The Happy Employee: fact or fiction?

Some say that "happy" and "employee" are contradictions. That's absolutely right. And completely wrong. Plus everything in between.

As an HR Manager, this is a topic I'm often confronted with and that I like to think about, especially under the shower, while walking to work or when participating in boring meetings.

I'm aware that I don't know much (yet) and I'm always trying to learn new things. So tomorrow I might say something different, but today I believe the following to be true:

1. It's not the employer's responsibility to make their employees happy
2. It's possible to be a happy employee and your employer has both the possibility and the responsibility to contribute to this.

Confusing? Hah... Nobody ever said that HR was simple. But it's also incredibly fascinating. And if anybody ever told you different, then I suggest you stop listening to this person.

Now I'm just thinking out loud, but this blog will probably feature some or all of the following topics:

• HR from the point of view of the dreadful HR Manager I am
• being an employee who needs to pay the rent but also expects more from his employer
• time management, because it's such an important topic for information workers
• lifehacks, because they're so cool
• links to other people's articles and blog entries, because it's so much easier to make smart comments about other people's work than to create something yourself

And to get the typical / obvious / maybe a bit boring question out of the way: Why am I creating another blog?

I think it's fun. I love the Internet, I enjoy reading great blogs and I often have ideas that I want to write down so I don't forget them. A blog can be some kind of diary, but it's much more enjoyable than using a text file that you hide in an encrypted file somewhere on a USB stick.

And although I pretend that I don't care if nobody reads my blog because I do it for myself in the first place, it would be nice to get some tough comments that challenge my opinions and convictions as this is the best way to learn and grow.

The next post will be about...
Well, you better stay tuned ;-)
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