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But the Danes could have the answer, discovers Joshi Herrmann Most Read Commented Shared Tony Blair threatened with citizen's arrest by staff member at Shoreditch's Tramshed restaurant Roman Abramovich's girlfriend Dasha Zhukova apologises for 'black woman' chair photo Bayern Munich set sights on Arsenal's Tomas Rosicky again Forty for forty: we say Happy Birthday Kate Moss in pictures Keira Knightley, Kenneth Branagh and Chris Pine on the red carpet for Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit Factor in feelgood: managers should look for any chance to warm relations between workers with the tenacity that they pursue profit, says a Danish life coach 460 102 Send Published: 07 January 2014 Updated: 11:32, 07 January Top stories in Lifestyle converted by Web2PDFConvert.com Updated: 11:32, 07 January 2014 JOSHI HERRMANN This month is supposed to be the nadir of our unhappiness, the bleakest reach of our wintry discontent. The festive half of the cold season is over, so now starts the longer, darker period of waiting; attended by tedious calls for abstention or exercise, and — according to leading recruiters this weekend — furious searching for new jobs. The chairman of recruitment firm Reed told a newspaper that the first Monday back — yesterday — sees more traffic to his company’s website than on any other. The biggest back-to-work moment in our calendar is universally equated with collective unhappiness by advertisers, radio DJs and the kind of marketing opportunists who thought up Blue Monday (the most miserable day of the year, supposedly on January 20). But could salvation lie not in a transfer but in a book? One of those who believes so is jolly Danish life-coach and author Alexander Kjerulf. He is the chief happiness officer at his trendy professional consultancy, which describes him as “one of the world’s leading experts on happiness at work”, and the author of a new book called Happy Hour is 9 to 5: How to Love your Job, Love your Life and Kick Butt at Work. Where to eat deepfried pickles in London Word games: why Hanif Kureishi’s new novel is the talk of the town Karl Lagerfeld loves Cara Delevingne: model inspires Chanel look in Paris His offering is interesting: can we introduce smiling Scandi-ness into our work lives? Is that happiness real? And if it is, do we even want to? The idea that happiness can be coaxed out of us if we think the right way and do the right things has gained currency. Anthony Seldon, headmaster of Wellington College, has announced that the boys at his school will be receiving lessons in happiness: a couple of hours of coaching per month, which Wellington says ranges from “advice on getting to sleep to more complex cognitive methods for dealing with adversity” — all based on “a growing body of scientific evidence on the causal factors around happiness and well-being”. The rise of a certain strand of selfhelp literature and coaching makes the same claim about our ability to summon happiness. And Kjerulf thinks it can even happen at work. “This is not about being deliriously happy — that’s utopian, it’s impossible,” says Kjerulf. “It’s about feeling good at work most of the time. “It is okay to have a bad day, I have to stress that. But regular bad days can ruin people’s health, their marriage and certainly how they are working.” Ads by Google Make Him Fall In Love 9 Powerful Words You Can Say That Remind Him Why He Needs You. havetherelationshipyouw ant.com Job Openings FROM AROUND THE WEB Find Job Openings In Your Area. Apply For a Position Today! www.findtherightjob.co m How To Do Meditation? Did You Know That Meditating Just 15 Min a Day Could Change Your Life 5 Great Part-Time Jobs for… 5 Best Things to Say in an… (AARP) (Monster) www.silvalifesystem.co m In the book, he says we have to think about addressing happiness as practically and seriously as we do our normal work tasks, and focus on our relationships as much as we do on our professional results. Kjerulf suggests writing a “happiness-atwork log” to record positive experiences, because research shows that we are more likely to forget them than negative ones. London's best: cold weather creams He also thinks managers should look for any chance to warm relations between workers with the tenacity that they pursue profit opportunities, such as the firm that put its executives behind the bar at the office party, and the one that made a prize that workers award to each other to spread goodwill. Those that do will surely have fewer of their employees scouring the job sites this week. London's best cold weather creams The book suggests small daily gestures that will make your colleagues happier and therefore more receptive to you, including bringing them tea unprompted, greeting them when they arrive in the morning, leaving sticky-notes on their desk omorovicza.com" onclick="location.href='http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/health/londonsSPONSORED FEATURES best-cold-weathercreams- Five High-Paying, Low- Multidimensional Stress… Analysis… (Monster) (ThinkVine) Customer Service Tips:… Why Your Ethernet Could Be… (Dale Carnegie) (Tech Page One) Recommended by converted by Web2PDFConvert.com they arrive in the morning, leaving sticky-notes on their desk and taking a moment to look at work they have done and give them your (positive) feedback. Scandinavians have a head start over the rest of us when it comes to happiness at work, Kjerulf argues, because the concept has been around longer. They even have a word for it: “arbejdsglæde” in Kjerulf’s native Danish. He quotes a 2005 study that found Scandinavians are the happiest workers in the world, more than 20 per cent happier than us, which he calls “a major factor behind the success of Nordic companies like Nokia, IKEA, Oticon (the world’s largest producer of hearing aids), Carlsberg, Ericsson, Lego, and many others”. But persuading cynical Brits to follow suit might be difficult. Philosopher Alain de Botton, in his 2009 book The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, describes modern ambitions that our work should make us happy as “the most remarkable feature of the modern workplace”, and “patently out of synch with what reality can provide”. “Certain jobs are certainly fulfilling but the majority are not and never can be,” wrote de Botton — a line he quoted when I asked him for his response to Kjerulf’s book. Kjerulf concedes that: “If your work is not obviously purposeful or meaningful then it is obviously more difficult to be happy.” He would advise workers in cigarette or landmine factories or any other firm doing work that isn’t obviously meaningful to quit their jobs rather than try to make their roles fulfilling, which shows rather starkly the narrow group to which his wisdom might be useful. If the only people who can achieve work-happiness are comfortable professionals in fashionable, ethical companies who can switch careers at the drop of a hat then it’s hard to see us Brits softening our cynicism towards the idea. But Kjerrulf maintains that arbejdsglæde is “10 per cent about your job — and 90 per cent about you”. 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