This document discusses concepts related to happiness at work. It defines happiness as a state of well-being involving living a good life with meaning and deep life satisfaction. Several theories of happiness are examined, including Aristotle's view of eudaimonia and the Easterlin Paradox. Factors that can impact happiness at work are explored, such as work environment, rewards, job satisfaction, self-growth, and meeting needs and expectations. The document advocates measuring and assessing happiness at work in order to improve job satisfaction.

1. Pexitics.com
HAPPINESS AT WORK
CERTIFIED PROFESSIONAL
reuben@pexitics.com

2. EVERY
PARTICIPANT
ATTHE END
OF THE
TRAINING
WILLBE
AWARDED
WITHTHIS
CERTIFICATION!
Sodon’tmissyourclasses.

3. “Happiness is a state of well-being that
encompasses living a good life – a life that
delivers reason for existence and a denser
satisfaction for life.”

4. HAPPINESS
A state ofmind A life ofwell-being
Psychological Eudaimonic /Hedonic
Social Sciences Happiness Paradox
Currentstate Set Point Theory

5. Aristotle’s Eudaimonia (Nicomachean Ethics)
a) Happiness is the final, or ultimate, end of life: is the ‘highest good’ for the human being;
b) Happiness is self-sufficient, because there is nothing that added to it would increase its value;
c) There is an inseparable bond between happiness and the practice of virtues;
d) Because virtues bear fruits regardless of self-interest, happiness can be reached only as by-product if it is sought in non-instrumental ways, seeking
to be virtuous.
Eudaimonia is an end ‘which is in itself worthy of pursuit more final than that which is worthy of pursuit for the sake of something else…for this we
choose always for self and never for the sake of something else’ (NE, I,7, 1097a). That makes happiness ‘the best, noblest, and most pleasant thing in
the world’ (NE, I,8,1099a).

6. EASTERLIN PARADOX (Prof.Richard Easterlin, 1974)
a) Within a single country, at a given moment in time, the correlation between income and happiness exists and it is robust: ‘In every single survey,
those in the highest status group were happier, on the average, than those in the lowest status group’ (Easterlin, 1974, page 100).
b) In cross-sectional data among countries, instead, the positive association wealth-happiness, although present, is neither general nor robust, and
poorer countries do not always appear to be less happy than richer countries: ‘if there is a positive association among countries between income
and happiness it is not very clear. … The results are ambiguous’ (Easterlin, 1974, page 108).3
c) The analysis of time series at the national level showed that in thirty surveys over 25 years (from 1946 to 1970 in the US) per capita real income
rose by more than 60%, but the proportion of people who rated themselves as ‘very happy’, ‘fairly happy’ or ‘not too happy’ remained almost
unchanged.
TREADMILL METAPHOR /HEDONIC TREADMILL (Brickman & Campbell, 1971)

7. PRISONER’S DILEMMA
Both serve
1year each
A serves 3 yrs,B goes
free
Both serve
2years each
B serves 3yrs,A goes
free
B chooses
silence B betrays A
A chooses
silence
A betrays B

9. Outside the person Inside the person
The Happiness Construct
Liveability of the Environment Life Ability
Utility of Life Happiness
The Happiness Analyzer, Kai Ludwigs based on research upon Veenhoven 2010
Happiness lies in the experience based on our choices and interpretation
of the Construct.

11. PAST
PRESENT
FUTURE
HEALTH FAMILY

12. PAST PRESENT FUTURE
EVENTS
GRIT
CHOICES
&
EXPERIENCE
MEMORIES
&
ENVIRONMENT
HOPE

13. PAST PRESENT FUTURE
Aspirations
Adaptation
Comparison
(in)Adequacy (+) Attitude(- )
TREADMILLOF CHOICE:MEETING HAPPINESSINTHE PAST
S
O
C
I
A
LA DDE R

14. Arbejdsglaede
Happiness at work
(Ah-bites-gleh-the)
Dutch
English

15. PSYCHOLOGICALPROSPERITYATTHE WORKPLACE
Aworkplacehas employees from different
backgroundsanddifferent traits andhabits. Diversity attheWorkplace
People havevariabletriggers to Jobsatisfaction
andthis isbased onfactorsofcontinuum. JobSatisfactionbenchmarks
Ahappyworkplaceshould accommodate,while
embracing,variations ofemotionaldiversity
withinthe workforce.
Happiness atWork

16. HAPPINESSIMPACTSATTHE WORKPLACE
Work environment
Rewards
and benefits
Organisational
benchmarks
SelfGrowth
Learning
&
experience
Resources
for goal
attainment
Job Satisfaction
Affective
Association
Continuation
Association

17. Survival Needs
Social Recognition
Individuality
HappinessSelf Actualisation Motivation
Intelligence Quotient
Emotional Quotient
Expectation
Management
M
O
T
I
V
A
T
I
O
N
E
X
P
E
C
T
A
T
I
O
N
HAPPINESSIMPACTS:WHAT IMPACTSHAPPINESS?
Maslow’s Hierarchy revisited.

18. Reachout to me atreuben@pexitics.com to know more about Happiness atWork & how to measure and assess it’s
impactatwork.
How can we fix Happiness…
Job Satisfaction can be improved by fixing it at the hiring stage.
A hard truth is that most organisations do not account and document the expectations of the
employee at the hiring stage.
Organisations struggle at Expectation Management and seek to fix this through culture.
Motivation is not even considered. Consider employee A, who has no Openness to Learning, but
is expected to undergo a lot of new learning on the job. Due to this gap in expectation vis-à-vis
motivation, they struggle to keep pace and seek their happiness by quitting, a struggle which
they refuse to acknowledge due to the next level of social stigma they seek to avoid. At every
level arrived, everyone is striving to reach the next level; an YouTuber exists to fulfill their
expectation of individuality but claim they are doing it for ‘public good’.
Motivation helps understand interests and hence the focus of attention.