Are you happy?
In a feature that first appeared in Encore, Brooke Hemphill reveals the results of our industry-wide mental health check and asks what our bosses could be doing to make us happy.
Some days are diamonds, most days are stones and nobody likes work on Mondays. So says Encore’s survey of more than 1,000 media, marketing and entertainment industry professionals that found 31.5 per cent of people are happy at work every day.
A further 29.9 per cent are happy four out of five working days while 23.6 per cent are happy on three out of five days. Only 1.2 per cent of respondents are unhappy every day.
Dr Timothy Sharp, a positive psychology practitioner and founder of The Happiness Institute, an organisation that helps companies to cultivate workplace happiness, says these figures are fairly standard for the Australian workforce.
This dumb 21st Century idea that we have to be happy all the time is bullshit. Who’s happy all the time? Your mind is like the weather – one day it’s sunny, then next it’s stormy with pendulous grey clouds; that’s just the way it is. And unhappy makes us get things done – lose weight, get out of shitty relationships, change jobs, etc, etc. Unhappy can be a very powerful, useful emotion indeed. This newfound “happy” industry are just modern snake oil salesman ready to sell you motivational tapes and hot coal walks. Happiness is the domain of spoiled, rich white people who, ironically, are destined to do one thing – forever be unhappy….
My clouds are pendulous. They’re hanging down loosely.
Does that me sad? Or just strange?
I definitely think recycling an old Saatchi idea into Australia would be meaningful, for sure.
“It is based on a misunderstanding that happiness is somehow frivolous or a waste of time. They think, ‘if I see you smiling then you’re obviously not working hard enough and I should give you more work’
It’s sad, but this is true. Such a common mistake made by managers.
Happy is good, always has been and not to hard to cultivate/manifest in ones life… silly westerner’s just don’t get it.
Oh, the Glories of Om!