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Most offices are not built with the health and happiness of it’s employees in mind. Employers need to realize what a significant issue this is. Creating a warm-inviting, non-toxic space for employees can save employers millions of dollars per year by helping employees to avoid burnout and reducing the amount of sick leave.
Think about it – if the office is filled with natural light, warm and inviting color tones and things which are pleasing to the eye, most individuals would feel happy and content in their work spaces and want to show up each day. It also sends a message that employees are appreciated and valued by their management team.
Be aware of toxic materials in your workspace! Most office buildings contain some form of toxic lacquers and paints. These materials can tear down our sensitive immune systems and create havoc on all levels of our health and happiness. Employers take heed and be aware of these toxic materials and either avoid them altogether or learn how to ward them off.
We spend more than 1/3 of our lives in our workspaces. That’s a pretty significant amount of time spent in one space. Doesn’t that warrant some “special” time and attention? We go to great lengths to create beauty in our homes, why then do we not put this focus on our workspaces? Humans respond to beauty. Beauty awakens our senses and creative abilities, stabilizes and grounds us while bringing joy.
Creating a warm and inviting workspace is easier than you think. It doesn’t cost much and is a fun task for employees to participate in. This can also be a wonderful way to get the creative juices of the staff flowing as well as fostering team spirit. Here are a few ideas to ponder.

How can I ever forget my first experience in the corporate world? I had had a falling out with a coworker who was brash and rude toward me for no apparent reason. Today this is called “workplace bullying”. I burst into my managers office to complain about this person and as I was rehashing what had happened, I began to weep. My manager stopped me mid sentence and abruptly said; “If you want to survive here, don’t cry in my presence. If you have to cry, go to the ladies’ room and do it there.”
I was completely taken aback. It was clear I was expected to follow some unwritten rule; never cry at work.
Keep a stiff upper lip. Don your power suit and pad your shoulders heavily.
It was the 80′s and back in those days if women were to hold their place in the business world it meant becoming stoic and restrained. Appearing tough and strong with a kind of masculine edge, after all the business world has always been a man’s world. It’s a tough world out there and in order to compete you must adopt a manner of behaving – emulating men in dress and manner.
This crying equals weakness doctrine, didn’t set well with me at all. I come from an Italian background and when we are upset we express ourselves fully and completely. I believe this is key to building healthy relationships and deepening ones connection to their work and coworkers. It is essential to ones overall happiness and health on all levels to process ones emotions and clear the air at all costs.
I went along with this plan for some years, but had an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. I began to experience health problems. Every corporation I worked for had the same unspoken philosophy. Getting dressed up every day and having to behave a certain way was slowly eating away at me. Stuffing my emotions in order to earn a living was asking the impossible. I believe this is the core of so much dissatisfaction and ill health amongst workers.
It wasn’t until many years later, I had an epiphany – Tired of the corporate world, I decided to try something different; I went to work for a small liberal arts college.
Here we were encouraged to express ourselves fully. All aspects of who we were, were honored and welcomed.
What a breath of fresh air!
I remember one of the first business meetings I attended. One of my coworkers was upset with another coworker. She began crying openly during the meeting. With tears streaming down her face, she and the coworker she was upset with, left the meeting and went into one of the offices. Behind closed doors they talked for several hours. When they emerged each one glowing and grinning, excited and ready to get back to work. Because of their freedom to clear the air and process their emotions in a healthy fashion, this lead to each one feeling a deep satisfaction and heightened sense of fulfillment with their work and the workplace in general.
An emotionless office is not possible, it is up to bosses and workers alike to find a way to express their feelings appropriately—which does not mean hiding passion, anger, anxiety or tears. Being authentic in the workplace is the only way one can truly experience deep gratification and satisfaction at work.
These experiences tell me that greater emotional openness lends vitality to American business. I urge both men and women to “bring their full, true selves to the game.”

Springtime is a time for renewal! It’s a time to get outside and appreciate all the beauty that surrounds you. Not only is it a time to reflect on all the beauty that Mother Nature is displaying, it’s also a wonderful time to clean and let go of all the old things that no longer work for you.
The first place to start this process is in your workspace. I always find that I cannot fully focus on a project if my workspace is in a state of disarray.
Most of us don’t realize how powerful it is to simplify our workspaces, by clearing old clutter and keeping everything around you clean, it becomes easier to achieve goals and feel inspired to create new ones.
This is a metaphor for your life. Less clutter in your physical environment, means less clutter in your mind-space.
Albert Einstein once said; “everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.
Getting things decluttered doesn’t just mean deciding what to do with your stuff, but also what your stuff means and where it belongs. Giving things a proper place helps you file and find them easily, which also cuts down on the stress in your life.
Springtime is a wondrous time to plant new seeds. We are standing on fertile ground. Take advantage of this time of year and make way for the new by getting rid of the old.
Happy Spring everyone!

