Center for Workplace Happiness

Do you equate age with wisdom? Many people do, and there’s science to back it up. While youth is revered in our culture, wisdom is, too, and when people are looking for advice, it’s their aging friends and colleagues they turn to. It is true that memory functions can fade with age, and it's also true that the frontal lobe, where logic, reasoning, and problem-solving happen, continues to develop.

As we age, we develop more emotional intelligence. That means older people generally are more concerned with the wellbeing of others, make significantly better choices and decisions, and process information and thoughts more holistically, so take in multiple perspectives and can share them more clearly.

Doesn’t that sound like someone you’d go to for advice, counsel, and coaching?

Last Wednesday was Spunky Old Broads Day, and February is Spunky Old Broads Month. Chances are, you know a spunky old broad or two, and maybe you even are one. I’m not sure when it...

One twelfth of the year is over. Done. Finished. How much of your comp time, PTO, and vacation time did you take this month? Have you thought about how you’ll use your vacation time this year? And have you calendared it and maybe even planned it down to the itinerary and ticketing?

America is a young country. If you’ve ever been to Europe or Asia, you’ll understand just how young America is. The continent isn’t young and there have been civilizations and people here far longer than there has been an American form of government here – I’m talking about the government and customs. America is young and was founded largely on the Puritan ethos of education for all, hard work, and sacrifice. While the Puritans era in the US ended by 1740, the ethos still drives many people today.

And too often, what ends up being sacrificed by most – yes, MOST – Americans is their paid time off.

Why is it bad to be all work, no play? Let me count the...

When was the last time you wrote a letter? Not typed a Word doc letter, not talked-to-texted a letter – when was the last time you put pen to paper and wrote?

OK, so if you still send actual, physical holiday cards, you’re winning on this one!

Today is National Handwriting Day, a “holiday” that began in 1977. You won’t be surprised to learn that this holiday was devised by the Writing Instrument Manufacturers Association as a way to remind people to use more pens, pencils, and writing papers. Today’s date was chosen because it’s the birthday of John Hancock, the first person to sign the Declaration of Independence and the one who gave us that famous and flamboyant signature.

None of that is the reason you’re reading about this “holiday” here. National Handwriting Day is a springboard into your brain – specifically, your brain on analog, not digital.

A group of researchers at the University of Tokyo in Japan published...

To start the new year off on the right foot, I attended a presentation about setting intentions and committing to them. Around the halfway point, when he had walked us through a couple of exercises, the speaker asked us to say aloud, “I am committed to my goals.” Throats opened and the room rang with loud, happy voices. Then he asked us to say, “I believe in my ability to achieve my goals.”

Totally different story. The response was more of a group mumble as people said words about themselves that they didn’t believe. The speaker then mentioned the late MLK Jr., asking us if social change would have happened had his level of commitment in the “I Have a Dream” speech been the same as what we just demonstrated.

The point was made – in order to lead and effect change, in order to achieve our own personal goals, and in order to be believed when we speak, we need to embody commitment. It can be tough to believe in ourselves –...

Do you have a pet? Do you know how influential you are, you pet-owner, you?

As people spent more time with their pets during the pandemic lockdown, and as those without pets realized the value of non-human companionship, all categories of pet purchases – food, veterinary care, training, boarding, you name it – have had booming bottom-line increases. The pet industry, which encompasses all things that pets need, is exploding financially. What is now a nearly $250 billion industry is projected to be pushing $370 billion in just six years.

You, with your care and concern for your pet or maybe multiple pets, are driving that. Meanwhile, your unsuspecting pet is doing what pets have always done – providing companionship to the extent you allow, being as good as you’ve helped them learn how to be (at least they’re good most of the time) and becoming a bigger line-item in your monthly budget as prices of everything goes up. While some people are making the...

Do you even know what day of the week it is? This year, at least Christmas and New Year’s Day both fell on Mondays, so maybe they just showed up as regular three-day holiday weekends for you.

If you have a job that requires staffing 24/7/365, like first responders, health care workers, transportation industry, the media, etc., then maybe you even worked on one or both of the last two Mondays. If so, thank you! With three decades in major market radio, I know how it feels to be away from your family and friends on a major holiday.

Did you do the usual New Year’s resolution thing? Did you get up and go to the gym this morning, down a protein shake instead of a drive-through breakfast, and you’re on track to be a non-smoking vegan rocket scientist by this Thursday?

Yeah…I’ve put that kind of pressure on myself before, too.

Goals are wonderful – they keep us focused and moving forward. Behavior changes are often attempted this time of year in pursuit...

In the majority of homes in North America, yesterday was celebrated with exchanged gifts, special holiday foods, and some extended-family togetherness. And in many of those homes, there were people who felt left out, under-appreciated, and just plain unhappy about some aspects of what they experienced.

That’s why today is National Whiner’s Day. Established in 1986, National Whiner’s Day isn’t the official day to complain, it’s a reminder that no matter what less-than-optimal situation is happening, there are always positive things to focus on. Before you label me a hopeless Pollyanna and stop reading, please read this:

Nobody likes a chronic whiner. Nobody.

People love whiners. People marry whiners. People create offspring and build lives with chronic whiners. And yet nobody likes a whiner. Chronic whiners are exhausting to be around. Nothing is ever right, good enough, or fair. They’ll ask for your advice and not heed it. They’ll get in a...

There were a few major shifts during and after the pandemic in how we work, and one of them is people realizing that their lives are at least as important as their careers. People looked for jobs that paid more, gave them more satisfaction, more opportunity for advancement, the opportunity to move to a part of the country they preferred, and that gave them more PTO. Vacations are so important that post-pandemic consumer behavior has shifted from buying things to buying experiences, and the appetite for travel became so voracious that for a time it was called “revenge travel.” Reading that, you might think that people are finally getting serious about taking all the vacation time available to them.

You’d be wrong.

Companies, in an effort to attract job-changing talent, offered more PTO last year. And 55% of that PTO went unused, mostly by female employees. What’s up with that?

According to an article in Forbes, 72% of American workers say their job stresses...

Have you ever built a gingerbread house? I’ve admired them, wished I could taste them, and never actually built one. Some of them look wonderfully basic and homey, some can be very elaborate, and I wonder how that gingerbread tastes after sitting around through the holidays. Have you ever had a bite of one? How was it?

The patience, planning, and creativity involved in making gingerbread houses translates to real life, too. Accomplishing most work-related events uses those three skills. Ever been tasked with organizing a large meeting? A marketing push? A spay surgery on a very large dog? Each of those requires planning, creativity, and patience as you watch your creation begin to unfold. While they don’t result in a deliciously beautiful sculpture, they do result in the same feelings of accomplishment and pride. And sometimes the tasks you perform feel uphill, blocking your creativity, your ability to plan, and get on your very last nerve. That’s where the...

Quick – what one holiday tradition from your childhood did you love best? Opening gifts? Family game time? Snitching the cookies while they were still warm?

For me, it was the advent candles Mom let my brothers and me burn during the 12 nights before Christmas. She read an article in Good Housekeeping magazine with ideas to keep children’s anticipation and curiosity about all those presents under the tree focused and in control, and one of the suggestions was the advent candle. Mom would cut 11 notches into three identical taper candles and my two brothers and I would burn one notch each night, burning the candle to the very end on Christmas Eve. Somewhere between bath time and bedtime, we’d gather at the coffee table in the living room, Christmas music playing, a tray of Mom’s cookies and candies in front of us, and watch the flame on our candles dance, melting the red wax into star-shaped pools in the bottom of three glass candle holders.

OK, I know this...