Yesterday (Monday 21 January) was so called Blue Monday, purportedly the most depressing day of the year. How blue were you and to what extent did your workplace affect your mood?
My Blue Monday was a mild one. It was fairly productive, even fun. One of the best things about it was dropping by the Pop-Up Happiness Experience put on by office supplies retailer Staples to launch its In Pursuit of Office Happiness report. The launch included a presentation by Professor Sir Cary Cooper of Manchester Business School, who spoke to a small group of media folk about happiness in the workplace and the simple things that employers can do to maintain a more content and fulfilled workforce.
Author of Well-being: Productivity and Happiness at Work, Cooper is considered to be a leading authority on health and wellbeing in the workplace. According to the professor, “Work can make you sick – and work can make you happy. Which one happens depends on who you are, what you do, and how you are treated at work. So, an improvement in staff wellbeing can be a catalyst to the development of workspaces that encourage happiness, fulfilment and productivity.”
With respect to the state of the British workplace, some staggering numbers are shared in the report and were discussed by Cooper:
One-in-five describe their office workspace as “depressing”;
81% say their office space has an impact on their mental health;
68% would feel more valued at work if their organisation invested in their workspaces;
46% believe they’d be happier in another job altogether; and
31% are ashamed of their workspace.
Such down-in-the-dumps doldrums is estimated to cost the UK economy £93 billion (in January alone!).
It wasn’t all doom and gloom though. In fact, a little can go a long way toward creating a happier workspace. The report includes “happiness triggers” that respondents said they would like to have in their offices, such as an office dog (27%), healthy snacks (49%) and better stationery (23%). As for Cooper, his top suggestion for better work environments was for managers to conduct wellness audits of all employees to identify problems related to wellbeing and then follow up with data-based interventions to improve the situation.
Hosted at Carousel Spaces in Marylebone, the one-day-only Pop-Up Happiness Experience featured a range of activities to demonstrate simple things to do help lighten up workspaces. There were free healthy snacks, smoothies and coffee, giant SAD lamps, free massages and a litter of golden retriever puppies scampering about.
Read the full In Pursuit of Office Happiness report here:
staples.co.uk/Content/Static/W18/09/666/UKStaples-Happiness-Report.pdf?cm_sp=W19_01_666_03UK2-_-u_ad_2cta_href
… and even more at staples.co.uk/when-your-space-works/cbx/189.html.
Carousel Spaces is located at 35 Baker Street, W1U 8EN.
