Product Description

This book looks at people’s happiness and unhappiness in their jobs and endeavours to help the reader to actually do something about it. It aims to improve your approach to work – and therefore your happiness at work – for good.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #41954 in Books
• Published on: 2009-09-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 200 pages

Review

"At a time when the attention of many is on the quantity of work, this book has a refreshing focus on its quality. The authors ask some fundamental and challenging questions about the role of work in providing us with meaning and as a source of happiness, and then make a thoughtful attempt to help the reader answer these questions. Although solidly informed by the growing body of research in this important area, the authors skilfully manage to make the book practical and accessible for those who want to understand both what can make a job a source of fulfilment and satisfaction and how they might take more control of their working lives." - Stephen Bevan, Managing Director, The Work Foundation

"The Joy of Work is a wonderful book. Drawing on important research findings from the fields of positive and work psychology, Peter Warr and Guy Clapperton show us what we can realistically do to improve our well-being at work. If you are wondering whether you should change jobs because you are unhappy, try the things in this book before you make up your mind." - Professor Alan Carr, author of Positive Psychology

"A remarkably easy and enjoyable read which will be appreciated by any ordinary, thinking person interested in their own happiness and that of others. Whether you are satisfied and happy at work or not, you will take something valuable from this book." - Michelle Bennett

From the Back Cover

Are you happy at work? Or do you just grin and bear it? We spend an average of 25% of our lives at work, so it’s important to make the best of it.

The Joy of Work? looks at happiness and unhappiness from a fresh perspective. It draws on up-to-date research from around the world to present the causes and consequences of low job satisfaction and gives helpful suggestions and strategies for how to get more enjoyment from work. The book includes many interesting case studies about individual work situations, and features simple self-completion questionnaires and procedures to help increase your happiness. Practical suggestions cover how to improve a job without moving out of it, advice about changing jobs, as well as how to alter typical styles of thinking which affect your attitudes.

This book is unique. The subject is of major significance to virtually all adults - people in jobs and those who are hoping to get one. It is particularly distinctive in combining two areas that are usually looked at separately – self-help approaches to making yourself happy and issues within organizations that affect well-being.

The Joy of Work? has been written in a relaxed and readable style by an exceptional combination of authors: a highly-acclaimed professor of psychology and a widely published business journalist. Bringing together research from business and psychology – including positive psychology – this practical book will make a big difference to your happiness at work – and therefore to your whole life.

About the Author
Emeritus Professor, Institute of Work Psychology, University of Sheffield, UK

Freelance business, technology and media journalist