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Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

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Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#191

Post by chillingeffect »

Joeri wrote: post #134
montebicyclelo wrote: post #60

> we suggest that leaders follow the science and take a structured approach to hiring for, promoting, and developing employee happiness > Measure happiness in both employees and job candidates. > we conservatively advocate using measures of happiness and optimism as discriminators, or tiebreakers, because the risks are low and the benefits could be important. Good luck getting a job, unhappy people… I don’t think the…

Their entire argument for this also applying outside the military domain seems to be that the military is a very large employer… That seemed a bit shaky to me as well. You could just as well argue that people who are happy to go to war end up earning more medals. Happiness inside of the military is not the same as happiness in the workplace in general.

Firm agree. Military unemployment and happiness assessment is absolutely different from other jobs. Look at the clear hierarchies, the enforced respect, the employment security, the healthcare, the indoctrination, the danger. It's greviously haughty and myopic to conclude this applies elsewhere without esupporting arguments, to which "it's a big employer" does not count. How did this pass muster?

I conclude the authors are faking happiness to not get fired.

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#192

Post by pksebben »

throwaway874653 wrote: post #163
suction wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, having already made enough money to always be able to just say "you know what, I'm out" whenever you feel like it is necessary to be happy in any situation and interested in everything. Anyone who's not "secure for life" and has to keep the salaries coming in will have to deal with bad people, bad decisions, bad culture, etc. and become unhappy. I've sort of dabbled in that situation: I made and lost a fortune…

This is exactly what i feel but did not thought about until i read the post. Is there a name for this pheneomeon. Dejavu is kind of tangential to this.

ennui, perhaps?

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#193

Post by mojzu »

fleddr wrote: post #145

I'm annoyed by employers pretending to care about happiness and mental health. It's usually something like "here's a link to a free one hour e-course on mindfulness". But do take it in your free time. Or the many internal emails from leaders about how they "appreciate" the difficulty of these times. It's all performative, hollow and cheap. If you really claim to care or appreciate it, walk the talk. Give people 1K ou…

I strongly agree, mental health only seems to be a consideration until it has any affect on output. It's now talked about more openly/included in health and safety courses/etc. which at least seems to be a step in the right direction, but good luck asking for deadlines to be pushed back/or time off for mental health because a project is causing burn out. I'm hoping it's a generational thing that 'puritanical work ethic/expectations' are offered as the solution to all problems but usually dismissed as a potential cause of any

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#194

Post by sethammons »

artemonster wrote: post #126
jd115 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course you choose whether to be happy. In fact, it is the ONLY thing you have control over. But it's the key to everything. It's the one choice you have to make in every living moment. Keep making this right choice, and life is a song. Choose to look the wrong way and life becomes hard work. There is nothing more to it. This is all anyone ever needs to know about life.

That is just a load of shit, I am so tired of this toxic positivity. Of course its a choice in the first place, but choice is not what brings you there. You need to choose right turn, yes, yes! But you have to walk the path towards the destination and that is a whole different story. If all you postulate that it is enough just to make the right turn, then… ah, whatever.

I have met people who laugh and smile about hardships and I have met people who are sour about unequivocally positive situations.

I don't think happiness is a destination, it is a path. The happy person is happy to have chosen to turn right and to have had the opportunity to so. The unhappy person is still unhappy that they have not yet found what they are looking for.

That is the decision

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#195

Post by rjh29 »

jd115 wrote: post #185
artemonster wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is just a load of shit, I am so tired of this toxic positivity. Of course its a choice in the first place, but choice is not what brings you there. You need to choose right turn, yes, yes! But you have to walk the path towards the destination and that is a whole different story. If all you postulate that it is enough just to make the right turn, then… ah, whatever.

There can be no such thing as toxic positivity. Your doubts are toxic, yes. But positivity can never be toxic. Life IS utterly binary and clear-cut in this respect, there are no grey areas, no nuances. There is an absolute good and it is joy. And it is 100% a personal choice, regardless of circumstances. Once again - it is the only ONE thing over which you have any control, at all times, no exceptions. You can always…

Incredibly insulting to people with depression.

