I rarely go into politics or public policy on this blog, but I’m going to make an exeption today.

I’ve been following the US debate on health care pretty closely and the biggest issue currently in play is whether or not the US government should offer health care in addition to the private insurance companies.

In the current US system, where there is no so-called public option, many people have health insurance through their workplace and this system has one serious often overlooked drawback, namely job lock:

Millions of Americans are in what’s called “job lock.” They can’t leave their jobs because they feel they can’t get the same health insurance benefits on their own or at the next job.

A new poll by NPR News, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government shows that one out of four Americans has experienced job lock, in the last couple of years, or someone in their immediate family has. That’s despite legislation enacted six years ago to deal with the problem

In other words, you may hate your job but if you quit you and your family no longer have health insurance. This article looks at job lock in detail.

In Denmark on the other hand, we have pretty much the exact opposite: Health care is public and paid for through our taxes. In addition, Denmark has a unique labor market approach called flexicurity.

Flexicurity means that on one hand it’s easy for companies to fire employees but on the other hand, you get very generous unemployment benefits, ie. 90% of your salary.

The drawback to this system is obvious: Very high taxes.

The advantages are many, though. First of all, the Danish economy has been doing very well. Even now, during the financial crisis, we’re doing better than most of Europe and unemployment is still below 5%.

From a standpoint of happiness at work, there is no doubt that the Danish system is best. When it’s easy and safe to quit a job there is much less risk in leaving a job you hate. Even if you choose not to quit, just knowing that you could makes things more bearable. Hating you job AND knowing that you can’t quit makes everything worse.

Even the fact that it’s easy to fire people increases happiness at work. Seriously! It means that companies can fire employees who don’t perform well or who don’t fit in.

In countries with very strong labour protection laws, it can be almost impossible to fire anyone – meaning that underperforming employees stay in their jobs and everyone else has to pick up the slack. Also, remember that unhappiness at work is highly contagious, so one unhappy employee can easily drag down the whole department.

So in my opinion (and I am NOT an economist, so take this with a grain of salt) the flexicurity model makes Danes happier at work – and as I’ve previously mentioned happy workplaces are more productive, innovative and profitable.

The American model on the other hand, makes people less happy at work and thus decreases productivity.

Your take

What do you think? Have you ever experienced job lock? What advantages or drawbacks can you see to the US or the Danish model?

Related posts

• The 10 worst excuses for not quitting a crappy job.
• Top 10 signs you’re unhappy at work.

Here’s a nice little piece from abc news that shows just how happy this company is:

MAN, that’s good to see :o)

Here are my top three reasons to love zappos.

1: They have a culture that promotes happiness at work

Zappos is committed to defining and living a positive, happy culture. Their values are:
1. Deliver WOW Through Service
2. Embrace and Drive Change
3. Create Fun and A Little Weirdness
4. Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded
5. Pursue Growth and Learning
6. Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication
7. Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
8. Do More With Less
9. Be Passionate and Determined
10. Be Humble

That’s your recipe for happiness right there.

2: They pay new employees to quit

At the end of your training as a new Zappos employee, the company offers you $2000 if you quit right away. This means that the people who stay are committed to the company and the culture.

Here’s an interview where Bill Taylor (formerly of Fast Company) talks about it.

3: They behave like human beings. Great human beings

The fact that people are happy at work (yes, even the ones answering the phone) means that they give incredibly good customer service.

And often that service goes above and beyond. I dare you to read this story and not shed a tear.

The upshot

Zappos gets it, as do more and more companies. When a business puts its people first (not the customer and not the investors, but the people) you increase happiness, creativity, productivity and profits.

This is not rocket science – and companies like Google, Southwest Airlines, SAS Insititute, Disney, Pixar and many many others will testify to the fact that it works.

So how does your company prioiritize? Are employees at the top of the list – or is that spot taken by profits, growth, customers, or..?

What would you do if you had a really bad boss? That’s the situation one reader of this blog is in. He read my post on How to Deal With a Bad Boss and left this comment:

I have a unique situation. All but 2 people in the office are treated nicely by my boss. Yes you guessed it I am one of those 2 people.

Recently I have had all my duties I was hired for taken completely away from me under “restructuring of the program” meanwhile everyone else has the same duties except my other colleague in the same boat as me. My boss avoids all attempts I make to communicate with him. In fact I have been reduced down to what my former assistant, who was incredible at her job, did all day.

To make matters worse the person with my old responsibilities does not have a graduate degree. I have my Masters and she micro manages me. Nothing I do is OK. I am completely miserable here and I hate that everyone else is treated with respect, they love both my boss and the lady with my old responsibilities.

My colleague is in a similar situation with a different person who has her responsibilities. We are treated like second class citizens here and I really need advice what to do especially since to everyone else my boss is perfect including his supervisors and upper management..

Oh I forgot to mention my former director here everyone hated. She was a great manager but lacked all people skills and came down with an iron fist on everyone. My current boss who has her old job was responsible for her being promoted out of the area. Any advice would help! Thanks for reading this post and writing this article :)

That’s a tough one. What do you think this reader could do? What would you do?

There are many metaphors for the workplace. A company can be like a ship, sailing uncharted seas. Some workplaces aim to be like a family. Many organizations want to be like well-oiled machines.

