People often ask me: ‘Does work make you happy?’ And the answer is: it can. But we have to understand how. It’s a real skill.

The biggest mistake that people make about work and happiness is thinking that success in worldly terms is going to bring happiness. And it’s not true. The worldly success from work has to do with money and power, and the admiration of other people and job titles, et cetera, et cetera. And a lot of people mistakenly think that those markers of success will bring happiness in its wake; in other words, be successful, get happy automatically. That’s exactly wrong.

I’ve done research for years as an economist on labour markets and the characteristics of work, and it’s true that you need to make an income where you can support yourself and your family. But that doesn’t bring happiness, that just eliminates the sources of unhappiness. To get actual happiness from work, you need to seek two things and really two things only: we call them earned success and service to others.

Service to others is pretty self-explanatory, I can talk about that in a second. Earned success not so much. That’s the opposite of what psychologists refer to as learned helplessness, where nothing you do really matters and so you kind of give up. It’s also associated with depression and loneliness in the workplace, et cetera. You don’t want learned helplessness, that’s for sure. You want earned success, where you feel like you’re creating value with your life, value with your work, value in the lives of other people through your work, and it’s being acknowledged and recognized.That’s how earned success works, that’s why it’s so critically important that people who are bosses, people who are managers … … that they help other people to earn their success and they recognize the value that people are creating. That’s why meritocracy is so critically important for people to get actual joy from their work.

The second is service to other people – you have to feel like your job matters to others and you’re lightening somebody else’s load, then you’ll go to work with joy. It’s weird. The data are pretty clear that it doesn’t actually matter, to a certain extent, what the job is. You know, I’ve done experiments with people where they say: ‘I feel like I’m a drone, I feel like I’m a cog in a machine.’ And then they’ll do something, like, through the experimentation process, they’ll start getting coffee for the people in the next cubicle at two o’clock in the afternoon. ‘You look like you could use a fresh cup of coffee.’ And mysteriously, they start to like their jobs better.

Why is that? Because we’re made to serve other people. If you can build your work into something that’s meaningful to you because you’re truly earning your success and recognized for it … … and you’re serving other people, and on top of that you’re doing something you’re really good at, work’s going to bring you joy. 100% guaranteed.
(End)

• In worldly terms (phrase): measuring success by material or external things (money, status).
• To have to do with something (idiom): to be about or be connected to something.
• Admiration (noun): the feeling of respect and strong approval of something or someone.
• Et cetera (adverb): and other similar things.
• Mistakenly (adverb): wrongly or by mistake.
• A marker (noun): a sign that shows what something is like or proves something exists.
• In the wake of something (idiom): something that happens after and because of something else.
• In other words (idiom): to explain it more clearly.
• An economist (noun): a person who studies or has a special knowledge of economics (how money is organised).
• A labour market (noun): the supply of people in a country or area who are able to work.
• A characteristic (noun): a typical or noticeable quality or part of something.
• To eliminate something (verb): to remove or take away something.
• A source (noun): the place something comes from, or the cause of something.
• To seek something (verb): to try to find or get something (especially something that isn’t a physical object).
• Earned (adjective): achieved because of your own effort, something that you deserve.
• Self-explanatory (adjective): easily understood from the information already given, not needing more explanation.
• To refer to something (phrasal verb): to talk or write about something.
• Helplessness (noun): the feeling of being unable to do anything to help yourself or anyone else.
• To give up (phrasal verb): to quit or stop doing something, often because it’s too hard.
• To associate with something (verb): to connect something in your mind with something else.
• Depression (noun): a mental illness in which a person is very unhappy and anxious for a long period of time.
• Loneliness (noun): the state of being lonely, unhappy because you aren’t with other people.
• To acknowledge something (verb): to accept or recognise the existence or value of something.
• Critically (adverb): in a way that is very important and makes the difference between success and failure.
• Meritocracy (noun): a system in which people get success or power because of their abilities, not because of money or social position.
• To lighten somebody’s load (idiom): to help make someone’s responsibilities less heavy.
• To a certain extent (phrase): in some way, but not completely.
• A drone (noun): a person who does repetitive work without independence or creativity.
• A cog in a machine (idiom): a member of a large organisation who feels unimportant.
• A cubicle (noun): a small office space that is made by putting up low walls in a larger room.
• Could use something (idiom): used to say that something or someone needs something.
• Mysteriously (adverb): in a way that is strange, not known, or not understood.
• Meaningful (adjective): important or valuable.
• Truly (adverb): sincerely, really, or genuinely.
• On top of something (idiom): in addition to something.
• Guaranteed (adjective): used to say that something is sure to happen or be true.

In this text, there are various examples of contractions. We use an apostrophe (‘) to show where there are missing letters in contractions. Contractions are used in everyday speech and informal writing. Contractions are usually not appropriate in formal writing.

Sometimes called ‘short forms’, contractions normally combine a pronoun or noun and a verb (e.g. ‘it is’ = it’s) or a verb and ‘not’ (‘do not’ = don’t).

Contractions are often made with auxiliary verbs (e.g. ‘have’ = ‘ve; ‘would’ = ‘d) and also with ‘be’ and ‘have’ when they are not auxiliary verbs (e.g. ‘she is’ = she’s; ‘he has got’ = he’s got).

These are some of the most common contractions:

‘m = am (I’m)

‘re = are (you’re, we’re, they’re)

‘s = is and has (she’s, he’s, it’s)

‘ve = have (you’ve, we’ve, they’ve)

‘d = had and would (I’d, you’d, he’d, she’d, it’d, we’d, they’d)

‘ll = will (I’ll, you’ll, she’ll, he’ll, it’ll, we’ll, they’ll)

Contractions with auxiliary verbs and not:

The contraction for ‘not’ is n’t, e.g.:

aren’t = are not (we aren’t, you aren’t); can’t = cannot; couldn’t = could not; hasn’t = has not; haven’t = have not

The verb ‘be’ + negative can be contracted in two ways: ‘She/he/ it is not’ = she/he/it’s not OR she/he/ it isn’t; ‘You/ they/ we are not’ = you/ they/ we’re not OR you/ they/ we aren’t. BUT, ‘I am not’ is only contracted to I’m not. I am n’t

Things to remember about contractions:

We don’t use more than one contraction: he’s not free. NOT: he’sn’t free.

We don’t use affirmative contractions at the end of clauses: A. We’re lost. B. Yes, we’re.

But we can use negative contractions at the end of clauses and for tag questions:

A. We’re lost, aren’t we?  B. No, we aren’t.

Examples in the text:

• It’s a real skill: it’s = it is.
• That’s exactly wrong: that’s = that is.
• I’ve done research for years: I’ve = I have.
• But that doesn’t bring happiness: doesn’t = does not.
• You don’t want learned helplessness: don’t = do not.
• … you feel like you’re creating value: you’re = you are.
• … then you’ll go to work with joy: you’ll = you will.
• I feel like I’m a drone: I’m = I am.

https://englishonline.britishcouncil.org/blog/mini-english-lessons/mini-english-lesson-speak-natural-english-contractions/

https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/grammar/b1-b2-grammar/capital-letters-apostrophes

https://www.englishpodcastscollected.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Harvard-Business-Review-Can-work-make-you-happy.pdf

https://www.englishpodcastscollected.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Harvard-Business-Review-Can-work-make-you-happy.docx