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Summary: happiness in the workplace is not only about money.
Key Take Aways:
- Happiness from pay increases tends to fade fairly quickly.
- Long-term employee happiness is tied to greater flexibility in their schedules, especially if they have children.
Researchers from the University of Illinois, Univ. of Minnesota and Concordia recently found pay raises don't usually generate long-term happiness.
Illinois professor Amit Kramer said, “I’m not sure that the effect of a pay raise lasts very long. It might have a short-term effect on pay satisfaction, but individuals are likely to regress to their initial pay satisfaction level over time. " (Source: University of Illinois)
Another tendency they found, was the comparing of one's own salary with those of co-workers. Similar research in Spain linked unhappiness to making these kinds of comparisons. The Buddhist term 'comparing mind' is a good description of this activity and how it can create suffering.
The University of Illinois researcher Kramer said there are things companies can do other than raising pay to create more long-lasting happiness, "If employers can understand the trade-offs employees perceive to be doing – sacrificing family for work, for example – then they can offer different work arrangements and policies that compensate for that. Flexible work arrangements, paid vacation days and compressed workweeks would be good examples of this. It also might be ideal to tailor policies and benefits based on different needs of employees, since each employee will perceive that they are making different trade-offs." (Source: University of Illinois)
What his comments seem to hint at is allowing workers to shape their work week around the most important things in their lives, rather than having to arrange their personal and family lives around work. Employees often have family commitments as their number one concern outside of work and an employer that makes it easier for employees to fulfill these obligations is likely to create more happiness in the workplace. One example is short notice emergency flexibility for parents who have young children, because they sometimes need immediate attention when they get sick or are in accidents.
Though to some employers it may seem counter-intuitive or even backwards to accommodate their employees to such an extent, they could reap benefits because happier employees tend to be more productive.
(Another thing that is less expensive for employers is trying to foster some social connectedness between employees because work friendships are one of the key aspects of happiness in the workplace.)
Image Credit: Public Domain, Wikipedia.org
