Pune, 10th September, 2014- The Managing Director of an Indian Company Mr. Alok kumar has been blogging for a while on happiness. He firmly believes that a happy person can be highly productive and can help make companies more profitable, create better social order and make our societies a far better place to live in. He decides to take views of his readers and asked them about their understanding of happiness and was surprised by responses. He attempted to put the responses in a structured form to create an optimal reading experience in his blog on www.kumaralok.com
The blog says, according to Buddha, Happiness is a volatile state of mind and means different things to different individuals, but finally it aims towards peace and nothingness. However “Practices which leads to Self Exploration and gives Sense of Achievement” leads to happier workforce. Some of the readers pointed out the issue of overwork. It is a general issue with a lot of working teams that they have to work long hours and even on weekends to meet the needs of the organization. However, it has been noted that for those who enjoy their work, working long hours is fun instead of an issue. Getting skilled to do the job effectively and achieve results gives satisfaction. Companies therefore have been focusing on the right skillet and right job fit which ensures the right level of engagement level amongst employees.
Another very refreshing view point brought out by a reader happens to resonate completely with many who relocate and migrate for better career. We are in an age where people are migrating away from natives, or back to natives like never before. This has led to very diverse workplaces. Also, there has been a surge in the number of opportunities across the globe today, people’s mindsets have changed over years, and they have become more open to move on to a better opportunity, unlike a decade or two earlier when people had inertia doing so. To retain the best, the age-old loyalty tactics are therefore no more enough. Meritocracy and rewarding the right people in a commensurate manner has become equally important. Almost resonating similar sentiments a great input from another reader says: There are various ways to ensure happiness at workplace — Flexibility, avoiding red tape, treating your employees as humans and NOT resources, listening to your employees, giving them constructive feedback, planning surprises that would lift the mood. What’s important in all this is that these approaches should be sustainable and scalable. Finally, a young person who seems to look at a good work life balance says :Avoid staying late in office , going out occasionally on team outing , instant recognition if some good work done and last but not the least to carry a smile.
In his blog at www.kumaralok.com, Alok Kumar sums up by stating that Happiness is not a destination but a journey. It is not measurable, but only experienced. Finally, it is completely up to us to remain happy or not. Let us create a better and happy work place and be more productive. Life is a perfect checksum game. What you give, sooner or later you get back the same. If we spread happiness, we get back in return and that holds true for our wrong actions too.
About Alok Kumar: Alok Kumar is an IT industry veteran with twenty years of experience in sectors like manufacturing, telecom & retail. He has also won several national and international awards. You can read his insights on www.kumaralok.com