Chief Happiness Officer. Introduction.

Greetings, everyone!

Depression is a common illness worldwide, with more than 264 million people affected. Some of these people can be your employees or team members.

Researchers and scholars predict a worldwide pandemic of depression in the next few years. This may have a huge impact on many companies all over the world and the worldwide economy in general.

There are enough different things that can trigger this kind of sickness — something in private life or at job.

I do believe that the topic I would like to introduce for consideration is relevant for many people all over the world, and it can be useful for lots of you — either for the employees or their employers.

I’m very grateful that you are reading my first article — this is my first public step into the enormous universe of human happiness.

Let me talk about our jobs where we spend a significant part of our lives. In private life everything is under your own control, but at work the situation is completely different.

Eight work hours every single day your life does not belong to you.

Listen to yourself. Your feelings don’t lie.

You might have a brilliant place to work if you feel real support and respect from your team members and from your leaders. You trust each other, you protect each other, you are eager to help each other, to share the knowledge, you are not afraid to be yourself, your productivity and creativity strive to the sky, time at work flies fast and makes you feel happy and proud of your achievements.

But what if you feel something goes wrong? From the first look everything is fine — you hear nice words, you see smiles, you get your salary, your boss praises you, you take a look around you — nobody doesn’t complain. Uh… looks good. Doesn’t it?

Far from it! Your feelings could be completely right. If you take a look deeper you can have a chance to find out that there is nothing behind the nice words and fixed smiles. You don’t feel real trust, respect or support. But, again — nobody doesn’t complain. You start to think that something is wrong only with you. You are trying to reject your own feelings and do your work to the best of your ability.

In most cases our own feelings are completely right. Very often we are simply not used to hearing ourselves. Such kind of violence against our own mind leads us to stress, unhappiness with work. Our productivity goes down. In such a kind of environment we are doing work without any joy. From day to day. From year to year.

Additionally we can have a leader who is a leader only because of the position he/she holds, but not because of their leadership skills. That one who isn’t aware of the importance of empathy, or simply doesn’t have it, and looks at you only as a bunch of skills to reach business goals faster, but doesn’t recognize you as a person with feelings.

For some of us it could be a trigger to fall into depression, and the upshot of such violence over our mind can be tragic.

Why do you have to read this and follow me?

Step by step I will tell you how to deal with assholes at your work and how to make yourself more self–confident, stronger, happier and successful.

If you are the owner of the business — I will tell you how you can treat your employees in the best possible way. To reduce their stress. To make them happier, more productive. And as a result — to make your business more sustainable and more successful.

I will prove that happy people do a better job.

My own depression.

I know what I’m writing about and I know how serious this topic is.

Half a year ago, due to a lot of stress that happened to me in the previous months, I saw only one exit to get rid of it. Thanks to the people that gave me their support, shared their warmth and love with me — now I can see a lot of ways to develop my life.

For many people depression sounds like a career–killer word. Many of them are scared to admit that their body is sick. Very often they don’t ask for help. Otherwise they will let down their employer, lose their job and destroy their career. Their bills won’t be paid anymore. Their lives will be paused.

I was diagnosed with depression in March 2021. And this does not allow me to work as a software developer at this point of time either for my current employer or for any other company. After over 20 years of my happy professional life now I’m burned out for the last few years being a regular employee.

I know why it happened to me.

And it would be a big pleasure for me to share my experience and my knowledge with you all — to let you know how to deal with similar work–related issues, how to reduce stress at work, and how to make your working time joyful and productive, and life happier.

Little about me and why I am here.

My name is Jack.

For the last three years I have worked for the biggest outdoor sports market in Europe. I am still a part of a great professional and passionate team. I respect my team mates, and I hope that at least some of them love to work with me too.

Before this I had been an independent professional since I was 14 years old. Now, at this point of time I can’t do my regular work at all.

Usually I don’t speak too much about myself, and I’m not a good speaker in general and not a writer at all. But now I have to get out of my comfort zone to express myself. I have to talk about myself and about the things I do believe in, only because of one reason — I spend a lot of time with myself, and this is a subject I know best.

I have one good skill — to find something brilliant in the hunk of junk. Depression for me personally is a great opportunity to meditate on my own life, career, personal and professional goals. This is one of the biggest chances in my life. It could sound strange, but I can recognize it as an ugly looking but very meaningful gift I even didn’t desire to have. At the same time I don’t wish anybody to pass through this way — it is really hard.

