Should Work Make Us Happy? - GILL CORKINDALE

In these times of economic uncertainty and job insecurity, the question of whether work should make us happy seems an unnecessary self-indulgence. Many of us are just happy to have a job and be surviving the downturn. And yet happiness has been getting a lot of air-time lately — from the Guardian, the Atlantic, and Slate, just to name a few. It's also a question that still occupies many of the leaders I coach, from fresh MBA graduates to senior executives at the top of their organisations. Why is this?

According to Swiss philosopher Alain de Botton, we are living in a unique era, when we are encouraged to seek happiness through work. The idea of work as a source of fulfillment has been around much longer (championed by Benjamin Franklin in the 18th century), as has work as a source of meaning (articulated by Victor Frankl in the 1940s). Yet work as a source of happiness is something else. De Botton believes that while work has been important in all societies, it is now so closely tied up with our identity that the first question we ask new acquaintances is not where they come from, but what they do.

In his new book, The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, de Botton interviews a range of workers, from rocket scientists to biscuit manufacturers to accountants to artists to find out what makes jobs fulfilling — or soul-destroying. One of the most disturbing discoveries he makes is that most of us are still working at jobs chosen for us by our sixteen-year-old selves.

As an independently wealthy intellectual himself, de Botton is a world away from another great writer on the varieties of work experience, Studs Terkel. Terkel, who called work "a Monday-to-Friday sort of dying," brilliantly chronicled the lives of ordinary 20th-century working Americans in his book Working. The account of the young woman advertising executive who recounts her ways of dealing with a patronizing male boss sound remarkably contemporary. Throughout these accounts, workers describe their satisfaction in doing a job well, but rarely refer to work as a source of happiness per se.

Personally, I am looking forward to the publication of The Joy of Work? — note the question mark — in October. Peter Warr, a professor of work psychology and Guy Clapperton, a business journalist, believe that since we spend an average of 25 percent of our lives at work, we should make the best of it. Very practically, they offer strategies to get more enjoyment from work and steps to improve your job without changing it.

The point about accepting your work and making the best of it is an important one. I have seen many cases among my clients of executives who have expected — or been promised — too much from their jobs. As reality dawns, they experience such crushing disappointment and unhappiness that they feel compelled to walk out of their jobs or even change careers. Of course, there are times when this is the only option, but more often it is their attitudes and approach to work that cause the misery. Herminia Ibarra, a Professor at INSEAD, urges executives to think carefully before they make dramatic career changes in pursuit of greater fulfilment and happiness. As she indicates, far less is written about career changes that go wrong than vice-versa.

Uncharacteristically, the British Government has decided that happiness is of great importance to the nation and has appointed economist Richard Layard our first "Happiness Tsar." His mission is to build some positive thinking into the workforce from childhood, so children will develop into more resilient adults. In his book, Happiness: Lessons from a New Science, he writes: "There is a creative spark in each of us, and if it finds no outlet, we feel half dead. This can literally be true: among British civil servants, those who do the most routine work experience the most rapid clogging of arteries."

So what do you think? Can you find happiness through work or is this an unrealistic expectation? Do you have any experiences or thoughts you could share? What are your recommendations for a happy, fulfilling life at work or in your wider life?