There is an incredibly high correlation between people's happiness and meaning at work and at home. In other words, those who experience happiness and meaning at work tend also to experience them outside of work. Those who are miserable on the job are usually miserable at home.
The implication is unmistakable. Since work and home are very different environments, our experience of happiness and meaning in life appears to have more to do with who we are than where we are. Rather than blaming our jobs, our managers and our customers or our friends, family members, and communities for our negative worklife experience, we might be better served by looking in the mirror.
One commonly expressed excuse for not getting more happiness and meaning out of life is: "I'm working too many hours." But our results show that the number of hours worked had no significant correlation with happiness or meaning experienced at work or at home. So much for that excuse.
The correlations between happiness, meaning, and overall satisfaction at work and home were very similar. Those who were more satisfied with life outside of work are the one spending more time on activities that produced both happiness and meaning.
These links between how we spend our time and how we feel may seem confusing, but specific patterns arose some commonsensical, some not. Here are a few quick takeaways:
- Reduce TV watching. It's stimulating but doesn't increase overall satisfaction with life at work or home.
- Cut back on surfing the Web for non-professional reasons. It's negatively correlated with the experience of both happiness and meaning.
- Do as few chores as you can (whatever that word means to you).
- Spend time exercising and with people you love (people doing this had more satisfaction with life at work and at home).
- Feeling challenged is linked to greater satisfaction, so challenge yourself.
