What is a happy workplace? What is happiness? Does it matter? It may matter to us as individuals, but I can find no causal relationship in my simulations that says creating a happy workplace will increase achievement.  There is one possible exception that I know of to this generalization.  Perhaps there are more.  I will discuss that exception at the end of this article. 

In this I separate providing benefits from creating a happy workplace.  Benefits are salary, insurances, vacation, sick days, etc.  Benefits are what we exchange for our time to do work for the organization.  One of the problems with the term happy workplace is that good benefits make people happy and poor benefits make people unhappy.  Of course what we consider poor and good are subjective and are largely a result of our expectations. 

What are some of the things that management might do to try and create a happy workplace?

1.       Sales conferences that are largely party time. 

2.       Company picnics. 

3.       Going to sporting events as a company group. 

4.       Allowing lunch time poker games. 

5.       Allowing people to bring their dogs to work. 

I know of a retail company that offers incredible Thanksgiving Day sales specials.  But the number of each product is limited.  First come, first served.  The store opens at 5 am, but people start lining up at midnight.  The store employees get there at 2 am to prepare the store.  They start by singing company songs in the parking lot.  No, I was not there.  I cannot imagine staying up all night just to fight a large crowd to be first to get to my treasured purchase at a cheep price.

Let me be very clear, I like a happy workplace.  I am in favor of being happy at work.  It just does not result in a high achieving organization.  Nonetheless, I do want to work at a place where people are happy.  I like office pot-lucks.  I like it when people smile when you pass them in the hall.  I like to hear laughter at the office.  A happy workplace does not take away from high achievement. 

In Strapping a Jet on Your Back I wrote about a workplace that was not happy.  I found the project engrossing, challenging, and I did enjoy it, but the people were not happy there.  The project team ended up with a great success.  We did have a bit of a victory party, but no one was really enjoying the event.  It seemed that it was just another project task. 

I did a project for a consortium of three companies, one of them, the one with whom I worked the closest had the highest morale factor I had ever seem.  It was a pleasure to work there.  The company had the feel of a well run small family business that had grown to a large corporate size without loosing the human touch.  I only met a few of the 20,000 people who worked there, but everyone I did meet said that what I saw was representative of the company as a whole.  The project team I led was by far the best running and most enjoyable team with which I ever worked.  We exceeded every expectation.  One Chief Executive Officer of a member company said that what we were doing could not be accomplished with 10 times the money and 10 times as many years.  We proved him wrong.  We were very happy to do so.

But there were problems.  First one of the member companies dropped out because it was sold.  Then a second dropped out because they were suffering severe financial losses and had to sell the division with which we were working.  The project finally closed when the CEO and Senior VP of Finance of the last company sold the company.  The employees felt betrayed.  Despite the commitment of a very happy work force the organization in the opinion of many stake holders had failed.

I once moved a 30 person team to a new office facility, because we had outgrown the previous space.  The conference room furniture was delayed.  We had a weekly review meeting.  Everyone brought their desk chairs to an open area in the office.  We sat in a large circle reviewing what was happening across the project.  The dialogue was open and seemed to improve good will.  Occasionally it was a bit testy; some people had strong opinions about what we should do.  But people were generally relaxed and we got some good work done.  Once the conference room furniture arrived and we had used up the open office space our meetings were conducted sitting around a very large imposing conference table.  The meetings turned rather formal and I felt we had lost something in the dialogue.  However, I could not see any negative impact on the project goals. 

I can think of many specific instances where organizational success and a happy workplace went together.  I can think of many where they did not.  I think it is safe to say that no commercial or government organization was ever created for the purpose of making the employees happy.  Even in the best of circumstances almost everyone I have ever worked with was of the mind that without the paycheck they would not be there.  What about a completely volunteer organization where people are there only because they want to be there.  I am very familiar with one outstanding example. 

