Peter Warr and Guy Capperto’s new book “The Joy of Work?” is among the work being presented on this hot topic. We spend one quarter of our lives at work, so it’s important to make the best of it, says Warr, emeritus professor a the UK-based Institute of Work Psychology. It’s important, Warr explains in a New York Times article, to focus on job satisfaction or finding meaning in your work, describing nine necessary elements of happiness in work and life. These include: having some sense of empowerment, using and expanding your skills.

There’s more:

• Consultant and author Alexander Kjerulf (self-dubbed Chief Happiness Officer) offers 10 reasons happiness at work is the top productivity booster. Among the benefits of workplace happiness Kjerulf cites: less complaining, more energy, higher optimism, increased motivation and fewer sick days.

• Performance Coach Arvind Devalia chimes in with his 12 steps to workplace happiness. He cites a  UK survey that found that two out of three people are dissatisfied with thier jobs and encourages workers to “See your work as a game. Life is meant to be fun and if you are going to spend a third of it at work, you might as well enjoy the game.”

• Finally, author Gretchen Rubin of the Happiness Project shares 16 practical tips for feeling happier at work.

This offers more proof that employees, and companies, gain from thankfulness and appreciation.

Rick Kiley is President of gThankYou, LLC, based in Madison, WI.  gThankYou® Certificates of Gratitude™ are one way  savvy companies demonstrate commitment to valued employees. The company is best known for its Turkey Gift Certificates, Ham Gift Certificates, and Grocery Gift Cards.

Australian psychologist Timothy Sharp, of the Happiness Institute recently asked 50 people what they consider to be the top three things that contributed to happiness at work. Their answers provide very valuable information to HR managers.

While I won’t rehash all five things Sharp outlines as steps to happiness at work, number three in particular struck me as relevant: Give Thanks

Says Sharp:

“Employees want to be valued as members of a team and organization. But they also want to be told, frequently and appropriately, that they are valued, as people. They want to be thanked and appreciated for their accomplishments. When managers and colleagues openly congratulate employees for their wins or efforts, it makes everyone happier.”

Sharp explains that this response is consistent with a great deal of research into what he terms the “social and emotional benefits of gratitude.” University of California-Davis psychologist Robert Emmons discusses this concept in his book, Thanks!.

He explains gratitude as a way of life, and provides tips on how to practice it in our everyday lives arguing that it enhances our sense of self-worth, while at the same time strengthening social ties. Emmons continues his study of expressing thanks, which he calls the “forgotten factor” in happiness research, saying that it increases the happiness of both giver and receiver.

Sounds like required reading for anyone interested in boosting workplace happiness…and maybe the rest of your life, too.

Rick Kiley is President of gThankYou, LLC, based in Madison, WI.  gThankYou® Certificates of Gratitude™ are one way  savvy companies demonstrate commitment to valued employees. The company is best known for its Turkey Gift Certificates, Ham Gift Certificates, and Grocery Gift Cards.

Thanks to the positive psychology gurus at the University of Pennsylvania, you can measure your level of gratitude. In six simple questions, Dr. Martin Seligman – often credited as the father of positive psychology – offers a tool to test your thanks. (An easy registration is required for this quiz.)

Thanks is key to happiness.

In his own words, Seligman says gratitude amplifies good memories of the past. He offers an exercise in expressing gratitude. Think of it as a way to throw out bad memories to make room for the good.

How does this apply to the workplace? Writing on happiness on the job in her HarvardBusiness.org blog, London-based executive coach Gill Corkindale explains it this way:

“It all comes down to choice, and this is where I believe happiness lies. In choosing — as far as you are able — what you want to do and how you will do it. While not all of us can choose our work and colleagues, we can all choose how we approach things — with an open, optimistic, and positive outlook or with a   frustrated, irritated one. To this end, I suggest you look at the work of positive psychologists such as Martin Seligman and Tal Ben-Shahar, whose course on happiness at Harvard has been inspirational for many students.”

It’s important, today more than ever, to recognize the importance of tools like gratitude to amplify the happiness we all have in our work. This is happening in the most unlikely of places. In England, the British government has appointed economist Richard Layard to the post of “Happiness Czar” to bolster the happiness of its citizens. It’s certainly worthwhile, in our own lives, our own work, and our own organizations, to look at how to be thankful and boost our own happiness quotient.

Kevin Eikenberry, chief potential officer with The Kevin Eikenberry Group, an organizational consultant firm, says in a post in The Sideroad that giving thanks can be a powerful motivator within organizations. He urges leaders to “be thoughtful in your thankfulness, gracious in your giving, and plentiful in your praise of others,” offering solid tips on how to best show gratitude within the workplace.

Small business owner Trina Bol writes in Biznik.com about how she attacked the issue in her company by encouraging employees to write Gratitude Journals. “Each employee in our company has a standard 8 ½ x 11 sheet of paper with the universal symbol of gratitude shaded into the background like a watermark and a simple numbering of 1-5. Each week the employees are to write out 5 things they were grateful for the previous week. The idea is for them to be thinking and looking throughout each work day for what they are grateful for. The start of every staff meeting we go around the room and read our gratitudes out loud for the previous week.”

Bol says that employees frequently came up with more than five things, and sharing their thanks strengthened her team, lead to greater understanding among them, and started many conversations that would never have happened.

At former company of mine, we had weekly “gratitude meetings”.  Every employee had the opportunity to thank others for something during the past week.  Sometimes the thanks were for a big sale, sometimes for a helping hand, sometimes for just plain great work and sometimes for a great laugh.  Often a lot of people thought it was a bit corny…until someone thanked *them*.  Then their attitudes changed.  When co-workers hear a public “thank you” for a job well-done, everyone wants to be in on the act.  It’s infectious.  It strengthens teams.  It creates respect and bonds that didn’t exist before.  And, it accelerates workplace effectiveness.

The bottom line? “We are all genuinely happier and well balanced at work,” Bol says.gThankYou, LLC sells Gift Gertificates  that savvy companies give to show appreciation to employees and customers.  gThankYou^® Ham Gift Certificates, Turkey Gift Certificates, and Grocery Gift Certificates are its best known products.

“Accumulating evidence supports the idea that gratitude is linked to greater psychological and physical well-being helps build lasting, meaningful social relationships.” This, according to Todd Kashdan, an associate professor of psychology, who wrote the paper examining gratitude posted recently in the online Journal of Personality.

This is the Great News Bit of the Day. Talk about your potential to make a difference. So many simple acts can lead to gratitude, from simply stopping to say a heartfelt “Thanks” to putting those words in writing – hand-made cards from kids are my favorite; simple hand-written notes are often the most impactful. Successful organizations know the power of gratitude in the workpace: it’s a tool that has a motivational multiplier.  (Should be plenty of opportunities to evoke that feeling of gratitude as the spring gifting season approaches, too.)

I’d love to get more into this idea of gratitude: what it is, how to express it and why it’s seen as one of the key elements to leading a happy life. But that’s for another day.

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