Some people need up to two years to recover from depression and burn–out. I just have to wait… and I would like to use this time to recover with the help of socialization and creativity, to find new opportunities for my further development.

There is one additional reason why I push myself ahead — I’m very keen to learn because if I don’t make progress or move forward I’ll die as an individual.

Time to change career?

Well, my brain refuses to create any computer’s code at this point of time, but at the same time it generates a lot of ideas about how such a kind of situation that happened to me can be prevented.

Even more — after three years working for a big company I see a huge field for incredible improvements that could keep spirit up, respect, and trust. I do believe it can be applicable for many companies and people all over the world.

I can imagine my career changes very dramatic — from a professional who worked with computers, to a professional who works with people and their leaders to empower their connection.

By my own egoistic wish to express myself, to grow up professionally, to learn new things, to be valuable, to drive changes, to share my knowledge and experience, warmth of my heart, passion for work and life with other people, there is a big chance that I’ll be able to make you, readers and some other people who follow me at least a bit stronger and happier at your jobs.

Chief Happiness Officer (CHO).

Funny name, right? 3 months ago I didn’t even know that such a role exists. I found it accidentally, just by surfing Internet to search the answers for the questions that bother me.

Wow! Such a role exists! Some companies all over the world have realized that the happiness of their employees is one of the important keys for success. They make shaky steps to improve corporate culture, to be more responsible with their employees.

I realized that to find such a kind of job could be difficult for me — there are not that many companies looking for a CHO currently, then a friend of mine Sonia asked:

“Jack, you can’t make money out of this right now, and you can’t contribute to the company you are working at this point of time. But what limits you to get the work you desire without any company and inspire an unlimited amount of people?”

Uh… Nothing limits me.

Well, I don’t have a real job as a CHO at this point of time, so I can be a global CHO for many people all over the world. I really like how it sounds — Chief Happiness Officer. Happiness! I like it so much! It looks like my way to live.

What do I love most and why does CHO job fit perfectly?

Thanks to heavy work on myself during last half a year, thanks to the knowledge I gained during that time due to self–education, thanks to the bad and to the good experiences I got in the past, thanks to the talking with people who work for many different business areas in Stuttgart and around the world, I have realized what exactly, as a software developer, I love mostly in my work.

I love people as they are.

Even if some of them are assholes.

During all my life I love to help people, support them and inspire. I love to share my experience and knowledge. I love to bridge people through their differences. I love to learn. I love to find solutions. I love to make people happy, see their emotions because I create solutions as a software developer that make their life and job easier and more productive. I can make impossible things possible. At work and in my private life. This is my nature. This is my passion.

People are a primary component in my job I love mostly. And I didn’t realize how important this component is for me and for my work…

This is the reason why I desire to help people and their companies to get better and happier together.

Work related issues costs a lot of money.

Let’s get back to our jobs.

Despite the different experiences of people I met, most of them have much work related issues in common. Those issues make many of them unsatisfied, unhappy and unproductive.

Besides this companies spend money on those employees — to pay their wages, to educate them, and later to replace burned–out and fired employees.

A lot of money goes directly to trash. Even worse — companies lose many good and committed professionals. You invested a lot of money and time into those people. Now they’re gone.

I do believe — many of those issues which make people unhappy with their employer and force them to change their place to work can be prevented and resolved. The approach to lead people can be improved, existing processes can be rethought to make people less stressed by their work, more committed, more productive and happier with their employer.

It can make your company more efficient in the long–term perspective, more secure and more successful.

Step by step I will tell you how you can save your best people and save your money.

Just subscribe and follow me.

Note of warning for the business owners and top leaders!

If you believe that everything is fine with your company and your employees then close this page and stop reading this text. It is not for you. It signifies your business is perfect. Your managers are brilliant. Your employees are fully committed and happy to work exactly for your company. Just stop reading. Stop it right now!

If you think that a guy without any real experience in top positions and without any business education is a bad idea for your company, stop reading immediately! You are completely right. You can easily find someone much better. There are eight billion options.