The most traditional metaphor, that unfortunately still informs much of our thinking, is the company as a military unit with lines of command, enemies, battles and strategic objectives.

Metaphors have power. If you see your workplace and career through a certain lense it will affect your thinking and your decision-making.

Now Henriette Weber of Toothless Tiger has come up with the coolest metaphor I have ever seen for a business: The company as a rockband.

Click here to download her awesome free e-book which explains the idea in detail. It’s a quick, fun and fascinating read.

Our company is already a lot like a rock band. We do drugs, trash hotel rooms and drink tons of alcohol. And don’t even get me started on the groupies.

JUST KIDDING!! It’s more that:

• We allow ourselves to be different.
• We do work that we and our clients think is really cool.
• We inspire people with what we do and who we are.
• We have a great time and give our audience a great time.

What about you? Is your workplace like a rock band? Do you get to feel like a rock star on the job? Does what you do create admiring fans?

Or is there a different more apt metaphor for your workplace? Write a comment, I’d love to know what you think.

Related posts

• 10 seeeeeeeeriously cool workplaces.
• Top 10 signs you’re unhappy at work.
• Death to job titles.

Cat wrote me that:

For 8 months I’ve been postponing my resignation. I’m guilty of some of those top 10 bad excuses. It’s amazing; it’s like you wrote down everything I felt (and more).

I finally decided to quit when, last week, my boss told me that people have come up to him, complaining that I shouldn’t be compensated for working outside the office. My boss says he appreciates my work but he wants to get rid of the complainers by heeding their request.

So Cat quit. And this is how she quit:

It takes guts to quit and even more guts to quit in crayon. I love it!

You can see more of Cat’s work here.

Related posts

• Top 10 bad excuses for staying in a crappy job.
• How do you know when to quit?
• Never stay in a bad job. Fix it or leave.

Happy at work in Philly

The whole company (all 4 of us) were in Philadelphia for the ippa conference on Positive Psychology and we had a blast.

This was the world’s leading conference on the topic with tons of speakers and 1500 attendees and we got to see all the big-wigs in the field, including Seligman, Zimbardo, Cooperrider, Csikszentmihalyi and Diener. Both Dieners in fact :o)

My personal favorite of all the sessions was Ed Diener, who had the most new findings to offer AND was also an excellent speaker – something of a rarity at this very academic event.

Here are some of the best quotes from the event, taken from my twitter stream:

“Awe is what moves us forward.”
- David Cooperrider quoting Joseph Conrad.

“Business must be a force for good in the world.”
- David Cooperrider.

“Homeless people in India and USA missed the Maslow memo.” (Meaning they can be happy even in a bad situation.)
- Robert Biswas-Diener

“Being healthy makes you happy and vice versa, but the link from happiness to health is twice as strong.”
- Ruut veenhoven

“Puritanism is the dreaded suspicion that someone somewhere is happy.”
- Sir Richard Layard quoting H.L. Mencken

“To flourish in life, aim for at least 3 positive emotions for every negative one.”
- Barbara Frederickson

“The top 2 motives for murder are… 1) love, 2) work.”
- Michael Frese

“Being too happy is bad for you. 8 on 1 10-scale is just right. Eg. cancer patients are more likely to survive if they’re at an 8 instead of 9 or 10.”
- Ed Diener

“It’s a myth that lottery winners are no happier after they win the money or that quadriplegics are no unhappier after their accident – your circumstances do matter!”
- Ed Diener

“You look a little down – go do something nice for someone else.”
- Martin Seligman

Follow me on twitter.

Clare over at “Thoughts from the C train” tells the story of one seeeeeeriously abusive customer:

I got called that one time. Swear. Say it: Phenomenal Cesspool of Incompetence. It’s brilliant! I mean seriously, who can come up with that shit? Well I’ll tell you who . . . kind of.

A little background. I’m a career banker, and I’ve always been on the operations side. Kind of a nuts and bolts of banking girl. I’ve also always managed people, which means the ugly situations get elevated to me.

Once I had a customer who would send absolutely hideous messages through the internet banking department. Let’s say, for example, he could not get his updated balance at three in the morning because we had not yet finished processing. This would throw him into a Rage so Fearsome that the email he sent would kind of burn your eyes out of your head. He never called, he never showed up to any branch, he would just send these awful messages from the safety of his little computer in the wee hours of the morning. Yes, coward.

Go read the whole story – it just shows how important it is to fire customers who are not good for your business.

Related posts

• Top 5 reasons why “The customer is Always Right” is wrong.
• The time I learned to say “No” at work.
• Fire that client.

2009 has been amazing so far and there is much to celebrate – and a trip like this is a great way to do it.

And remember, celebrating your victories is really, really important:

Though of course it is possible to overdo it :o)

Yikes!

I don’t mean to be hasty here, but maybe – just maybe – there’s room for improvement in some workplaces :o)

Related posts

• Top 10 bad excuses for staying in a crappy job.
• How to know it’s time to quit.
• Top 10 signs you’re not happy at work.
• Google loves Denmark.

I just created another twitter account for updates about what I’m up to at twitter.com/alexkjerulf. If you want a sneak peek into the life of a Chief Happiness Officer – well, you know the drill :o)

And btw – best commentary on twitter is still this one: