Five Tips to be Happier at Work (Dr Laurie at SXSW)
Dr. Laurie Santos, an expert on happiness, discusses how prioritizing well-being is crucial for future workplace success and company profits. She shares five science-backed tips to improve individual and organizational happiness, covering emotional intelligence, productivity, self-compassion, job crafting, and social connection.
Deep Dive Analysis
13 Topic Outline
Introduction to Workplace Well-being and Future of Work
The Science of Happiness and Workplace Performance
Happiness's Impact on Company Profits and Stock Performance
Tip 1: Acknowledging and Using Negative Emotions Wisely
Tip 2: Rethinking Productivity and Protecting Time Affluence
Tip 3: Motivating Ourselves with Self-Compassion
Tip 4: Crafting Your Job to Become a Calling
Tip 5: Seeking Belonging and Social Connection at Work
Addressing Workplace Wellness Programs' Effectiveness
Managing Employee Fears and Pressures with Generative AI
Overcoming Resistance to Workplace Friendships
Communicating Well-being Benefits to Senior Management
Improving Causal Data on Workplace Happiness
8 Key Concepts
Time Affluence
This is defined as the subjective sense that you feel wealthy in time, having lots of time on your hands. Its opposite, time famine, is as detrimental to well-being as unemployment, putting bodies into flight or fight mode.
Pseudo-Productivity
Also known as extreme visual busyness, this is a proxy for productivity in knowledge work where tasks like emails, Slack messages, and meetings fill calendars, making people feel productive even if these activities don't contribute to deep, meaningful work. It often eats away at free time, like 'productivity termites'.
Yes Damn Effect
This describes the feeling when you agree to a commitment far in advance (thinking 'yes' because it's distant) but then regret it when the date arrives and you see it on your calendar (thinking 'damn').
No Yay Effect
This is a strategy to protect time by intentionally saying 'no' to commitments, then marking the original due date on your calendar. When that date arrives, you experience a 'yay' feeling because you don't have to do the task, aggressively protecting your time.
Time Confetti
These are small, fragmented chunks of time (e.g., five minutes between meetings or ten minutes when a child falls asleep) that people often dismiss as too tiny to be useful. The concept suggests these small pieces can add up and be intentionally used for self-care or personal tasks.
Self-Compassion
A practice with three parts: mindfulness (recognizing negative emotions), common humanity (understanding that struggling is a normal human experience), and self-kindness (treating oneself with the same care and curiosity one would offer a struggling friend). It's a more effective motivator than self-criticism.
Burnout (Values Mismatch)
While often thought of as emotional exhaustion, burnout is an occupational problem resulting from an interaction between an individual and their job. A key factor is 'values mismatch,' where the values one signed up for in a job don't align with the practical experience of the work, leading to a deep sense of dissatisfaction.
Job Crafting
This involves actively looking at one's job description and finding flexible ways to infuse personal values or 'signature strengths' into daily tasks, regardless of the job's perceived limitations. It helps align personal values with work, protecting against burnout.
10 Questions Answered
Scientific data shows that happier employees perform better, are more innovative, and that companies with happier workers tend to make more money, beating out other economic indicators like the S&P 500 in stock performance.
Suppressing negative emotions leads to poorer performance on memory and decision-making tasks, and can even cause physiological stress. Our minds narrow when we're not feeling good, hindering creativity and effective problem-solving.
No, constant busyness, or 'pseudo-productivity,' often involves filling calendars with tasks like emails and meetings that look active but don't necessarily contribute to deep, meaningful knowledge work. This can lead to 'time famine' and reduced actual productivity.
Self-compassion, by acknowledging struggles, recognizing common humanity, and practicing self-kindness, is a more effective motivator than self-criticism. It reduces procrastination, fosters healthier habits, and can even lessen PTSD symptoms in veterans.
Beyond workload or lack of rewards, the most insidious cause of burnout is a 'values mismatch,' where the core values an individual holds for their job (e.g., helping people) do not align with the practical realities of their daily work (e.g., administrative tasks or cost-saving measures).
A sense of belonging is the most critical factor for happiness at work, encompassing feeling cared about, believing one's work matters, and having a best friend at work. This social connection significantly impacts well-being and performance.
Many workplace wellness programs focus on individual strategies like meditation or exercise, which are not inherently bad, but often miss the core issues. They typically don't address deeper factors like aligning personal values, fostering vulnerability and connection, or acknowledging and processing negative emotions, which the latest science suggests are more impactful.
Leaders should acknowledge and validate employees' negative emotions (fear, pressure) rather than pretending they don't exist. By openly discussing these feelings and working through them together, leaders can use these emotions as signals to honestly navigate the transition and find beneficial paths forward.
It's important to recognize that not everyone in the office participates in gossip. Friendships at work are built on positivity (more positive than negative interactions), consistency (regular interactions), and vulnerability (showing up as a real human, asking for help, and being curious), rather than participating in negative social dynamics.
Presenting data, such as the Indeed study showing a correlation between employee happiness and higher company profits and stock performance, can be highly effective. Senior management is more likely to be swayed by evidence that demonstrates a direct impact on the company's bottom line.
17 Actionable Insights
1. Prioritize Workplace Happiness
Focus on happiness and mental health as the biggest priority in the workplace, as science shows it significantly improves individual performance and company profits, beating out other economic indicators.
2. Acknowledge Negative Emotions Wisely
Instead of suppressing negative emotions, recognize them as important signals (like a car’s alert system) that indicate a need for self-nurturing and action, as suppression negatively impacts performance and causes stress.
3. Practice RAIN for Emotional Processing
Use the RAIN method (Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Nurture) to non-judgmentally process negative emotions at work, which helps reduce burnout by allowing feelings to be acknowledged and then addressed with self-care.
4. Rethink Productivity, Protect Time
Challenge the misconception that constant busyness and a full calendar equal productivity; instead, aggressively protect your ’time affluence’ by reducing ‘productivity termites’ like excessive emails and meetings to create space for deep, meaningful work.
5. Embrace the ‘No Yay’ Effect
Commit to saying ’no’ to non-essential requests, and then mark the original due date on your calendar to celebrate the free time you gained, thereby actively protecting your time and reducing feelings of being time-famished.
6. Spend Money to Gain Time
Prioritize spending discretionary income on services or items that save you time (e.g., takeout instead of cooking), as this investment in time affluence has been shown to increase happiness.
7. Invest in ‘Time Confetti’
Make productive use of small, fragmented chunks of free time (e.g., 5-10 minutes between meetings) by having a ‘wish list’ of self-care or useful activities, rather than mindlessly scrolling, to feel more time-affluent.
8. Motivate with Self-Compassion
Replace hustle culture’s self-criticism with self-compassion to motivate yourself, as it reduces procrastination, fosters healthier habits, and is a more effective way to achieve goals.
9. Practice Three-Part Self-Compassion
Engage in self-compassion by first recognizing your negative emotions (mindfulness), then acknowledging that struggling is a normal human experience (common humanity), and finally asking what you need right now and treating yourself kindly (self-kindness).
10. Use Compassionate Self-Touch
Initiate compassionate self-touch (e.g., a self-hug or stroking your arm) as a physical cue to shift into self-compassionate self-talk, reminding yourself to be kind and curious about your needs during difficult moments.
11. Craft Your Job into a Calling
Actively ‘job craft’ by identifying your signature strengths or core values and finding flexible ways to infuse them into your daily tasks, even in seemingly rigid roles, to align your values with your work and protect against burnout.
12. Seek Belonging at Work
Prioritize social connection and belonging at work, as it is the top factor for individual happiness and company success, contrary to the misconception that work is solely for productivity.
