C'mon Get Happy.

David Cassidy and The Partridge Family had it right in the 70s, when all you had to do was sing about happiness and it happened for you. The problem is, most of us can't drive around in a colourful bus singing for our supper. Most of us have to go to work and with that, taking up a lot of our life, it needs to fit into the happiness spectrum, somewhere.

Surveys have shown that occupations with a lot of giving back or serving people in need provide the highest happiness return. Firefighters, Clergy, Physical Therapists and Authors rank high in the happiness work scale, while Clothing Apparel Salespeople, Grocery Packers, Roofers and Cashiers head the list in not being happy at work. Tom Smith, director of the General Social Survey at the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago indicated, after interviewing more than 27,000 people about job satisfaction and general happiness, that the level of job contentment affected people's overall sense of happiness.

With work occupying so much of people's lives, it can become the social and mental focal point of who they are and how they are defined by others and as such have enormous influence on the levels of happiness in the rest of their lives. Without job satisfaction, many people find it hard to equate happiness in their lives outside of work.
Even that extra raise in pay may not be enough to influence happiness as a survey in the UK foundm that managers, bankers and lawyers were the most discontented with their work days, while hair dressers were the most content and happy to come to work every day. So money really can't buy you happiness, according to the managerial ranks.

Chris Humphries, director general at City & Guilds, said: "It may come as a surprise to some that financial reward doesn't always mean a happier working environment for an employee. A quarter of all UK workers have left, or would leave, a position because of a lack of training and the survey results clearly demonstrate that some of the happiest workers are those who feel they have a lot of opportunities for professional development." Companies, take note of the last time you cut the training development program and maybe check that against the number of employees who left the company.

Even sunshine and location have an effect on happiness as indicated by workers in the north-east of England, especially those in Newcastle, being the happiest while staff in Scotland are the unhappiest, according to the UK report. I wonder what would happen if those workers were transported here, to take in our sunshine? Oh yes, that's been done and it created the happiest convicts that founded the happiest place on earth, sorry Walt.

If you are in a position, where you can affect change and give back, then likely your happy demeanor becomes infectious to the rest of the staff and you are more important than the company realises. On the other hand, if you are sitting behind the cash register or laying those roof tiles, the chances of giving back and making a difference are slim, so consider a change because regardless of what the surveys say, no one else is responsible for your happiness, only you. As Shirley Partridge used to say, "you're not here forever, so c'mon get happy".