Why Is Work So Unhappy? – Matt Phelan

March 20, 2025

Why Is Work So Unhappy? – Matt Phelan

Happy International Day of Happiness! 🎉

There’s no better way to celebrate than exploring how happiness can make or break our workplace with insights from expert, Matt Phelan, co-founder of The Happiness Index.

In this enlightening episode of the Beyond the Water Cooler podcast, I chat with Matt about the intricate relationship between happiness and organisational growth.

Here’s what we explore:

Happiness and Growth: Understand why Matt believes organisations cannot grow without happy employees, and the key to success.
Addressing Common Barriers: Learn about some of the main barriers organisations face in fostering a happy workforce and get practical advice on overcoming resistance within leadership teams.
The Power of Acknowledgment: Matt sheds light on the importance of personalised acknowledgment and why recognising individual employee contributions is crucial.
A Global Perspective: Gain insights from contrasting cultural approaches to raising happy communities.

Matt also shares his candid thoughts about the future of workplace culture and the pivotal role leaders play in maintaining a thriving, happy organisation.

Whether you’re a manager, business owner, or simply interested in organisational success, this episode is brimming with valuable takeaways. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to enhance your leadership skills and ensure your workplace is a hub of happiness and productivity.

More about Matt:

Matt Phelan is a Co-Founder of The Happiness Index, a platform that helps organisations measure the key employee engagement AND happiness drivers to power their people strategy. In his day-to-day role, he’s responsible for the strategic direction of the business.

Matt is the founder of The Happiness and Humans Community, host of The Happiness Index Podcast and author of Freedom To Be Happy: The Business Case for Happiness & The Happiness Index: Why Today’s Employee Emotions Equal Tomorrow’s Business Success”

Matt recently completed a TEDx talk where he presented 12 million data points on happiness from 1 million human beings in 100+ countries in less than 15 minutes.

Links to contact Matt:

LinkedIn: Matthew Phelan

Instagram: @matthewjphelan

X: @matthewphelan

Websites:

mattphelan.co.uk

www.thehappinessindex.com

Resources & References

Watch this episode on YouTube

40 Activities Ranked by Happiness: Work Ranks 39th, Just Above Being Sick (corporate-rebels.com)

Festival of Happiness 2024 (itstimeforchange.co.uk)

Do Soft Skills Need a Rebrand – Andrew Bardsley (itstimeforchange.co.uk)

If you want to learn some of the skills to create a happier, engaged and high-performing workforce, you might be interested in Leadership Labs | It’s Time for Change (itstimeforchange.co.uk)

The Happiness Index: Why Today’s Employee Emotions Equal Tomorrow’s Business Success by Matt Phelan (amazon.co.uk)

The Happiness Index Podcast:

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

For free resources that you can use for yourself or your team, check out: itstimeforchange.co.uk/category/resources

To be on the receiving end of new, free, downloadable resources, join the club here: itstimeforchange.co.uk/jointheclub