TRACK 1- Listen to a radio program about the survey and tick the factors mentioned.
- Being part of a successful team.
- Doing something rewarding,
- Doing varied work.
- Earning a competitive salary.
- Doing enjoyable work.
- Feeling that you are making a difference.
- Having a good boss or manager.
- Having a good work-life balance.
- Having friendly, supportive co-workers
- Having your achievements recognized.
The survey also established some other factors related to being happy at work.
TRACK 2 - Listen and say whether these sentences are true or false according to the research.
1. Statistically there are more happy people at work than unhappy people.
2. Employees of bigger companies or organizations are happier than those who work for smaller companies.
3. Men are generally happier than women with their work.
4. Full-time workers are happier than part-time workers.
5. People with higher positions in a company are happier than the people below them.
6. The longer you stay in one job, the happier you become.
7. Workers over 55 are the happiest.
In a Sunday Times survey, innocent drinks was found to be one of the companies with the happiest employees. This London-based company was set up by three college students in 1999 and started off making smoothies, a drink made with fruit juice and yogurt. It now employs over 200 people, and has added vegetable pots to its products. The company calls itself “innocent” because it only uses pure fresh ingredients. Part of its marketing strategy is to use delivery vans which are decorated to look like cows or grassy fields. The company also prides itself on being “a happy place to work” and “people-orientated’ with a relaxed working environment, which includes having a grass floor in the office!
Listen to the second part of the program where Becka Walton, who works for innocent drinks, is interviewed. Answer the questions.
1 In general, does she agree that there is a happy and relaxed working atmosphere at innocent drinks?
2 Does she mention any downsides?
- What made Becka apply for a job at the company?
- What example does she give of how the company creates a team environment?
- What examples does she give of the relaxed atmosphere?
- What does she say about staff turnover?
- Does she agree that a competitive salary is not an important factor in determining job satisfaction?
- What does Becka say about the company's product?
Host: Welcome to Workplace and on today’s program we’re looking at the results of two recently published surveys, which both deal with the same topic — happiness at work. John, tell us about the first survey.
John: Well, this was done by a human resources consulting firm, who interviewed more than 1,000 workers, and established a top ten list of the factors that make people happy at work. The most important factor for the majority of the people interviewed was having friendly, supportive co-workers.
Host: Mm..hm.
John: In fact, 73 percent of people interviewed put their relationship with co-workers as being the key factor contributing to happiness at work, which is a very high percentage. The second most important factor was having work that is enjoyable per se, that is people actually liking what they do.
Host: Uh-huh.
John: The two least important factors were having your achievements recognized, and surprisingly, earning a competitive salary.
Host: I see. So we're not mainly motivated by money?
John: Apparently not.
Host: Any other interesting information in the survey?
John Yes, for example 25 percent of the working people interviewed described themselves as “very happy” at work. However, 20 percent of employees described themselves as being “unhappy.”
Host: That’s an awful lot of unhappy people at work every day.
John: It is, isn’t it? And there were several more interesting conclusions revealed by the survey. First of all, small is beautiful: people definitely prefer working for smaller organizations or companies with fewer than 100 employees. We also find out that, generally speaking, women were happier in their work than men.
Host Yes, we’re a miserable bunch, aren't we?
John And part-time workers, who only work four or five hours a day, are happier than those who work full-time. The researchers concluded that this is probably due to a better work-life balance.
Host: Are bosses happier than their employees?
John: Yes, perhaps not surprisingly, the higher up people are in a company, the happier they are. So senior managers enjoy their jobs more than people working under them.
Host: Uh-huh. Does the period of time you spend with the same company affect how happy you are?
John: Well, according to the survey, happiness declines the longer people stay with the same company or organization. The most contented people were those who’d been with a company for less than two years, and the least contented were those who’d been in the same place of work for more than ten years.
Host: So you can stay too long in the same place.
John :So it seems. And lastly, according to the survey, apparently the happiest workers of all are those who are 55 years old or older, probably because they feel they’re working at the peak of their abilities.
Host But I guess they haven’t spent more than ten years in the same job.
John Exactly. So how long have you been here, Michael?
Host Eight years! Maybe I should start thinking about looking for a new job...
Host: The second survey we’re looking at on today’s program is a Sunday Times survey that was all about the best UK companies to work for. Apparently, one of the best small companies to work for is innocent drinks. Well, I have with me in the studio Becka Walton, who works for innocent drinks. Becka, tell us what made you apply for the job at innocent.
Becka Well, I’ve always really liked them as a company, I've always followed their website and their weekly newsletter, I’ve always thought that they would be people that I would like to work for, so it was just a matter of keeping an eye on their jobs page and waiting for a position that I thought I could do.
Host: Now, in a recent survey about what makes people happy at work, innocent was listed as one of the top companies to work for. You obviously think it is a happy company. Now why do you think that?
Becka Well, I can see how we would have scored very highly on that scale, I think there’s a really big emphasis on a team environment at work, we’re all mixed up so nobody sits according to the group of people that they work with, which means that you get to make friends in different areas of the business. Everybody’s aware of the projects that people are working on, the pressures that they’re under, so it makes for a really good team environment. I think that’s important.
Host And how does that compare with other companies that you’ve worked for?
Becka Oh, I haven’t really worked for any big companies before — innocent is the biggest company that I’ve worked for. I know friends of mine complain about really stuffy work environments, but the atmosphere at innocent is really informal, things are pretty relaxed and a lot of my friends are surprised that we don’t have to dress up to come to work, often people don’t even wear shoes, and we have a grassy floor in our office, and it’s just kind of a relaxed place to work.
Host: What would you change about the company if there was something that you could change?
Becka: Oh, I, I’m not really sure how to answer that question, I think that, a thing that does come up when we survey people is the work-life balance,
I think people are really passionate about their jobs, and that’s a good tiling, but it can lead to people working very long hours.
Host: So you’re overworked?
Becka I wouldn’t go that far, but it would be easy to be overworked, yes.
Host: You're obviously very happy with your work, but is there a high staff turnover rate? Do people generally stay for a long time?
Becka: I know that Daisy, my first manager, was the first female employed by the company.
She stayed for ten years, which is a long time, so I think that shows she was pretty happy. Obviously, we have people on short-term contracts, but as a general rule I would say that people are happy and people do tend to stay at innocent for a pretty long time.
Host: OK, in the other survey, the one about the ten things that make people happy at work, the issue of a competitive salary was the last on the list. What’s your view on that?
Becka: Well, I’ve thought about that and I hope it doesn’t make me sound shallow, but I struggled to think of ten things that were more important than the money. I mean it’s important to maintain a good work-life balance and to, I suppose, have fun at work and to enjoy the people you work with, but I think it’s really important to feel like the financial compensation for what you do is adequate.
Host: OK. And finally, I should ask you, Do you drink smoothies yourself and if you do, are they always innocent?
Becka: I really love, I really love smoothies and if 1 didn’t, it would be the wrong place for me to work, and naturally, they're always innocent smoothies. 1 think the working environment is reflected in the passion that we all have and I think that’s because we know we have a really good product.
Host: Thank you
There are three billion working people on this planet, and only 40 percent of them report being happy at work. Michael C. Bush shares his insights into what makes workers unhappy -- and how companies can benefit their bottom lines by fostering satisfaction. The Way We Work is a TED original video series where leaders and thinkers offer practical wisdom and insight into how we can adapt and thrive amid changing workplace conventions.
Visit https://go.ted.com/thewaywework for more!
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