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#196

Post by fleddr »

mojzu wrote: post #193
fleddr wrote: post #145

I'm annoyed by employers pretending to care about happiness and mental health. It's usually something like "here's a link to a free one hour e-course on mindfulness". But do take it in your free time. Or the many internal emails from leaders about how they "appreciate" the difficulty of these times. It's all performative, hollow and cheap. If you really claim to care or appreciate it, walk the talk. Give people 1K ou…

I strongly agree, mental health only seems to be a consideration until it has any affect on output. It's now talked about more openly/included in health and safety courses/etc. which at least seems to be a step in the right direction, but good luck asking for deadlines to be pushed back/or time off for mental health because a project is causing burn out. I'm hoping it's a generational thing that 'puritanical work eth…

Sure, a step in the right direction, but to me it still does not meet the low bar of it really being a consideration.

I've always seen things like mindfulness and meditation as fighting a symptom. You first put people into this overworked and anxious state of mind and then offer this "fix", rather then addressing the root cause.

When people are struggling with mental health at work, reduce the pressure on output and/or give them more free time. It doesn't solve all problems but it's the most meaningful and direct action an employer can take.

If an employer cannot afford that or is simply unwilling, I'm cool with that. As long as they admit it and don't pretend to care with a cheap email.

Same with appreciating people. Give them money. Stop making it so complicated. Money talks. Nobody cares about HR points.

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#197

Post by whiddershins »

hyperman1 wrote: post #128

I had the chance to work with a few people I'd consider genius level. While I'm pretty smart myself, they all have something I don't always have: The ability to be happy in any situation and interested in everything. For example, we were walking trough a hallway. On a wall is an old, damaged, ugly map of my country, half covered with graffiti. I'd walked past it almost every day for half a year. He checks it out, and…

I believe the word you want is humbled.

Humiliated can almost never be positive, but people often conflate these two words.

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#198

Post by fxtentacle »

hyperman1 wrote: post #128

I had the chance to work with a few people I'd consider genius level. While I'm pretty smart myself, they all have something I don't always have: The ability to be happy in any situation and interested in everything. For example, we were walking trough a hallway. On a wall is an old, damaged, ugly map of my country, half covered with graffiti. I'd walked past it almost every day for half a year. He checks it out, and…

I think it's the curiosity.

I know one guy who rushed through bachelor, master, and a PhD in mathematics in like half the regular time without ever breaking a sweat. Sometimes, you'd meet him in the cafeteria reading research papers for fun. You could mention any topic, and he'd know something related that one time he was super curious about and he spent an evening reading through Wikipedia. He's like a sponge who soaks up useful information. That made him an interesting person to be around. And it seems that it's also working exceptionally well for him career-wise.

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#199

Post by varnaud »

cloutchaser wrote: post #118
jevgeni wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any racial minority outside of Cuba, maybe?

How about extremely poor white people, from terrible backgrounds? Are they intrinsically happier because they are white? And so they get better jobs? How about asians and indian backgrounds who are richer than whites despite being minorities? Should we make them unhappier in your opinion or just discriminate against them? Really? That is your point? From this article, you got... racism. Congrats.

>despite

I'm getting strong "I'm not racist, but..." vibes mixed with "MLK said judge character not skin color".

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#200

Post by thackerhacker »

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #120
montebicyclelo wrote: post #60

> we suggest that leaders follow the science and take a structured approach to hiring for, promoting, and developing employee happiness > Measure happiness in both employees and job candidates. > we conservatively advocate using measures of happiness and optimism as discriminators, or tiebreakers, because the risks are low and the benefits could be important. Good luck getting a job, unhappy people… I don’t think the…

>Good luck getting a job, unhappy people… Since employment is one of the main sources of unhappiness I assume this will create an oscillating state of happy unemployed - unhappy employed people perpectually in and out of jobs as their happiness dips below a certain threshold.

“I was looking for a job, and then I found a job

And heaven knows I'm miserable now“

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