Do you wake up every morning eager to go to work, or do you view your work as a means to accomplish all the other things you want to do? When you are at work, do you enjoy it? Do you ever hear yourself saying, “It’s just a job” or “I can’t wait until I retire”?

Consider this: we spend, as reported by Gina Belli, a total of about 13 years of our lives at work, compared to only 328 days socializing with friends. So why shouldn’t the J-O-B bring us J-O-Y?

But that isn’t the way we are taught to think about work. Many of us mark each day at work as another day closer to retirement. I had a colleague once marked her days quite literally—she brought in a large wall calendar at the beginning of the school year and numbered it backward from the first day of school to the last, counting down to her final day in the classroom. Then each day, she’d put a big red X on each day’s cell. I recall thinking, “If I ever become that burned out, please let me leave the classroom before I torture my students and myself!”   

Many places of employment conduct job satisfaction surveys to see how their employees feel about their work, but “satisfaction,” when you think about it, is a pretty low bar.

As Rodger Dean Duncan points out, “’Satisfaction’ is down the scale from ‘engagement.’ And while both satisfaction and engagement are desirable, joy is an even higher standard for the way people can feel about their work.” To learn how more joy can be brought into the workplace, Duncan interviewed Richard Sheridan, author of Chief Joy Officer: How Great Leaders Elevate Human Energy and Eliminate Fear.

Sheridan says, “Humans are naturally wired to work in community with one another on goals that are bigger than any one individual. When we accomplish these worthy goals, there is joy.”

He goes on to say that focusing on “delighting those we serve” and taking pride in our work not only lead to joy at work, but carry over to contribute to more joyful lives.

Sheridan focuses on business leaders to create more joyful environments for employees, which is ideal, but we don’t have to wait for our bosses and supervisors to give us a green light before we can bring more joy into the workplace. Each of us can takes steps to feel more joy in our own work lives.

Just the other day, for example, I met a man who is a cook at a local hospital. Although he is tired after spending his entire day on his feet, he takes pride and finds joy in his work because he knows that he is not just making soup—he is providing nourishment so that people can recover their health.

This reminded me of a story I heard a few years ago on StoryCorps. A chaplain at a hospital ministers to the hospital staff, blessing the hands of all the workers. She went one day to the basement and spoke with a women who worked in a windowless room, carefully preparing surgical tools. For each surgery, the woman received a patient’s name and the list of surgical implements needed and carefully, methodically, she would assemble the package of sterile equipment. 

The chaplain was surprised to learn that as this woman compiled the implements, she would say a prayer for the patient and for the skilled hands of the surgeon. Moreover, she had been doing so for 40 years.

Then the chaplain learned that most of the workers in the department did the same thing. They would never meet the patients they were serving, would never know the outcome of the surgery, and yet, they found deep meaning in the way they made that surgery possible.

And I’m reminded of an anecdote about a traveler who came upon a crowd of people who were all working diligently. The traveler was curious, so he asked several of the workers what they were doing. The first said, “I am cutting these rocks to a certain size.” The second answered, “I am creating a stained glass window.” But the third responded, “I am building a cathedral.”

The construction worker, the woman in the basement, and the cook approach their work with joy because they don’t see only rocks and glass, surgical tools, or food ingredients: they see the larger picture. They know what they are creating and how it will impact the lives of others. They have a vision of a worthy goal, and as Sheridan said, working toward a worthy goal creates joy.

Marguerite Orane suggests three additional ways to feel more joy in the workplace. The first, not surprisingly, is gratitude. Being grateful for the value the job brings you is paramount to finding joy at work. Try speaking aloud on your way to work one thing for which you are grateful, and think about the ways in which you create value for others.

My mother taught me that every job done honorably is an honorable job, and I would expand that to say that any job done joyfully add value to everyone around you. You don’t have to be the one doing the labor to express gratitude for it, either. When I see a person cleaning my favorite park, for example, I thank them for helping to make that park one of my favorite places on the planet. I can see that they take great pride in maintaining the space that was recently voted USA Today’s #1 new attraction. Gratitude is crucial to finding joy in work—or anywhere else, for that matter.

The next advice Orane gives is to detach a little from the work. We are not our job titles! Making a simple semantic change from “I am a manager at…” to “My job is manager at…” can allow you to move from being the job to doing the job. I’d add that we need to zoom out and see how, through that job, we impact others. Are you a loan officer? You help people buy their dream homes! Bus driver? You help get people safely to and from their livelihoods! Somewhere, in every line of work, we’re building a cathedral, if we only choose to see it that way.

The last suggestion Orane gives is to take care of yourself in all other areas of your life—nutrition, exercise, rest, social connections, and love. Joy in the workplace is an extension of joy in other areas of our lives, so it stands to reason that taking care of ourselves outside of work will make us happier and more joyful at work.

Steve Errey suggests five more ways to feel more joyful at work: connecting with others, taking responsibility, avoiding office politics, engaging fully with the work, and “following the energy.” By this last one, he means finding ways to apply your strengths or talents, such as creativity, empathy, or problem solving, in ways that energize you.

If your work is a calling or an expression of your true purpose in life, then you probably already find joy in it. You are more than likely willing to put up with the mundane parts of your job in order to work toward this higher purpose. But even if it isn’t your dream job, you can approach it with greater joy.

I encourage you, Dear Reader, to think about how you can have more joy in your work, and how you can help create a more joyous space for everyone around you. After all, you’re going to spend about a third of your life working—why not fill that time with as much joy as possible?

Until next time,