the sales team, I nearly choked. Ya… that was a sure-fire way to promote happiness in your team, tell them they can’t have a life. We weren’t encourages to talk to one another, we weren’t encouraged to lunch together and on it goes. They wondered why the turnover was astronomical, most people there were fired or they left.

So what are we talking about? Culture or work/life balance? Both?

Work/Life balance is a terminology these days that makes many companies cringe, management for the most part gags at the mention of it. (many not all… just clarifying, I don’t want anyone to think I’m generalizing) I've had clients say to me in considering candidates for their companies, “If they are into the work/life balance crap, we aren’t interested.” I’m not kidding, all I have to say about that is this, as a company, you better get into the current train of thought. Candidates are also CHOOSING not to work for companies that don’t have any type of work/life balance.

All of that being said, I make my own happiness; I seek out those that also strive to be happy, no matter what the circumstances are. Even in the toxic wasteland that was my workplace, I still was able to laugh, smile and show others that I cared, I promoted THEIR happiness. That's how this article all started.

There was this fantastic receptionist, heart of gold, she was truly a remarkable person, and we CHOSE to be happy at any cost. So… the FRIDAY HAPPY DANCE was borne. She said that her little grandson would come home all excited because they did the Friday Happy dance at school that day, we laughed, and then, the tradition began. So, every Friday, for a very short five minutes, we did our “Happy Dance”. We laughed every time; the dance moves were awful, but were magnificent regardless.

The point is this, we are all responsible for our own realities, our own happiness but what a great thing it is when the people you work with and the company you work for acknowledge just how important that happiness is. It comes down to the basics my friends, happy business owner…happy company, happy company…happy employees, happy employees…PRODUCTIVE and LOYAL employees which in the end benefits EVERYONE. This isn’t rocket science. There are of course those that just cannot see to be happy, employees and employers alike. We cannot help those people, they have to help themselves, but for the rest of us, if we all make a concerted effort, the results would be amazing.

Today on International Happiness Day, make yourself happy; make someone else happy… just DO something, even if it’s your own happy dance. Go ahead, I dare you.


#worklifebalance #HappySoudsLike #CharisOnLife #CharisOnBusiness #CharisOnCareers #GetYourHappyOn #accountability #MakeChange #BeTheChange #BeHappy