{"id":301,"date":"2017-07-18T21:50:49","date_gmt":"2017-07-18T19:50:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hpbbnieuws.nl\/?p=301"},"modified":"2017-07-18T21:50:49","modified_gmt":"2017-07-18T19:50:49","slug":"5-science-backed-ways-to-be-happier-at-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hpbbnieuws.nl\/?p=301","title":{"rendered":"5 science-backed ways to be happier at work"},"content":{"rendered":"

Korte versie van een artikel op Entrepeneur van Kim Lachance Sandrow, mei 2016. Dr. Emiliana Simon-Thomas, neuroscientist en science director van het UC Berkeley Greater Good Science Center, geeft 5 manieren om gelukkig te zijn op het werk.<\/em><\/p>\n

Why wouldn\u2019t feeling happier at work be at the top of our collective consciousness? After all, most of us spend a third of our days working. Our time on the clock might as well be pleasant and fulfilling.<\/p>\n

If it\u2019s not, if you\u2019re a sad, sullen downer of a worker \u2014 and your boss could very well be onto this \u2014\u00a0studies suggest<\/a>\u00a0that you\u2019re significantly more likely to slack off and be\u00a0less productive<\/a>. On top of the emotional toll on your own well-being, your blues could also be a costly\u00a0drain on your company\u2019s bottom line<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0seriously bum-out<\/a>those who work around you.<\/p>\n

On the upside, a growing body of data-based\u00a0evidence<\/a>\u00a0suggests that being happier at work can make you more engaged, less likely to quit and better at collaborating, among many other benefits.\u00a0Generally speaking, the happier you are, the better your brain works and the better you feel and perform at work, says\u00a0Dr. Emiliana Simon-Thomas<\/a>, a veteran neuroscientist and the science director of the\u00a0UC Berkeley Greater Good Science Center.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen workers are happier, they\u2019re healthier and accomplish more,\u201d she says. \u201cThey tend to enjoy their relationships at work and elsewhere. They work better on teams. They\u2019re more well-liked by their co-workers and they\u2019re more immune to burnout. So, if I\u2019m an employer, helping them feel happier on my watch isn\u2019t even a hard sell. Putting happiness where the vision and mission are, it\u2019s a given.\u201d<\/p>\n

While earning her doctorate in brain cognition and behavior at the university, she focused on how negative states such as fear and aversion influence thinking and decision-making. Now, she mainly studies happiness and the behaviors that bring the feel-good emotion about.<\/p>\n

Simon-Thomas is also the co-creator and co-teacher of an eight-week EdX online course titled \u201cThe Science of Happiness<\/a>.\u201d I should mention, in the interest of full disclosure, that I\u2019m currently enrolled in the free class.<\/p>\n

I spoke with her recently about her top five tips for being happier at work, for both employers and employees. Here they are:<\/p>\n

1. Bring your personal baggage to work.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cWhat researchers are realizing is that the separation of professional and personal is a poor model. It minimizes workers in a way that makes it more difficult for them to be happy, to feel valuable, connected, trusted and cared-for at work. It\u2019s time to promote empathy in the workplace, to ask questions and feature opportunities for employees to share their real-life moments. A good starting place is to have off-site play days for your staff, when they can talk about who they really are, what they\u2019re really about and where they really come from.<\/p>\n

2. Stop competing with co-workers. Work is a team sport.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cWork is often framed as being something you earn. Maybe others think you were the lucky one who got a new position, or a raise, or maybe you\u2019re the most qualified one. It\u2019s very competitive and people get jealous and harbor resentment. Workplace competition is counter to cooperation, as it creates a sense of holding on to what\u2019s yours and making sure nobody else intrudes upon your territory.<\/p>\n

Break down departmental silos. Don\u2019t act like rivals. Help each other. Create a culture of happiness, cooperation and an open idea- and resource-sharing environment. Make it the norm. People naturally work together much better when they\u2019re not pitted against each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

3. Take a breather\u00a0and pause when things get hot.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cTaking a deep breath as often as you can at work, or having some kind of extra awareness of what\u2019s going on in your own psychological milieu, is so important. Engaging in mindful habits, like breathing deeply before meetings or on break or whenever you can fit it in, can reduce the toxic rumination and racing thoughts that often lead to stress and anxiety \u2014 the things that ultimately take our minds off of work and render us less productive.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of being like, \u2018Oh, no, I\u2019m not going to scream at that person!\u2019 and then avoiding that feeling and replacing it with something else, perhaps panic, work on your awareness and breathe through it.<\/p>\n

4. Express gratitude for the people you work with.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cGratitude has been proven to present a huge opportunity for increasing happiness. There are lots of opportunities at work to be grateful for the people you work with. It\u2019s up to you to show it, to vocally, explicitly express gratitude to the co-workers and teammates that make your livelihood, progress and daily efforts possible.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

5. Play nice with your co-workers and show mutual respect.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cJust be nice, as simple it sounds. It\u2019s one of the most measurably effective things you can do to easily and immediately increase happiness at work. Researchers saw this in a recent nursing industry organizational trust\u00a0study and intervention<\/a>. The nurses who took part were burning out and unhappy.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo the surprise of the researchers, the nurses weren\u2019t burning out because of the long hours and pay and compensation issues. What was really heard loud and clear: There was a culture of incivility that everyone was grappling with \u2014 a habit and culture of being unkind, competitive, snarky and hostile to each other. In working through those systemic causes of unhappiness, and learning to be simply nice to each other, the nurses were eventually able to come to a place of well-being.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the complete article\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Korte versie van een artikel op Entrepeneur van Kim Lachance Sandrow, mei 2016. Dr. Emiliana Simon-Thomas, neuroscientist en science director van het UC Berkeley Greater Good Science Center, geeft 5 manieren om gelukkig te zijn […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":3262,"featured_media":302,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[81,23,28,36],"class_list":{"0":"post-301","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-happiness-at-work","8":"tag-english","9":"tag-geluk","10":"tag-heelheid","11":"tag-medewerkers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hpbbnieuws.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hpbbnieuws.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hpbbnieuws.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hpbbnieuws.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hpbbnieuws.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=301"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.hpbbnieuws.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":303,"href":"https:\/\/www.hpbbnieuws.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301\/revisions\/303"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hpbbnieuws.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hpbbnieuws.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hpbbnieuws.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hpbbnieuws.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}