I read last week in Yahoo! Finance that many young people in Australia are unhappy with their jobs.
Stewart Perrie wrote in the post that some of these young people are just “throwing in the towel.” He cites research from job search site SEEK: “SEEK’s inaugural research into the topic found Gen Z to be the unhappiest in their current roles, followed by Gen X, then Millennials, and then Baby Boomers. High school teacher Bridgette Keely told Yahoo Finance she quit her job recently because she was so unhappy.”
The post advises in a bold-type subhead: “Don’t stay stuck if you’re unhappy—but sometimes it’s not that easy.” I agree that it’s not that easy to change jobs, but in addition to that, I question whether unhappiness with work should come as a surprise.
Most workplaces seem less fun than in years past. Is it possible to be happy in a workplace that isn’t fun?
Is Happiness at Work Even Realistic?
There’s a part of me that wants to be upbeat and optimistic, and then there’s the more cynical part of me that believes happiness with one’s work often is an unrealistic ideal.
I frequently say to myself, “They’re paying me because it isn’t fun. If it were fun, I would be paying them. If it were so much fun, they would be selling costly tickets for the opportunity to do this work.”
Compensating for Lack of Intrinsically Fun Work
Over the course of the last 20-plus years of work life, I tried to make work as fun as possible.
At one job, I saved the animal-like public relations gifts I was sent. I then decorated my cubicle with them. I had a green foam frog on a wire sticking out from the top of one of my cubicle walls. I called him Alfred Alfredo. People always knew where to find me on our large floor because Alfred stood tall as a marker. I also had a collection of rubber ducks and a floppy rubber chicken who stood watch while I did my work. I named him Harrison.
One day a man representing the corporate executive and Human Resources team came to tell me that Alfred needed to be tucked inside my cubicle. I was violating a rule having him stick up past the vertical border of my cubicle. Does that sound like a fun environment?
Sometimes employees look for ways to make work more palatable and fun when the fun is hard to come by, whether that’s through a menagerie composed of foam and rubber animals, through listening to music while doing work, or through finding novel ways to deliver their work.
When my mother was an adolescent, she had two siblings who were six and seven years younger, respectively. My grandmother needed her to be a helper, in addition to a child. So she often ran errands for the household. Children are usually better than adults at finding the fun in chores, so she ran those errands on roller skates. The current work world for the average employee reminds me of that. You must be creative to find ways to make the delivery of your work fun because, intrinsically, it’s usually not.
Can You Be Happy in a Cost-Cutting Environment?
A major killer of workplace happiness is cost cutting. It’s hard to find fun in downgraded office environments and office locations that can be more inconveniently located in the wake of the pandemic.
Most companies did not accept the transition to remote work and now expect employees back in the office at least two to three days per week. In the meantime, not as many employees as they hoped have agreed to return. With a largely empty office space, some of these companies relocated to less expensive space. That space may not only be in a less in-demand area, but also may be barebones compared to the old space.
There was speculation as the pandemic started winding down that workspaces would be improved. Companies would have to up their office space game to successfully get employees to return to in-person work. I didn’t notice that happen.
Similarly, I noticed that work teams are smaller than in years past. Smaller teams mean more work for everyone. More work usually equates to more stress. That’s also not fun.
Do Most Organizations Actually Want Employees to Have Fun?
Last but not least, the culture in many organizations today appears to be downright opposed to fun.
At one of the companies I worked for, I heard that decades earlier, a small putting green strip would be rolled out in the afternoon. Employees would take a break to practice their putting. I asked my then-boss why that no longer happened. He said it’s different now. The culture had changed. There was hostility to fun at work. It was seen as wasteful and inefficient.
Happiness at work is a wonderful ideal, but in the current workplace environment, the ethos is that work is not supposed to be fun. If it’s fun, it’s suspect.
Is it important to your organization that employees be “happy” at work? Is happiness with one’s work still realistic and attainable for most people?
