Does it seem people are unhappy at work?

It should. Not only is employee engagement down, things such as anger and stress are up.

And those are things you want to reduce because happy employees are critical to business success. 

Proof: Happy employees achieve their goals nearly a third more often than their not-so-happy colleagues – and for good reason. The happy people are 36% more motivated than their colleagues, according to research from the iOpener Institute and The Wall Street Journal.

“For many people, their working life becomes a kind of nemesis, rather than a place where they feel happy and valued,” says Sharon Salzberg, in her book Real Happiness at Work: Meditations for Accomplishment, Achievement, and Peace. But “it is also a place where we can learn and grow and come to be much happier.”

https://www.hrmorning.com/3-point/unhappy-at-work/

=======================

What does the corporate workplace look like in 2026? Following the Covid-19 pandemic, many employers implemented flexible schedules, which allowed employees to work from home for some or all of their week. Many firms are now backtracking, saying that even a hybrid model is no longer suitable. Some of the major employers who are mandating a full or partial return to the office include tech giants, as well as financial firms. For more, we speak to Roger Philby, UK Head of Consulting at the management consulting firm Korn Ferry. 

https://www.france24.com/en/tv-shows/people-profit/20260226-the-workplace-in-2026-many-workers-unhappy-being-in-the-office

=======================

Those who know me well are aware that I view my job as a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra as in inexpressible gift, an answer to a long held dream and an enormous privilege. Having been a full time orchestral musician since 1981, I am also well aware that many of my colleagues are either inexpressibly happy with their positions or dismally unhappy. I speak about this some in my article The Puzzle of Our Lives, a detailed look at my own personal journey to a life as an orchestral musician. 

At the same time, while each person will view a career in a professional orchestra through a slightly different lens, allow me to point out several distinct advantages and disadvantages to consider for those thinking about such a career. Please note that what I am writing below is from my perspective as a member of the Boston Symphony, an orchestra that is in the top tier of world-class ensembles. Working conditions, salary and benefits in other orchestras may be vastly different that what I describe here as many other major, regional and metropolitan orchestras have much lower scale salaries, benefits, and less optimum working conditions. Musicians in many orchestras are paid "per service" and the trombone is not always part of the "core" group of players in the orchestra. But here is one viewpoint from where I sit, as I assume most people who are aspiring for an orchestral career would like to play at the top level.

https://www.yeodoug.com/articles/text/procon.html

=======================

BELOW IS A TEXT BY CHARLES FOURIER, WRITTEN MORE THAN 210 YEARS AGO — JUST A FEW YEARS AFTER THE FRENCH REVOLUTION —  ABOUT UTOPIA AND HARMONY …. IT CONTAINS OF COURSE A FEW OF THE PREJUDICES OF THE TIMES WHILE PINPOINTING MUCH OF WHAT WE ARE STILL SEEKING... PEACE, "HARMONY", UNDERSTANDING, RELATIONSHIPS, HAPPINESS... THE WORD DEMOCRACY DOES NOT APPEAR, BUT IT SMELLS LIKE IT [BOLD BY GUS]...

PRESENTLY, IT SEEMS THAT THE ELITES ARE DESTROYING THE MIDDLE CLASS — OR TRYING TO MAKE EVERYONE POORER WHILE THE ELITES ARE GETTING RICHER — IN A RETURN TO A SEMI-FUEDAL SYSTEM OF OWNERSHIP... STRANGELY, THIS TEXT SEEMS LIKE THE WEF [WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM] SPEAKING OF THE FUTURE:

… Its synthesis forms the code for the reign of social harmony which is going to last approximately sixty thousand years. After that, the cooling of the globe will bring a marked decline in luxury. With the final disappearance of luxury, which is the pivot of Harmony, the human race will fall back into subversion. Mankind will complete its course as it began by traversing the civilized, barbarian and savage societies and others which belong to the subversive order.

Since the announcement of this discovery will help bring peace in the measure that it wins the confidence of the government, I ought, Citizen High Judge, to explain it to you in a detailed memorandum. But since my right hand is sprained and in bad condition for writing, I cannot devote myself now to the composition of a lengthy essay. The details of Harmony are so extraordinary that a superficial explanation would be quite inadequate. If you wish, I will go into a few details; but given the state of my sprained hand, I can scarcely promise more than two large sheets like this one.

Being the sole possessor of the theory of social movement, I shall not give it away to the public. Instead I shall make known only the superficial aspects of the calculus, taking precautions so that its essence and the solutions to the problems it raises may be safeguarded for the French government. Thus the First Consul cannot be beaten out by any other prince in the establishment of Harmony. He will be assured of no competition for the title of Primate or Emperor of the Globe, a title.to be conferred by right upon the founder. There is no impertinence or charlatanism about this, for the calculus is correct, mathematical and invariable.

