Happy Filipino workers are the greatest gifts to the world

It’s on the front pages of most local broadsheets and in the primetime TV news:  the report that Filipinos are the happiest workers in Southeast Asia, that is. And these jolly Pinoy employees are from the government, education, oil and gas sectors. Jobstreet.com, the largest online employment platform in Asia, using 12,796 respondents from the Philippines, conducted the study from June to July of this year.

On a scale of 0-10, with zero as the unhappiest, 10 as extremely happy and 5 as neutral, Filipinos have the highest average satisfaction rating of 6.25.  Indonesia came second with 6.16 and Thailand with 5.74. Hong Kong has an average satisfaction rate of 5.54, Vietnam with 5.58, Malaysia with 5.22 and Singapore with the lowest satisfaction rate of 5.09.

This is the second consecutive year that the Philippines topped the job happiness index among the seven countries. Filipinos put a high premium on great rapport with colleagues, convenient work location, and the company’s reputation. Never mind the horrendous traffic and the inefficiency of the metro rail system; Filipinos continually flash that charming smile in their respective workplaces.

Happiness is a highly relative concept. It comes in varying degrees, packages and sustainability. What brings happiness to one person may not necessarily bring happiness to another. One may generate happiness with simple things and events, while another may be hard to please. Dr. Gerald Bell declares, “You are 100 percent responsible for your own happiness. Other people aren’t responsible. Your spouse isn’t. You alone are. So if you are not happy, it’s up to you to change something. It’s not up to someone else to fix it for you.”

Indeed, if you’re busy being glad and cheering people who are sad, although your heart might ache a bit, you’ll soon forget it. The news about the “happy Pinoy worker” and the concepts and quotes about cheer discussed above are appropriate trigger points for a conversation of what happiness is all about.

Tal Ben-Shahar, a hugely popular Harvard University professor, shares his concept of Positive Psychology, the most highly attended course at the revered institution to date. Positive Psychology is the scientific study of human happiness and how to raise quality of life. It is a systematic discipline unlike customary self-help programs that are, for the most part, based on perceptions and at times oversimplified stories.

Ben-Shahar says we need to unlearn worn-out habits and tricks that weaken our ability to make the most out of personal happiness. He stresses the importance of living for the here and now, as well as the days ahead. He also provides lessons on how to bring pleasure and purpose into our existence, and how to refine the elements that will make us happy and make them work to our full advantage. His principles may sound simple but the advice he offers is difficult to do, even if it seems obvious. Some key points:

• Your experiences define your happiness quotient. Ben-Shahar uses what he calls the “hamburger analogy” to explain this point. An unhealthy but flavorful hamburger, for example, can bring immediate short-term pleasure but may have a different impact on our long-term condition. On the other hand, a healthy veggie burger may seem less appetizing while you eat it, but affords more enduring value. Discovering a hamburger that is both delicious and nutritious may be hard but not impossible to find.

• You’re either a hedonist, rat racer, nihilist or happiness pursuer archetype. These are the basic happiness models. Know what your prototype is and work around it. Each one is critical to the way you make decisions. You’re a hedonist if you find pleasure in the good things in life — good food, good wine, good company — and yet are unable to enjoy lasting fulfillment. You adhere to the philosophy that pleasure is the most important pursuit, and that it is the only thing that is good. You evaluate your actions in terms of how much pleasure and how little pain they produce. Simply put, you aim for the net pleasure — pleasure minus pain — in every undertaking.

You’re a “rat racer” if you live in the hope of being happy in the future, and yet are unable to enjoy the here and now. You engage in endless, self-defeating and pointless pursuits. You run around making a lot of brouhaha, but in the end achieve nothing meaningful. You see work as a means to an end, either a reward or a purpose. You’re seldom or never at home, spending more time at work or going to and from it. You do this in the belief that such an endeavor is essential to get a raise or a promotion, which you strongly believe will lead to happiness. The heightened impression of work as a rat race leads you to question your outlook towards what you do as a living and to seek a better alternative like a more harmonious work-life balance. The long office hours, unpaid overtime, stressful requirements, time spent commuting, reduced time for family life or friends, has created a generally unhappier you, who is unable to enjoy the benefits of increased economic prosperity and a higher standard of living.

You’re a nihilist if you have completely given up on happiness. You consider that your existence is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value. You have a radical form of skepticism, and at some point even deny existence itself. Your attachment to past failures immobilizes you.

If you’re a happiness pursuer, you subscribe to the idea that happiness is the definitive currency, which, expectedly, you want to have plenty of. You would not exchange it for anything. Money is the great motivator to work doubly hard so you can buy the things you want or experience situations that produce joy. Indeed, money makes your world go round, but it can also lead to misallocated uses that can bring unhappy results. Happiness is mostly dependent on your state of mind, not on the state of your bank account.

• Happiness is not preprogrammed by heredity or one’s condition in life. It is not an end state, and its intensity varies. You may be happy now and be happier or happiest at some later point. It is not a goal. You work at it. While some psychologists believe that happiness is outside of the control of the individual, this is simply not true. You can always chase evocative and gratifying pursuits that can meaningfully elevate your level of happiness or can be increased by engaging in rituals that can give structure to what you do — studying, pursuing a career or sustaining relationships. If you don’t have structure, you are likely to live a reactive life and just go with the flow, good or bad.

• Work is a potential source of happiness. Two people view the same occurrence and interpret it in radically different ways. For instance, you see work as either a chore or a privilege.  Try rewriting your job description as a “job calling.”  You will discover that the activity helps you focus on the meaningful and pleasurable aspects of what you’re doing.

• Pursuing work that makes you happy can bring better benefits. If you’re happy, you generally become more generous, compassionate, and open.  There is a reciprocal relationship between helping yourself and helping your fellowmen. When you help others you feel better about yourself, and in turn when you help yourself, you are more inclined to help others.  This virtuous cycle is worthy of cultivating and spreading. It can make life’s burden easier to bear.

• The power to take pleasure in a variety of activities is limited and exclusive. Ben-Shahar exemplifies this point by using what he calls the “Lasagna Principle” — things that you enjoy, such as eating lasagna, wouldn’t be enjoyable if you had it every day. Avoid being a creature of habit; be more adventurous and discover new things, new people, and new experiences. The other way of looking at this principle is to simplify. You may be a multi-tasking individual or somebody who can walk and chew gum at the same time, but that has limits. It can burn you out fast and erase the smile on your face. Realize that the more complex your life becomes, the more difficult it is to enjoy each moment.

• Kindness, humility and expressions of gratitude are powerful ways to bring happiness into one’s life. They can prolong it, too. Whenever possible, express gratitude; it doesn’t cost a lot. Want what you have, relish the positives rather than dwell on the negatives. Spirituality or any encouraging belief system and solidarity with yourself and your community play a big role in this. You must understand and appreciate that to be truly happy.

Kenny Rogers states, “I think the greatest gift in the world is a good employee, you know, or people who can do your work for you and do it well the way you’d like to have it done.” Pinoy workers are those kind of workers. As the happiest in Southeast Asia, they are the greatest gifts to this country and to the world. To honor them is the least you and I can do.

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