3 Exercises to Increase Happiness at Work

How often do we hear that a friend or family member is unhappy with their job? But happiness in one’s work may have more to do with perspective than the actual job.

A recent survey completed by the Conference Board research group reported that more than have of U.S. workers are dissatisfied with their jobs.

There are three key traits that could contribute to job happiness and how we can incorporate these traits into our jobs via ‘job crafting.’

1.       The desire for control over our lives.

2.       Making positive connections with other people.

3.       Deriving meaning from work.

Job crafting is a term used by Yale psychologist Amy Wrzesniewski and Jane Dutton professor at the University of Michigan. ‘Job crafting’ is taking control over the aforementioned traits to increase job satisfaction.

Dutton and Wrzesniewski recommend three exercise to increase job satisfaction.

1.     Identify the good and bad parts of your job.

Take an inventory of what you like and dislike about your job and other things you would like to integrate into your work. Setting goals and focusing on the positive can do wonders in snowballing positive focus.

2.     Build better relationships with your colleagues.

You spend a lot of time with coworker so why not invest a little effort and time and make some friendships? Having friends can make even the most difficult of work better.

3.     Look at your job in a new way.

Changing your mindset towards your work can make a difficult job more meaningful. Your job can be as full of purpose as you want to make it.

From a health care management perspective helping employees and staff enjoy their job and look at it from a new perspective can help hospital moral. Health care management and healthcare in general can be taxing and difficult work but integrating these three exercises can really turn a health culture around.

Share your Thoughts:

Could you use these exercises in your own health care management field to increase job happiness? How do you think you could best implement these exercises into employee and health care management culture?

Thank you to Baylor University MBA in Healthcare program for focusing on a culture of happy health care management.

Sources:

https://www.advisory.com/daily-briefing/2016/09/13/love-your-job?WT.mc_id=Email|DailyBriefing+Headline|DBA|DB|2016Sep13|OldDB2016Sep13||||&elq_cid=1339315&x_id=003C000001tclvqIAA

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