You spend a great deal of time at work, in fact you probably spend more time at work than you do at home so it’s important that you are happy. Whilst it is important that your employer provides you with a nice working environment it’s up to staff members to ensure it’s a happy one. A happy working environment is a positive place to be. With a little love and a bit of effort you can, maximise your happiness when at work. Heres how:

Keep motivated

It’s really important in the workplace that you work well, complete all your given tasks efficiently and with a good attitude. In order to do this you have to be motivated. A good worker doesn’t rely on others to motivate them they motivate themselves. Hopefully you will get encouragement from your Manager but it is the motivated worker that always gets the rewards. Professional recognition such as promotion or performance awards come to the motivated individual. All this will help you feel better and happier at work.

Learn from others

Working somewhere where there is a team spirit and you work with your colleagues to deliver tasks is always a happy environment. It’s important that you work with others well. You need to be a team player. Working well with others will benefit you as you can learn something from each other. There may be situations where you might see a colleague deal with a situation differently than you would. This can help you learn and believe me the more knowledge you have on how to a do a job well the happier you will be.

Start a development plan

By preparing an individual development plan for yourself you will not only help your career you will also help your personal development. Your objective should be to achieve your short and long-term goals and improve your performance at work. By you deciding on what areas you need to improve you are taking control or your destiny and this will make you happy. It may mean you do courses outside work to improve your qualifications, it could be you approach your employer to as for training support in areas which will improve your performance and benefit the company. Whatever you do to improve yourself will help you and improve your happiness at work.

 Have a good life balance

The concept of good work-life balance has gained priority in recent years. It’s really important that you find a balance between work and your private life. You need to consider what makes you happy and what you want personally. Your colleagues probably want the same thing. A good work life balance always makes for a happy worker. Remember the old proverb “All work and no play makes Jack dull boy” Everyone loves a happy person, a dull person is usually ‘billy no mates’. So get it right.

Don’t worry about being selfish

One of the secrets to being happy at work is to have personal career goals. When you feel you are working towards something, you ignore daily politics and workplace stress. Any difficult days are better tolerated because you know you have a personal purpose. People who can separate themselves from their work are not exposed to negativity when they concentrate on personal goals. It could be you are working in order to get on the career ladder but it could be until you have enough money to move to the country or go on around the work trip. We all have goals in our life and there is nothing wrong in selfishly going for them. This will make you happy and every day will be a day never to your objective.

Avoid politics

A healthy competition with your colleagues can create a healthy spirit in the office, but there may be some employees who like to start divisions amongst workers, or separation between the boss and the shop floor. In my day there people were called trade unionists, now days they are called trouble makers. Company politics can ruin a healthy environment in the office so don’t take part. Politics cause stress, unhappiness and dissatisfaction. Be openly critical of troublemakers if necessary. They are often bullies and bullies definitely don’t like confrontation. A political free office always a happy office.

 Be innovate

A successful company understands that the secret behind their development can be innovative ideas provided by their staff members. So if you have an idea on how your job could be done more effectively, or on how customer service could be improved or even how the product your employer produces could be better, voice it. Don’t be frightened. Steve Job started somewhere. Your innovative idea could change your company or certainly improve what it does imagine how happy you would be your idea was adopted by your employer, it would make you feel a million dollars.

 Be disciplined

There is nothing that makes you happier than getting a job done, or doing a job well. In order to achieve this you need to be disciplined. You need to know what you are doing and how to achieve it. You also need to focus on the task and not get bored. Being disciplined does not come naturally to many people but if you want to be happy in life as well as work it is a skill you need, so learn it!

So there you go. Happiness is an automatic thing. It’s not an entitlement. You have to create it yourself never rely on others to make you happy, why should they, they are probably working to make themselves happy. We are in work for a long time every day. With a little love and a little elbow grease you can maximise your happiness which I promise you will rub off on others as well.

Good Luck – Keep Smiling

 Angela Burton