Whose Job Is It To Make You Happy at Work?
Term 4 has a particular kind of squeeze. Everything matters, everything is due, and most people I know in schools are running on fumes and goodwill. It's natural to look for someone to blame. Sometimes the finger points at the principal, sometimes at the leadership team and sometimes, quietly, at ourselves.
Something I say that shocks people is this: leaders are not responsible for your happiness at work.
They're educators too, with their own pressures, and nobody can make another person happy. What leaders can influence is how work is designed, how clear expectations are and how people are treated, and that matters a great deal.
Wellbeing at work is more complicated than happiness, and it is shared. If you’ve been following my work for some time, you know I call it ME, WE and US, and it gives us three questions to consider.
ME: What am I doing for myself?
How am I thinking and responding? Where am I protecting my energy and asking for what I need? I don't mean bubble baths. I mean the decisions that are genuinely mine.
WE: How am I contributing to the team?
How do I greet people, show up in meetings, and pass on the thank you instead of the gossip?
US: What workplace conditions are being changed or adjusted to support me?
Think workload, unclear roles, meetings that didn't need to exist. If five people are struggling with the same thing, asking all five to be more resilient is probably not the place to start.
If you lead a team, I hope that comes as a relief. You don't have to make everyone happy.
Choose one workplace condition to adjust this month and tell your team you've done it.
One Small Shift
This week, pick the question that feels most useful and write down one answer. Which of the three have you spent the most time on this term, and which one has been missing?
Next week I'll share a way of keeping this kind of conversation alive without adding another meeting to the calendar. I suspect you'll like it.
