"Happiness isn’t a bonus"

Years ago, I was invited into the boardroom for the first time.
I was a Development Manager with a loftier title than I probably needed, so these meetings with the executive team were rare.

It came right after an all-hands meeting where someone had asked about employee happiness, how it fitted into the company’s current situation.

When we got to the boardroom, the VP of Marketing told us there’d been irritation, amongst the leadership team, about that question.
They said, “I don’t care about happiness until I see performance improve.”

They went on to say that performance was lacking, that one example of poor performance was someone leaving the office at the official end of the workday. Managers were told to buy into this idea and enforce it.

I remember sitting there, unsure what to say.
It wasn’t anger I felt, but something closer to sadness.
Because I think the question that employee had asked, “What about happiness?”, was probably the most important one.

Happiness isn’t a luxury; it’s a basic human need.
And not in a “perk” or “Friday drinks” kind of way, but as the foundation of how we relate to each other and to the work itself. When people are connected, respected, and seen, they naturally perform better.

Yet so often in business, happiness is treated like a bonus, something to be granted after results improve.
But that’s like saying you’ll start watering a plant once it grows.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned since that day, it’s that you can’t shame people into performing well. You can only build conditions where people want to.

Until next time,
Dermot
​The Messy Middle.

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