Happy From 9 to 5

A post by Charlie Gilkey about whether people would buy a $47 step-by-step program to achieve happiness prompted a very lively discussion.
So I started thinking, is happiness a teachable skill? And therefore, can we learn how to be happy at work despite it not filling our souls or not being our “purpose”?
To answer my own question [...]

What do you do when you are uninspired?
 
For several reasons, lately all I’ve done is work, eat and sleep. Ok, add to that commuter time, hygiene and a rock concert.
 
The fact remains that I’ve been utterly uninspired to write. I’ve been reading way too many technical things and all I could write about was just [...]

How many projects to you have to juggle before considering it’s unhealthy? 2? 10?
Lately, I have been managing way too many things at the same time, in the same 24 hours we all have. Prioritizing didn’t work because most things were showing up after some other project was already under way.
An then there were emergencies. [...]

U2 once said “Some days are better than others”. What happens when all your days feel pretty bad? What can we do to slow down our brain in the middle of a chaotic day?
I do have chaotic days both at the office and in my side business (on many occasions on the same day). Often, [...]

An article appeared on Yahoo Finance reports about the findings of the Gallup-Healthways Well Being Index on who are the happiest workers in America.Some of these results are:

Business owners are the happiest, followed by professionals and by managers/executives
Those 3 categories are those with the highest household incomes

However, not only the rich are happy.

Those working in [...]

My last 2 nights of sleep have been awful and right now I’d give up my kingdom for a cozy, quiet room with a nice bed (I don’t want to go back home as my neighbours downstairs are way too noisy and they never let me have my siesta on weekends).
I already said that I [...]

Have you ever been fired? I have. Twice.
Once because after 2 weeks in the job my manager decided he didn’t like me and that there was a “skin feel” issue (words used by the HR manager).
The second it was plain downsizing, me and many more were fired during a recession (and 2 days before my [...]

We live in a visual world where perception is everything. It’s not so much what you are but what the others see about you that can eventually make or break your career. It’s not enough being the best person for the job, you also have to look like it. Becoming a master of perception is [...]

I never drank coffee until I started working in an office. My previous jobs had been in less ordinary facilities like hotels and airports, but never inside an office. Thank God, I never liked coffee as much as to become a habit.
However, there are lots of enthusiasts out there who can’t live without their caffeine [...]

Supposedly, as corporate people, we are not meant to find purpose in our job. Our work, it is said, is just a means to pay our bills and a burden we have to bear to have enough to eat. Others say it is the way to pay for the life of fun we have after [...]