Cheer Up! The Happiness Consultants Have Arrived

Several months ago I reported that happiness was a hot topic in business reporting these days. But unfortunately, some depressing news has recently developed in the happiness department.

Apparently worker happiness is on the fritz.

A January survey by the Conference Board revealed that more Americans than ever before are unhappy at work, representing the nadir of a steady decline that has been ebbing away for the last 30 years.

According to the research, only 45% of Americans are currently happy at work, compared to 52% in 2005, and 61% in 1987.

Most likey these unhappiness trends are linked to the effects of a dismal recession: employees are required to do more with less resources; they are more likely to settle for jobs they are not suited for; and incomes have not kept up with inflation. Blech! No wonder everyone is so miserable.

According to Linda Barrington, Managing Director at the Conference Board, this is a very troubling sign for not only work in America, but our greater economic viability. If the job satisfaction trend is not reversed, economists say, it could stifle innovation and hurt America’s competitiveness and productivity.

“Workers who find their jobs interesting are more likely to be innovative and to take the calculated risks and the initiative that drive productivity and contribute to economic growth,” Barrington says.

Given those bleak statistics and their potential economic impact, shouldn’t we find ways to cheer up all of those disheartened employees? Besides, who wants to work with a dejected whiner?

Plus it’s fairly obvious that positive attitudes can make for a more productive workforce.

Enter the Happiness Coach

Sue Shellenberer, author of the Wall Street Journal’s “Work and Family” column reports that there are now Happiness Coaches on the job to help employees be more positive and productive, offering them happiness tips and techniques such as meditation and expressing gratitude.

Much of this movement stems from the burgeoning Positive Psychology field that was pioneered by Dr. Martin Seligman at the University of Pennsylvania. Many of these consultants are credentialed professors, researchers and consultants with legit qualifications, like Shawn Achor, a former Harvard researcher, now head of consulting firm Aspirant, and my favorite blue-chip executive-Coach, Marshall Goldsmith, who offers advice for executive happiness in his latest book, Mojo.

But should we really be so obsessed with everyone’s happiness at work?

Meanwhile, there is a not-so-enthusiastic backlash brewing against all this emphasis on cheerfulness, with anti-happiness books like “Bright-Sided” by Barbara Ehrenreich, and “Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy” by Eric G. Wilson wedging their way into the non-self-help market.

Ehrenreich views this blooming industry of happiness with skepticism, and blames positive thinking as a prop that allows people to avoid confronting serious problems affecting the economy and the workplace. It is, after all, difficult to achieve happiness when fear, pain, abuse or poverty is looming over one’s fragile life. And these issues are far too real for too many people to gloss it over with a sunny disposition.

We Still Haven’t Found What We’re Looking For

To me, all this talk of happiness at work has a ring of spiritual search-i-ness to it.

Because, who are we kidding? Happiness, like spirituality, is by definition an elusive quest. It is something we are often confused by, with the pursuit of happiness becoming a mistaken substitute for the thing itself.

Rather than happiness, what I think we really want out of our work, and life, is:

A sense of deep purpose, connecting our spirit to what we do all day;
Combined with some economic stability;
Closely followed by meaningful and compassionate relationships; and finally
Some semblance of hope to relieve the ominous anxiety that comes with the inevitability of the insecure and unknown.

So then, what is my take on all of this happy-talk?

I think we have a workforce in search of a more meaningful spiritual life.