Spending less time with the boss could be key to increasing workplace happiness.
This is according to Reward Gateway/Edenred and London School of Economics’ The Happiness Dividend report, published last week, which also found employee happiness is capable of increasing firm value by 20% and potentially injecting up to £334bn into the UK economy annually.
At an event coinciding with the report’s launch, its author Dr Christian Krekel, associate professor of behavioural science at LSE (pictured), revealed it drew on a study called Are you happy at work? which based its findings on a smartphone app which asked respondents about their day, what they are doing, including where they are and who they are with.
“It’s aimed at getting at how you are feeling in the moment,” Krekel said.
“Some people are working when they get this message and pick this up and we can see the activity of working in terms of all the activities you could be doing.”
Krekel added that spending time with the boss ranked as the fifth least pleasurable activity.
“The only things that were worse in ranking were commuting, caring for an adult and organising finances/admin and then comes working.”