People have more control over their workplace happiness than they might believe. We have the power to turn any situation around and create the happiness we may be seeking. Happiness is not something outside of ourselves. It is important to remember that life continually presents us with all kinds of scenarios. Most of these scenarios are out of our control. We have no way of knowing what might be presented to us throughout the course of our days. Therefore we need to take responsibility for how we view the world and know that our happiness is within us and is quite accessible.

Workplace happiness is indeed a choice. Workplace unhappiness can be habitual. It is important to look at some repeated thought and behavior patterns which are leading us into feeling unhappy.

Take some time and journal your thoughts. For instance, lets say you start your day in a good mood, then after a couple of hours on the job, you begin to fade. You suddenly feel listless, cranky and drained of all your positive energies.

Learning to effectively communicate can be a bit of a trick. However, I have learned that humility plays a key role in effective communication. Every time you have a disagreement with a coworker, it can be really easy to get involved in a power struggle with that person. We can look to others to try to win their support by convincing them that you are right and the other person wrong and by doing so we actually make the situation bigger than it needs to be. This can create all sorts of negative scenarios which can lend itself to utter misery and disenchantment in your work-life.

Below are some ideas to help you learn effective communication in the workplace.

1. Exercise your right to be wrong! That’s right – wrong. It’s important to be able to admit that you made a mistake. This can be a building-block to learning humility.

2. Give lots of feedback to others and always end it on a positive note.

It can be difficult to be yourself at work. This is a very common complaint I hear from individuals. When we are not being ourselves, it’s only a matter of time before we become bored and begin to feel dissatisfied. It’s as if we are stuck in some never ending rut.

Humans are designed to create. Each one of us is unique. How then can it be possible to experience levels of happiness, when we are having to conform and follow along with the crowd? Dress the same. Act the same., etc.

This is going against nature. It’s not what we came here to do.

I believe this is the reason so many individuals experience unhappiness in the workplace. Put simply we are not allowed to be ourselves.

Learn how to not care!
That’s right. Stop caring what others around you are thinking. It is impossible to experience levels of happiness unless you begin to completely respect yourself and your individuality.

Absenteeism is one of the largest internal cost drivers in organizations as it causes both direct costs – such as lower productivity – and indirect costs – such as a drop in work morale. Absenteeism costs employers millions of dollars each year. We can’t afford to continue on this track. We must make some real changes.

During my years in the workforce, I became passionate about finding the answer to this very question.
I knew that going to work each day and looking forward to doing so, is extremely important. If you wake up with a knot in your stomach each morning, that knot may at some point kill you.

I spent far too many nights staring at the ceiling wondering how I was going to face yet another day at work.

I needed to look forward to going to work every day. I believe this is essential part of our health and happiness.

Well it’s a snowy, dreary Monday morning here in the Rocky Mountain city of Denver. I can choose to feel like the weather outside or I can choose to feel all sunny and warm inside.

We humans have the ability to choose how we want to feel each and every second of the day. I believe each one of us is a gifted artist. Let me put it this way, every day when we open our eyes, we have a blank canvas in front of us. What color do you want to paint your day? We have an entire color spectrum to choose from.

This morning when I awoke, I looked out my window and saw nothing but gray and white. These two colors are not exactly my favorite colors. To be honest, the weather looked so dreary I actually went back to bed. When I realized that I was allowing the dreary weather to effect my mood, I immediately jumped out of bed and began to view the day differently.

Does your workplace feel more like a battle-zone? Negativity in the workplace is on the rise according to a recent poll. Many employees are feeling extremely stressed in their workplaces as a result of negativity. How can you, the employee or manager stop workplace negativity in its tracks while increasing the morale in the workplace?

It is important that organizations foster an environment where their employees are able to develop a strong sense of self worth. Failure to do so may result in loss of talent, which in turn will lead to loss of potential revenue. Our findings demonstrate that happiness is high on the agenda for many workers and is emerging as the critical business issue of our time.

Here are 5 quick tips which you can easily implement every day to add to a more positive work experience.

It is the end of the year and the beginning of a new year. What an exciting time! During this time of year most of us
take stock of what we would like to create in the coming year as well as make some resolutions.

It has always been my thought that every day should be treated like a new year and a new beginning. After all if you think about it thats exactly what each day is – the chance to create something new as well as reinvent ourselves in some way.

I have always felt that new years resolutions are some what absurd. Does this mean that we only have one day per year to change our behavior and make changes?

New years resolutions are a bit of a set up. I mean how many of us actually follow-through with them? When we don’t, we beat ourselves up for not losing those extra pounds and saving that extra money. Resolutions can be a vicious circle and in the long run don’t make us feel good about ourselves.