Northern California Ballet (NCB), where my wife, Trudi, is the artistic director.  A few part time professional artists are paid as guest instructors and guest performers.  But, even they are paid well below what they normally get elsewhere.  NCB members consist of students who are taking lessons and adults in the community that donate time and money.  A common comment I hear from first time adults who work with us is, "I had no idea." They, like many of the kids, become in a sense addicted to what happens when a group of people work incredibly hard together and produce something that has value well beyond their expectations.  In a production everyone contributes and each can see that if they fail in their part (onstage or back stage) then the overall quality will be less. 

I would not call NCB a happy place or a fun place.  It is not a party.  It is hard work and long hours.  Many of the teens give up numerous parties and rarely are able to attend school athletic events.  They are at the studio rehearsing or taking classes.  Just about every other year our spring performance is on the same night as the local high school prom.  The dancers’ dates are in the audience.  They change into their formal wear at the theatre after the performance.  They leave to late to go out to diner and they arrive late at the prom. 

NCB is located in Paradise, Ca.  It is a small community of about 20,000 in northern California.  Every year the major world-class ballet companies audition many thousands of kids for entrance into their summer workshop programs.  If you want to become a professional ballet dancer you must attend these workshops.  The competition is intense.  They typically accept less than 1 in 1000 who apply.  In the most elite programs it is 1 in 10,000.  Our kids have been accepted into every one of the major programs.  This year our kids were accepted at every program for which they auditioned; including the most difficult in the world.  One applied was accepted at one of the hardest to get into arts high schools on the east coast for her junior year.  She was awarded a full tuition merit scholarship ($34,000).  This would not be so remarkable if they were already pre-selected as the best in a large metropolitan area.  They are from a small community 100 miles north of Sacramento, CA. 

So why do these kids make the commitment, work so very hard, and spend so much time in a place where they are in no way forced to be.  It is not a sad place, but I assure you it is not because it is a happy work place.  

Now there are many dance instruction studios that are fun places.  We occasionally get a student from such a place.  They are totally devastated and often moved to tears when they come to the realization that after 10 to 15 years of instruction they are utterly incapable of dancing seriously.  They had no idea.  When we ask why they stay there all those years, they often say because it was fun. 

We all claim to want a place to work where we can be happy, but I continuously find that the happy work place and high achievement are unrelated.  But we must be very careful of language here.  Happiness is certainly in the eye of the beholder (actually emotional wants of the individual).  People find happiness in different ways.  Some just want to party and some are of a more serious mind and find happiness in striving and commitment.  By the happy workplace I mean one where effort has been expended to do that which makes the employees happy.  For some it might be free sodas, or lunch time games, or self improvement resources. 

What can my simulations reveal? There is no cause-effect relationship between a happy workplace and high achievement.  Even employee retention is more determined by the nature of the work, salary, and benefits than a happy work place.  Productivity is related to the combination of skill, resources, and commitment.  If a person is happy in the work place it is not unreasonable to assume that they will want to be there.  But want to be there to do what? They will be there to do that which makes them happy.  If the work does not lead to something of value that will make them happy, then adding something to make them happy will just push their attention toward those happy activities.  This reduces the time commitment to the work of the organization to which they are not committed.  So I must conclude that if the work of the organization is not enough to motivate and make them happy trying to add something to make them happy will not improve the situation. 

The work place will be a happy place if the people enjoy and are committed to what they are doing.  If they want the place to be happy they will make it so. 

In the beginning of this article I said there was a possible exception.  I have not had occasion to create a simulation of a retail organization and the relationship of sales clerks or company representatives to their clients and customers.  Clearly such a simulation would need to take into account the possibility that customers may preferentially shop where the retail staff is happy.  I strongly suspect that efficiency of service and product quality versus cost trade off is more important.  My personal observation is that companies where the employees appear happy and pleasant to the customers are ones where the product and service is good for the price.  It is this that makes customers happy and happy customers make sales and service people happy.  So again it would appear that a happy workplace is a consequence of other factors and not a cause of high achievement.  But, I have not examined the situation closely.  I might be wrong.

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