Do not suppose, Citizen High Judge, that this discovery could become a rallying point for fanatics and intriguers. On the contrary it offers a sure means of foiling the civil and political trouble makers of all countries. For the whole earth is going to enjoy a better lot. Poverty will be completely eliminated; and a graduated metamorphosis will turn the poor class into a middle class, will bring opulence to the bourgeois, splendor to the opulent, and so forth. This perspective, which is well substantiated and confirmed by all conceivable proofs, will wither the seeds of civil or political discord and calm the most turbulent individuals.

Permit me a few lines of argument. Poverty is the principal cause of social disorders. Inequality, so much maligned by the philosophers, is not displeasing to men. On the contrary, the bourgeois delights in hierarchy; he loves to see the bigwigs decked out and parading in their best finery. The poor man views them with the same enthusiasm. Only if he lacks what is necessary does he begin to detest his superiors and the customs of society. This is the origin of social disorders, crimes and of the gallows, that sad bastion of the civilized order. It is easy to prove that all social crimes committed out of ambition proceed from the poverty of the people, from their efforts to escape poverty, from the anxiety which is instilled in society by the presence of poverty, from the fear of falling into it, and from disgust for the odious habits which it encourages.

For social science there is thus only one problem to resolve, that of the graduated metamorphosis which I have mentioned. By this I mean the art of raising each of the classes of civilization to the condition of the class above it. Then indigence and discomfort will be eliminated, since the lower class will have become the middle class and will enjoy an honest comfort like our petty bourgeois who are far removed indeed from a spirit of sedition. When the people enjoy constant comfort and a decent minimum, all the sources of discord will be dried up or reduced to very little. Administration will become child's play, and in Harmony the government of the whole planet will be much less complicated than that of a civilized empire. 

To eliminate poverty it was necessary to conceive of an industrial system more productive than our own. Such will be universal harmony which will produce at least triple — yes, without exaggeration — at least triple the yield of the civilized system in a well-cultivated empire. Accordingly, while Harmony will greatly increase the wealth of the well-to-do, it will bring about an excessive increase in that of the people, to whom it will guarantee a salary or in old age a decent minimum below which they cannot fall. This beneficence will be all the more simple in that humanity will reproduce much less in Harmony than in civilization. 

This is far removed from the theories of the philosophers, some of whom, the Demagogues, seek to rob the rich to provide for the poor. The others, who are called the Economists, do not have the welfare of the people in mind. They think only of enriching empires without worrying themselves about the fate of the individual. Thus the theories of the Economists have greatly enriched England without enriching the English. According to the Tableau de Londres, you can find 115,000 paupers, prostitutes, thieves, beggars and unemployed in the city of London alone; the workers of Scotland live in a frightful state of misery. This is nonetheless the consequence of the modern systems which claim to alleviate the suffering of the people.

Furthermore, just as Stuart [JAMES DENHAM] prophesied, none of the philosophical theories has proved adequate to deal with the problem of excessive population. The civilized reproduce too much, produce too little, and waste vast quantities of food, labor, time, energy, etc. Count Rumford and Cadet de Vaux are the only writers I know who have understood the vice of civilized societies. These societies are going to reduce the common people to the most frightful poverty everywhere except in new areas like the United States where labor is lacking. The source of this widespread indigence is excessive procreation. Nevertheless humanity will be able to multiply for about eighty more years in order to bring the globe to its full size of three billion inhabitants. Once this number is reached, however, the population will remain fixed in Harmony. What would be the point of having swarms of excess population once wars are abolished? Excessive numbers of people will become so useless that France, for its part, will disgorge about five million of its inhabitants who will find homes in Spain, the Ukraine, etc.

Let us summarize the problem which I have just raised: it is to prove that three billion inhabitants in the order of Harmony will be just as productive as nine or ten billion in civilization. Of course this prodigious increase in wealth would be illusory if Harmony failed to eliminate the seeds of human discord, such as war, which neutralize the efforts of men and absorb the fruits of their industry, no matter how great they may be.

Note well that this prospect of future happiness does not rest solely upon an enormous increase in wealth. For even a Lucullus would be most unhappy if his dominant passions were not satisfied. The opulence of Harmony will merely be an agent of happiness, merely a means for the development and gratification of a huge number of brilliant passions which are unknown in civilization and will be revealed in Harmony. For what is it to be happy if not to feel and gratify an immense number of harmless passions? Such will be the lot of men when they are delivered from the civilized, barbarian and savage states. Their passions will be so numerous, so explosive and so varied that the rich man will spend his life in a sort of permanent frenzy and the twenty-four hours of his day will fly by like one.

You can tell from this sketch, Citizen High Judge, that the announcement of this discovery will be a source of concord, a balm poured on the wounds of the human race…..

=====================

GUSNOTE: THIS UTOPIA IS A DREAM THAT MOST LEADERS — RELIGIOUS, ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL — DO NOT WANT TO CREATE FOR THE MASSES...

MEANWHILE:

Voting for One Nation is like placing a sharp annoying little stone in one's shoe, because one does not like the path taken by mummy — ignoring that daddy Trump chose the wretched way, because we love him blindly...

                      — Maria Muskanic [neighbour]

=====================

PLEASE VISIT:

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

         RABID ATHEIST.

         WELCOME TO THIS INSANE WORLD….