Science Stumbled on Something

Go with your heart, buddy. Our brains only screw things up.

-Chuck Bartowski, Chuck(2007)

I had the past couple of days off from work. I really needed that since I've been on split offs for a long time. Anyway, my original plans to see my dad didn't really push through. [Yes, I am still bummed out about it] Though, Arckham and I made up for it by having a movie date which we haven't done in awhile.

In addition, I had some me time and I did a lot of reading and catching up with people I care about. And I'd like to share something I came across when I was going through my blogroll:

...a health reporter, I see so many studies of the causes and symptoms of work stress. So it was refreshing to see a study about the converse: what makes workers happy.
Focusing on social workers, a profession known for its high attrition, stress and burnout, John Graham, Ph.D., a professor of social work at the University of Calgary and his then doctoral student Micheal Shier, now at the University of Pennsylvania sent a survey out to 2,500 registered social workers in Alberta, Canada.  Seven hundred people responded.

From that group they took 13 people who scored the highest in nine areas of happiness and then followed them closely through in-depth interviews about their lives at home, at work and through shadowing them at work. Here’s what he found made them happy:
1. Flexible work schedules. The workers had the ability to provide “selfcare” by having the flexibility to manage their personal lives. A flexible schedule helped them to achieve a healthy work-life balance.
2. A strong sense of engagement in their work. The researcher found that was because of behind-the-scenes support the employees received from their bosses and employers. This support included flex schedules as well as the availability of superiors to consult with and bounce issues off of.
3. A feeling of being appreciated and valued, which often stemmed from their being included in organizational decision-making.
4. Having a high degree of freedom built into their jobs, meaning that they wanted the ability to try new things and expand out of their immediate area.
5. A pleasant physical workspace and good relationships with clients and colleagues.
6. Having a diversity of responsibilities, which might include training or teaching others, research, and policy development work.
7. Having a mentor to talk about their life, career decisions and their day-to-day job.

Graham and Shier are currently researching whether these factors make other types of workers happy as well, but the hunch is that these attributes would be important to all workers. What improves your sense of well being at work?

Thank you for this, theminordetail.

One of my goals is to be happy [I believe that goal should be fairly common.] and I spend time looking into it that I am headed in the right direction. This study gave me a lot to think about after all I think science is on to something here.

Well, it's the start of the week. Game on.

New Breathing Space

One of the things I am very particular about is the space I move around in. I like the concept of owning my space derived from the popular concept "of making it your own". [Yes, I am a bit territorial: RAWR!]

I bought my first piece of furniture yesterday. It's a basic computer table.It is very cheap yet sturdy. [If you are wondering where I got it, it's from CDR King Starmall.] Arckham and I assembled it on the wee hours of Sunday. [We first finished marathoning The Big Bang Theory's Season 3 :P]

Assembling was a little bit tricky, since there was this piece that had the wrong screws. We needed wood screws but the one that came with it were flat ones. We got creative with it and used the screw drivers we had to create the slots so the flat screws would slide into it.

By 5 AM, we already had it standing on four wheels.

Yes, I don't really have a PC. I basically will be using the keyboard slot of the table to keep Pierre [my laptop]. Then using the desk space as basically a regular work desk. I can always pull out the laptop when I need it. 

That evening, I started working on rearranging my part of the room to accommodate the new computer table. I had previously bought some boxes for storage since one of my cabinets are slowly reaching it's capacity. It was rather cheap, I got them from St. Francis Square in Mandaluyong. One can even double as a chair [but I'm mainly going to use it as a foot rest]. 

Then, I also started working on the wall. My main passion in life is music. So much so that it makes me sad that I'm not much of a music geek anymore. [I plan to get back into that soon.] I have always found comfort in the so called universal language and I wanted that to come through in my little corner of the world. So, I worked on revamping the wall as well.

The wall stickers are also from CDR King. They really are coming up with great stuff just need a little more creativity to not come out generic, but they basically give you great key elements to work with. 

 

Safe to say that was one productive day, there are still a few things that I am still hunting down: chair, shoe rack, cork board, mirror and a lamp. Any suggestions where I should go? [Note that I have a rather tight budget.]

Anyway, I will be sure to update you guys on how this new space will turn out.