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Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

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Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#221

Post by withinboredom »

chillingeffect wrote: post #191
Joeri wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 autho…

Military employment in the US is not that different from any other job I’ve ever had, including my current one as a SWE. Sure, there are jobs in the military that can be quite different (frontline assault units) but the vast majority of the military is support units.

> enforced respect

You are contractually obligated to do your job. They can’t fire you or send you home. Thus getting “smoked” (physical training as punishment) or an Article 15 (losing pay and/or rank) is the only option. I only once told a superior to go fuck themselves. It was worth every push up. Is it really so hard to be respectful in the workplace?

> the indoctrination

I’ve worked places that have heavier cool aid than the military. At least the military codifies it instead of “treating me like family” or “corporate values” enforced by some kind of cult-like culture.

> the danger

Yeah, getting rockets and bullets slung at you is pretty dangerous. But by the time that happens to you for real, you know exactly what to do. It’s survival, not war, in most cases (at least for support units). You do get hazard pay, so that’s something. Luckily I haven’t had to deal with this in any other job since then. However, it does give me a perspective that is quite useful. Whenever an “emergency” strikes at work, I’m calm when most people panic. No one is dying. The only thing wounded is the business’s bank account and maybe someone’s pride at screwing up. I can live with that.

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#222

Post by 0F »

arius wrote: post #217
0F wrote: post #214

Reading these comments is forehead slap inducing. People think that just because something is mental that it has to do with your mindset, your parents, your this your that. When a dude can run faster than other people, it’s written off as genetics. When someone is resilient to depression, it’s anything other than genetics. Both cases are the same: it’s just biological. I’ve been suffering super hard with depression r…

Depression, like your sports analogy, is not only rooted in genetics but also in the environment. While you can act on your environment, you can't act on genetics for now. Focusing on what is in one's reach is the only thing one can do. Being certain that the cause is out of our control (while true for parts of it) is in itself something fueling depression.

No no no. Nobody is fully aware of the situation but choosing to focus on what they can control. Most of the people in the first world who suffer from depression don’t even realize they have depression. Depression and mindset and sadness are are muddled together in our lexicon — the thing I’m pointing out is that most people don’t even know the truth. For me, knowing that it’s not my actions causing me to feel this way is what saves me. Because for a long time I blamed myself because of the mass ignorance we harbor. The whole reason for the muddling is that the mind naturally tries to put together cause and effect and so depression can hide that way. It’s a fight of intuition against science.

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#223

Post by austincheney »

pjc50 wrote: post #138
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…

This is literally just emotional labor: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/5ea9f140-f722-4214-bb... > we conservatively advocate using measures of happiness and optimism as discriminators So the job goes to the people who, in the eyes of the interviewer, can best fake happiness. The more desperate you are for the job for economic reasons, the more pressure on you to fake it convincingly. Big bright but not desper…

> I don't know whether it's because I'm not American or just really cynical, but I absolutely hate this kind of mandatory public performance of fake emotions.

It seems that you completely misunderstood the study, a longitudinal study conducted over 5 years and compared against a real world factor outside the study: military awards irrespective of any study.

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#224

Post by civilized »

arius wrote: post #217
0F wrote: post #214

Reading these comments is forehead slap inducing. People think that just because something is mental that it has to do with your mindset, your parents, your this your that. When a dude can run faster than other people, it’s written off as genetics. When someone is resilient to depression, it’s anything other than genetics. Both cases are the same: it’s just biological. I’ve been suffering super hard with depression r…

Depression, like your sports analogy, is not only rooted in genetics but also in the environment. While you can act on your environment, you can't act on genetics for now. Focusing on what is in one's reach is the only thing one can do. Being certain that the cause is out of our control (while true for parts of it) is in itself something fueling depression.

Meh... you're teaching depressed people to focus on changing things to improve their environment. Maybe some of them can't and the best thing for them to do is accept it, even if it is a substantial drain on their productivity and life quality. Indeed there are some therapeutic approaches that do exactly this (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy).

Obsessing over an intractable problem as if it can be improved can make the problem worse.

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#225

Post by goodpoint »

allie1 wrote: post #114
hathym wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

even if they recruit only happe people, what guarantee they will stay happy? should they fire them once they are not?

This ties into the most consistent mistake EVERY manager makes - people don't change. I know of maybe 5% of people who do change, but that is so inconsistent and unpredictable that it can't be relied upon. Managers hire "almost great" candidates and think they can affect change and get a good deal, and this NEVER works out. Any red flags on the interviews/trial period will and do persist forever. In the end, it's alw…

Quite the opposite. People change slowly but people's *behavior* can change a lot depending on the environment.

I've been in the industry for twice your years. I've seen a lot of people changing their behavior completely and in many ways. Mostly due to good or bad management or being in the right or wrong company or team.

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#226

Post by goodpoint »

allisdust wrote: post #111
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…

Soon to be launched on leet code : Coaching sessions on how to convey (fake) happiness effectively. How do the authors separate out the causation part? May be the top performers are happy because they are performing well? Will they retain their happiness if lets say, they are thrown in something with stack ranking like Amazon. How about something like on calls? How happy are they going to be if their nights are conti…

> Coaching sessions on how to convey (fake) happiness effectively.

Most popular "positive psychology" is exactly that.

Unsurprisingly, companies love the idea that employees should act happy in any circumstance.

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#227

Post by newaccount74 »

adwn wrote: post #207
nextaccountic wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's the best argument for UBI. If people aren't constantly worried about being homeless and not having food, they are happier, healthier, more productive and live more fulfilling lives.

No, that's an argument for a proper social safety net, as implemented in many European countries. Most fulltime jobs pay better than a UBI ever could, so if you have a job, a) either your standard of living is so high that a change to UBI-only would be very disruptive and you'd still be worried about losing your job, b) or your standard of living is so low that you'd quickly accumulate enough of a financial buffer th…

The "social security net" we have in Europe isn't perfect, though. At least here in Austria they make you jump through all kinds of bureaucratic hoops to get assistance. There's not a single type of assistance you get, there's like 10 different things you can apply for, they all have different preconditions and navigating them is almost a full time job. And before people take a job, they have to think about which aid they are going to lose, etc. At the sametime they have to deal with the stigma of depending on social security.

With UBI you wouldn't need any bureaucracy, you would always get more money if you worked even a shitty job, and noone would be jealous that you are freeloading because everyone gets UBI.

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#229

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#230

Post by hit8run »

I don't know about you but I for sure don't want do be a top performer in a job. I disrespect the societal applause you get as a good cog in an enterprise. Build my own stuff and be my own boss makes me happier but then reality hits in and all the cracks in our society begin to show. Seriously. I WANT to be happy. But how can one be happy in a world like this?

EDIT: Maybe I'm not in a good mood today but right now I find it really hard to stay positive.

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