Working Danishly, how to bring some hygge to your workspace

“Happiness consists more in small conveniences or pleasures that occur every day, than in great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom.”

Benjamin Franklin

For as long as I can remember, I have always loved the Danish concept of Hygge (pronounced “hoo-gah”), I have included it as part of my life for around four years now and I think I have it all down to a T!

In his book, The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well Meik Wiking, CEO of the Happiness Research Institute, defines hygge in varying ways: “Hygge is about an atmosphere and an experience, rather than about things. It is about being with the people we love. A feeling of home. A feeling that we are safe, that we are shielded from the world and allow ourselves to let our guard down.”

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Can we truly achieve happiness at work?

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“Life moves pretty fast, if you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it” Ferris Bueller

A recent research report published by Gallup suggests that the worlds happiness levels are at their lowest level in over a decade. Well that’s a depressing concept to start this blog post off with but unfortunately that is a reality. Gallup surveyed 154,000 people across 146 different countries, proving that happiness is a worldwide issue.

Recently, I was fortunate to discuss this very topic at the Natural HR Conference at Monkey World in Dorset, and the session centred around trying to get people to realise where true happiness came from and if we keep looking for it (at work or otherwise!) then we simply won’t find it.

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How kindness can create sustainability at work #HRactsofkindness

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If you’ve picked up a newspaper or seen the news recently, it seems to be all doom and gloom in the headlines, some even going as far as “naming and shaming” particular employers which has created a workplace minefield. We’ve seen cases of bullying, racism, homophobia and sexual harassment, and whilst none of this is new, we live in a time where people are starting to speak more openly about these really important topics. The question for employers and employees alike – what can, and what should we do about it?

As humans, we always have a choice on how we act and respond to events that go on around us, it is our actions that make a huge impact. When I created HR acts of kindness in 2016, my aim was to create kinder workplaces and inspire others to create their own versions of  kindness to spread within their workplaces as well as the wider community.

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#HRactsofkindness be kinder to yourself

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Welcome to week two of HR acts of kindness!

This week, it’s al about how we can be kinder to ourselves. As we are already well aware, life can generally be very stressful, there are so many demands on our time such as juggling work with quality time with our loved ones, it makes it difficult to fit in that much needed “you time”.

Given that HR acts of kindness encourages us to be kinder to those within our workplaces and people around us, it can seem difficult to practice kindness when it can feel that the world is upon your shoulders; so by being kinder to ourselves, it helps us to be more positive and therefore more likely to practice kindness on a more regular basis.

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Hello May! Its time to create a culture of kindness #HRactsofkindness

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Kindness. It’s a simple, yet an incredibly powerful word, isn’t it? Kindness is something we can see, it is rare but we can see it, however to me it has always been a feeling or an experience, I don’t go looking for it, but I am proud to create a small part of it to bring joy to people.

When I created HR acts of kindness three years ago, it wasn’t for publicity or to get more viewers on my blog, it was simply to enable HR to use a different tool in its extensive toolkit. We often hear the phrase “be more human” but being human, to me anyway, means being kind to everyone you encounter. Kindness is one of the most basic foundations of being human, it is inexpensive and the results can last forever.

So now that the April showers have cleared, it is time to get a spring in our step and create a new wave of HR acts of kindness, to get involved, read on!

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