5 July 2023, Cr Anna De Villiers-The Carisbrook Mercury

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What is happiness?

It is one of those abstracts that a lot is being said about but not enough thought put into the concept. It cannot be measured.

Today I am going to focus on happiness in the workplace.

Statistics show that the average worker spend approximately a third of their lives working. You do not have to love the actual job you do but I believe that going to work should be something that you do not dread.

You do not have to love the work you do but if you work in a positive environment, going to work should not be something to dread. In many ways you as an individual create your own happiness but then there are external factors in a workplace that could lead to unhappiness and in many instances cause people to become severely ill due to the stress and unhappiness.

I believe you owe it to yourself to live and work in a positive environment where you feel appreciated and valued. The University of California identified four key pillars of happiness in the workplace: Purpose, Engagement, Resilience and Kindness. We need to be happy. When you are happy and feeling supported and valued in your workplace with camaraderie and friendships, you will look forward to going to work.

Why do we have to have legislation put in place to protect people ensuring their happiness? New legislation has recently been passed to tighten up ways protecting workers and employees from the behaviour of others in the workplace.

I believe we should start to love ourselves more. Protect ourselves from bullies and bullying behaviour.

The best form of protection is to speak up about it, to call out the behaviour. Unfortunately it sometimes takes a while for corrections to be made, but it does happen.

I am a firm believer that one should create your own happiness. It does not matter who you are and what you do. Find the positives in life, surround yourself with positive and optimistic people. There is nothing like negativity and incessant criticism dragging you down.

Let’s be kind to each other and endeavour to be a positive force in other people’s lives.

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