13. Promote Workplace Friendships
Foster friendships at work through three key strategies: generating more positive interactions than negative ones, ensuring consistent social interactions, and practicing vulnerability by showing up as a real human and asking for help.
14. Acknowledge AI Transition Fears
Leaders should openly acknowledge and validate employees’ negative emotions (fear, pressure) during transitions like AI adoption, rather than pretending they don’t exist, to foster an honest and supportive environment.
15. Communicate Happiness Data Upward
To convince senior management to prioritize employee well-being, present data showing the strong correlation between employee happiness and increased company profits and stock performance, framing it as a critical business need rather than a ’nice-to-do’.
16. Start Small with Workplace Socializing
If uncomfortable with workplace socializing due to concerns like gossip, begin with baby steps by connecting with one safe colleague for normal human conversations, gradually building connections without engaging in negativity.
17. Partner for Causal Workplace Data
Companies should collaborate with academics to conduct randomized control trials (RCTs) on workplace interventions and use large datasets to gather more causal evidence on the impact of happiness practices, contributing to both internal improvement and broader scientific understanding.
6 Key Quotes
We often think that money matters for happiness, but we don't think that the causal arrow goes the other way. Like if I was happier, I would be making more money. But the data actually seem to suggest that that seems to be the case.
Dr. Laurie Santos
Our minds narrow in when we're not feeling good. And the data suggests that if we're not feeling good at work, our minds are going to narrow in in ways that might negatively affect our performance.
Dr. Laurie Santos
Evolutionarily speaking, you know, natural selection doesn't build in extraneous stuff to our psychological systems that we don't need. Our negative emotions are kind of like the alert system on our car.
Dr. Laurie Santos
The problem is we never hang out with our emotions non-judgmentally long enough for them to do that.
Dr. Laurie Santos
We feel like if our GCALs are filled with all these meetings and all this stuff to do, that must be productive.
Dr. Laurie Santos
I think we sometimes think at work we need to be this like you know AI robot who doesn't experience emotions who never has failures who never asks for help and so on and that's what vulnerability is about it's avoiding that stuff.
Dr. Laurie Santos
3 Protocols
RAIN Meditation Practice for Negative Emotions
Tara Brach (described by Dr. Laurie Santos)- Recognize: Identify and categorize the negative emotion you are experiencing (e.g., frustration with anxiety, pissed off with loneliness). Get curious and use descriptive adjectives.
- Allow: Non-judgmentally sit with these feelings for a few minutes, allowing them to be present just as they are, without trying to suppress them.
- Investigate: Notice how the emotion feels in your body (e.g., tight chest, furrowed brow, cravings). Observe these physical sensations and urges without acting on them, understanding that emotions are like waves that will eventually subside.
- Nurture: Do something kind for yourself to address the discomfort. Ask yourself, 'What can I take off my plate?' or 'What do I need right now?'
Practicing Self-Compassion
Kristen Neff (described by Dr. Laurie Santos)- Mindfulness: Recognize your negative emotions and what's going on (e.g., 'This sucks right now, I'm struggling, I'm not doing well').
- Common Humanity: Acknowledge that feeling this way is normal and part of the human experience (e.g., 'But that's normal, it's just human, everyone struggles').
- Self-Kindness: Ask yourself what you can do to be kind to yourself, talking to yourself as you would a struggling friend (e.g., 'What can I take off my plate? What do I need right now?'). This can include compassionate self-touch like a self-hug.
Promoting Friendship at Work
Shasta Nelson (described by Dr. Laurie Santos)- Positivity: Aim for more positive interactions than negative ones with colleagues. This is about the ratio of emotions generated, not toxic positivity.
- Consistency: Engage in regular, consistent interactions with the same people over time to form habits of friendship, even in remote or hybrid work settings.
- Vulnerability: Show up as a real human by being open about opinions, frailties, and asking for help or feedback. Avoid acting like an emotionless 'AI robot' at work.