The Happy Workplace
When people think about working in fashion Meryl Streep in Devil wears Prada comes to mind – being cold, raising one’s eye at other people’s choice of outfit and verbal insults such as “That ́s all” or "Please bore someone else with your questions”. Although, the largest percentage of people who I have met and worked with within this industry have been the sweetest people, have found myself on odd occasions in some stressful and cliché situations. In hindsight, I know it was stress and lack of understanding of what stress can do that causes such situations, but I do strongly feel like things are changing for the better and rightly so.
An important part of my job is keeping track of social and cultural trends.
Undercurrents that slowly seep through our conversations, newspapers and
televisions. One such trend which is showing up on my radar is “Happy Workplace” which has been growing in the US over the last decades.
The scientific examination of happiness and well-being already has a firm place in the USA. Harvard University has been running a study on happiness for nearly 80 years and offers a happiness online programme. The most popular course in the history of the university is “Positive Psychology”, taught by professor Tal Ben-Shahar. A course, which studies our mental and emotional world as well as our behaviour with the aim of increased overall well-being.
Many studies have shown the importance of contentment in the workplace, after all – that is where the majority of us is spending the biggest part of our waking time. So doesn’t it makes sense that we feel well when we are there?
Harvard business school professor Alison Wood Brooks has found that jokes and fun in business teams can make people not only happier but also more competent and effective. In fact, laughter comes with a host of business benefits, writes Alison Beards in her article ‘leading with Humour’.
Laughter is big part of the daily business in the design office at Closed, the fashion brand where I work. We all enjoy laughing and I have on several occasions been brought to tears. We are silly and make silly jokes always about ourselves and or the work process. We dress up from time to time in crazy vintage outfits and strive that others enjoy a good chuckle from our nonsense. One such story is mentioned in the Dear Doris book.
Once on a glitter day just before Christmas, we decided to dress up to keep the festive spirits high. We didn’t ask permission or mention our plans to any other departments. On Christmas Day, everyone arrived looking like auditioning for the part of an Elvis Presley impersonator. We had full head-to-toe sequinned outfits, silver and gold wigs - one designer even wrapped himself up in fairy lights. Little did we know that the managing directors had a group of important investors visiting the office on that day! Oops! The faces of these five smartly dressed businessmen are something I will never forget. Since then, we have been politely asked to inform the directors of any “out of the ordinary” days, but we have all been laughing about this for weeks.
As humans, we are supposed to laugh, play and feel joy on a daily basis to be
able to enjoy this life and contribute to our society and the planet and I feel very grateful to experience that within my workplace at Closed.