“Having been here for eight years, of course, I know why. We are working under good corporate management, I think. The company pays attention to employee welfare with regard to wages, financial support and facilities. The healthy work environment had enabled us to build a sense of family,” said Lina, who works at a Jakarta tax consultancy.

She said she was happy there. But Lina is one of a small number of people who feel happy at work, according to a Gallup survey mentioned by Ruben Saragih, who works for Prasetiya Mulya Executive Learning Institute (Prasmul-Eli) as a senior consultant.

“Gallup’s recent research on big companies in the world, including Indonesia, came out with quite a shock. It showed that 87 percent of employees said they were not happy at work – about the working environment and the management,” Ruben said during an online seminar called “Happiness@Work”.

“So, if they are still around, it’s not because they are loyal to the company but because an invitation [for another position] has not come yet,” he said.

Ruben, who has written a book called Happiness at Work, associated Gallup’s findings with a workforce mindset.

“We spend our daily lives working, but what sounds weird is that when we are asked about the goals of working, most of us say to earn a living, improve skills, expand networks or develop careers,” he said. “Rarely do people say that the goal of looking for work is to seek or gain happiness.”

Ruben believed this understanding of the goal of working led people to the wrong conclusion that happiness could only be found outside the workplace.

“There's a meme: ‘I don't like Mondays’. Come Monday, it feels like a burden to start working. Why? We just finished the weekend, got together with family, met friends, did our hobbies. Suddenly on Sunday afternoon, we are starting to feel at ease. We can’t help thinking about work piling up, nagging bosses, customer complaints at the office.

“We get through the working days and finally come to Friday. And we get excited again and overwhelmed with ‘thank God it's Friday’ because we are entering Saturday and Sunday. We'll be leaving work soon. This has been going on for a long time, so it's no wonder some people say that happiness at work is nonsense, impossible for us to have.”

“That mindset must be changed. You become what you believe,” Ruben said.

Chief happiness officers

The work happiness movement, Ruben said, should start at the managerial level and should take into account the drastic changes in labor over the past five years.

"Leaders must walk the talk. They are expected to transfer happiness to employees. If employees are happy, their work will run smoothly, and that will make customers happy, thus creating a happy company,” Ruben said. “Happy companies are chasing not just turnover but prosperity,” he added.

Certain companies have employed “chief happiness officers”, a position that Ruben said had been introduced in the past two decades.

"The position is to ensure that happiness becomes a new value. Employees are expected to think, interact and work based on the philosophy of happiness, so that they can live up to the dream of making a world-class company,” he said.

Adam Grant in his book Give and Take says that successful people have similar characters, namely they are keen to give.

He says that most people operate either as takers, matchers or givers. While takers strive to get as much as possible from others and matchers aim to trade evenly, givers are the rare breed of people who contribute to others without expecting anything in return. This, he says, has a surprising impact on success.

Changes in the world of work have led to four generations, including millennials, working together in one company.

"The millennial generation is young people who behave quite differently from the old generation, including when looking for work. They are not merely looking for a salary or career. They demand work-life balance.

“Being in tune with the wants of today’s worker can mean all the difference between hiring a potential workforce and just filling seats,” he said.

Failure to address the preferences of young people could lead companies to difficulties in retention and recruitment.

Emiliana R. Simon-Thomas, in an article titled “The four key steps to happiness at work” published in Greater Good Magazine, writes "millennials agree that happiness at work, like happiness in life, is a basic human aspiration and, thus, the most attractive perk a workplace can offer. And research shows that happiness at work is essential to organizational success, entirely possible to foster and well worth the investment and effort."