‘Commercial no-brainer’: why the role of happiness officer is taking off

theguardian.com:

When Elen Maggs’s oven broke down on 23 December, she definitely didn’t feel happy. “December had been a terrible month already,” said the manager for the high-street retailer Timpson. “I’d totalled the car and had Covid.

“Now, not only was I going to be without a cooker over Christmas, but paying for a new one was going to mean dipping into the wedding savings that my partner and I were working hard to build up.”

Maggs bemoaned the catastrophe with her colleagues on their group WhatsApp. Without her knowledge, they called Timpson’s director of happiness. A few days later, a new oven was delivered – paid for by the company.

“You hear of nice things happening to other people but you never think they are going to happen to you,” said Maggs. “But it’s not just these big things. Having a director of happiness makes a massive difference to every minute of my working life.”

One of London’s oldest City law firms hit the headlines earlier this week when it discussed hiring a chief happiness officer. The role would, they argued, ensure that staff enjoy “the most vibrant, happy and uplifting place to work in the world”. It involved, among other things, organising micro-retreats for staff and sending them books by their favourite authors.

These personal touches are not expandable “nice to haves”, according to Janet Leighton, Timpson’s director of happiness, but rooted in evidence-based, positive psychological research that yields concrete results. “It’s a commercial no-brainer,” she said. “If people feel supported and cared for, they are calm, relaxed and hardworking. They’re considerate towards each other and towards customers.”

The role of happiness officer is becoming increasingly high-profile: the first formal position that Prince