Surprising Results From The World Happiness Report: What It Means...

This week the [World Happiness Report](worldhappiness.report/ed/2024/) was published, an encyclopedic look at happiness for the year. The results are surprising, disappointing, and very important. In this podcast I unpack the findings and show you the six factors that correlate to global happiness and what they mean for you as a leader, employer, or HR professional. Once again there are lots of important lessons here for corporate culture, remote work, pay, and management.
Additional Information
[What The World Happiness Report Teaches Us About Work](joshbersin.com/2024/03/what-t...) (article)
[Irresistible: The Seven Secrets of the World’s Most Enduring, Employee-Focused Organizations](www.amazon.com/Irresistible-S...)
[Employee Activation: An Essential Big Idea For 2024](joshbersin.com/podcast/employ...)
[Citizenship On The Rise: What This Means To Business and HR](joshbersin.com/2017/02/new-re...)

[@svanteforsblom4264]

What I think is a big difference, is that you have real freedom to make life choices in countries like Finland. If you are born in a por family, you have the path to become an engineer or a lawer if you like. Your familys economical situation is not hindering you from entering any university you want, it is up to you to go there. If you pass the entrance exam, you are in and you can afford to study you degree. You can move on you own at a young age, and still have a decent life. Living on your own under the age of 20 is quite common. Even with a "minimum wage" job (there is no legal minimum wage in Finland, just the law of being paid a "justified wage") you can live with one full time job, no need for 2-3 jobs just to stay alive and have roof on your head. There was a study a while ago, and one question (and especially the comments section on it in X) really defines the mental difference. "The biggest goal in life is to make my parents happy" kind of divided the world and Finland was in it's own cathegory. In Finland a clear majority answerd "No", and myself as a parent agree with this. If my kid would pursue life to make me proud, I would feel like I have failed as a parent. Their biggest goal should be to go for THEIR dreams and make it happen. If I'll be proud of it, is irrelevant, and at a most a bi-product of them doing something great. It's not my life they are living, but their own. I'm not going to be in the way of their dreams. In coutries where parents pay a lot for their kids studies, I can kind of understand that making parents proud would be a goal, but it should never determine your life...a sure path to being miserable doing something just becouse your parents wanted it that way. Another factor is security. Here kids walk to school alone, babies take a nap outside in strollers while parents have a coffe in the cafeteria. Streets are clean and safe, food is healthy, apartments and healthcare is affordable, stuff just tends to work. If you loose your wallet, most likely you'll get it back with the money still inside. This reduces the level of stress, and contributes to life satisfaction. Life is not perfect, but at least the basic mentality is there, and it gives basis for a healthy life with decent living standard. Maybe it's not the number of over hyped happy people, but the lack of miserable people that contributes to the position as first on the happiness index.