Close this page and back to your employees — repeat again and again as a mantra: We are fine. All is good. We don’t have to make people happy. At work people have to work and leave their emotions at home. Only professional skills are important. What they feel — it doesn’t matter. All the problems we will solve by ourselves, we are strong, experienced and know everything. It is easy to find a replacement for burned out guys. Yeah… you definitely don’t need to have such a man like me on your team.

The last note of warning — seriously, stop reading.

In any case I will understand all of you who stopped reading at this spot. It is very difficult to admit that something is wrong. That a body is sick. But only to admit this — it is already a halfway point to get a healthy and strong life again.

The fuel of your company.

Why do I believe that it is very important to care about your employees in the best possible way?

The answer is simple — your employees own the powerful energy to push forward your business. Not only you. Not your customers. Not only your top leaders and bosses. Your business exists mostly because of your talented and passionate employees. They are fuel for your car.

The vast majority of companies care mostly about their customers, but very often they don’t care enough about their employees. I experienced this on my own. I heard this from lots of other people.

Your company, your tops can believe that the things they do are enough to motivate people to work. But very often they are so wrong…

Even more — your leaders can have a good business education and knowledge on how to lead people and to resolve conflicts. However, this does not mean that they use it in daily work for different reasons. Too many business tasks. Too less time to get into details to resolve issues by the best way, and being able to see various different ways to develop. Too less willingness to see the people, and not resources.

Your employees can see all of that, even if they don’t discuss that with you.

People needs support

The people around the world have changed dramatically during the last 1,5 years, since the COVID pandemic happened. Your business guides don’t work efficiently anymore as they used to.

It is okay if you refused the emotional part in your relationship with your employees in the past. Most big companies work like this. But nowadays it’s not allowed to do this anymore. It is a crime. A crime against people who work for you.

A lot of people all over the world need support and humanity in their lives, at their work. Your employees too.

Not tomorrow. Today!

People are very important for any successful business.

If you run your own business ask yourself: can your people survive without your company? The answer is Yes. They can survive. And they can be very happy without your company, without your business tasks, without your leaders, KPIs, OKRs and so on.

And what about your company and your business? Can it survive without people? The answer is No. Your business will die. You managers will be unemployed.

Can unhappy and stressed people bring your business to success? Can they drive innovations? Can they bring new ideas? Can they see things out of the box? And even if they can, do you really believe that they will do this for your business? For what do they need to share their ideas with you? With those who don’t provide to them the best possible treatment, the best work conditions, the best salaries.

To admit this is a huge step to find a solution.

The battle for your future.

Germany and all Europe lost many battles in the past. Best semiconductors are now produced in Korea, Japan and the USA. Now most essential goods are produced in China. Tesla beat the mature German automotive industry. The European banking system was stuck in the past century. Now European haute couture is produced in Turkey and India. Most expensive corporations are located in the USA, not in Europe. And so on, and so on…

So many battles were lost!

Now the battle for your people is on your table. This is your personal battle as an owner of the business.

The world has changed dramatically. Companies have to adjust themselves too. To survive. To be successful in the future. To win this battle.

You know by yourself how difficult it is to find professional, talented, creative, highly motivated and committed people. The battle for people started not with corona times, it was started way early before. With corona the battle became more fierce.

Besides political will the only thing companies need to win this battle, to drive improvements is honest, open minded and responsible leaders, the ability to hear your employees, the willingness to implement changes, to experiment. To invest money not only to recruit new employees, and to care about the existing ones by the best possible and innovative way.

And also they need guys like me on board. Honest and strong ones, who keeps pushing the boundaries to be able to find new opportunities.

What would I like to offer for the one who is reading this article?

If you are the same regular employee as I am currently and you can imagine that Chief Happiness Officer (CHO) can be very helpful for you personally, for your company, for your team — just follow me, get inspired, and feel free to share this article with your boss, within your company mail list or with your private social network.

Your support means a lot for me — it will make me able to inspire many people all over the world to drive changes we all believe in.

You personally benefit much more — you will get a lot of valuable knowledge to drive your career and to make your life and work happier.

If you are that brilliant man or woman who owns or leads the company, who understands the changes that happened to the people all over the world. That one who can smell the challenges for your company right over the corner — follow me too. Do not hesitate.

Follow me on social networks, be happy and get inspired!

Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | LinkedId

To be continued….

Sincerely, Jack.

Your personal Chief Happiness Officer.