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BUSINESS ENGLISH · BUSINESS ISSUES · UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2-C1)

CHIEF
HAPPINESS
OFFICER
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1 Warm up

In pairs, discuss the following questions.

1. How important do you think it is for people to be happy with their work? Why?

2. What makes you happy with your work, or has made you happy previously?

3. What makes you unhappy with your work, or has made you unhappy previously?

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2 Finding vocabulary

Find vocabulary in the article on page three which has the same meaning as the following definitions.

1. being something you would like to have or do (adj., para. A)

2. a person’s health and how happy they are (n, para. A)

3. a person who you can trust to talk to about private matters (n, para. B)

4. encourage something to develop and grow (v, para. B)

5. behavior that disguises real feelings or thoughts from people (n, para. C)

6. the state of not being known to people (n, para. C)

7. the manner in which someone behaves or presents themselves (n, para. C)

8. positive, upbeat and happy (adj., para. C)

3 Skimming for gist

Match the titles 1 - 6 to paragraphs A - D. You will not need all of the titles.

1. What does a Chief Happiness Officer do?

2. What challenges does a Chief Happiness Officer face?

3. Why have a Chief Happiness Officer?

4. Do you need a Chief Happiness Officer?

5. Who was the first Chief Happiness Officer?

6. How do you measure employee happiness?

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CHIEF HAPPINESS OFFICER

Don’t Worry, Be Happy

The role of Chief Happiness Officer

A.

‘Love what you do and you’ll never work a day in your life,’ so the saying goes. While this may not be possible, or
even desirable ( do you really want to be a CEO, or do you just like the way it sounds?) for most of us, there’s no
escape from the fact that we spend around 30% of our waking hours at work during our lives. So a reasonable level
of happiness with what we do is a priority. Research by Indeed, a worldwide employment website, found that 80%
of people actively seek information about wellbeing in the target company when considering a job opportunity.
20% of those already employed seek other jobs purely because they’re not happy with what they’re doing. So
having someone keeping an eye on how happy employees are makes sense for any business. This is where the
Chief Happiness Officer (CHO) comes in.

B.

It would be wrong to think of a CHO as an Human Resources employee with a fancy title. While an HR officer
may deal with elements of the job that affect happiness, such as payroll, promotions, benefits and vacation time,
they’re acting on behalf of the company in this capacity. A CHO needs to be able to develop a softer role and
have genuine concern for, and practical suggestions to improve, an employee’s experience in the workplace. They
must be a confidant and advisor to the workers, rather than a link between management and the workers as is
the case with HR. A CHO could be tasked with surveying employees’ happiness as individuals, within teams and
departments, or company-wide. With this done, they need to implement programs which will cultivate a better
working environment for everyone and identify areas of the business that present an issue. It may also include
management training on the areas of conflict resolution, stress management and communicating effectively. They
will also conduct one-on-one interviews with all employees to create strategies for building their happiness and
developing a personal relationship with them.

C.

The latter is crucial as employees need to feel that they can discuss all matters related to work which are personal
to them, perhaps even aspects that they are reluctant to share with a manager. In any professional environment,
there is likely to be a certain amount of front and any CHO worth their salt will be able to break through that.
However, there need to be a variety of ways that employees can express their thoughts, not just in a face-to-
face meeting. Guaranteeing anonymity in feedback is a good way of getting genuine thoughts, as well as regular
feedback at certain times of the year to see if there has been any changes in the way employees perceive the
company. Good old-fashioned observation is also important. Simply watching employees’ demeanor, how they
perform and when they arrive and leave the office will give clear indications of attitude where their words may
not. Happy employees generally perform better, stay longer and appear cheerful. Monitoring turnover is also a
useful measure of what employees are really thinking.

D.

Happiness involves more than a good salary and free coffee. Workers need to feel as they’re being heard and that
their opinions not just matter, but can potentially make a change to the way the company operates. While not
every company can afford to have a CHO, the tasks that a CHO is responsible for should be part of someone’s job
description. When it comes down to it, if you aren’t looking after your employees’ happiness, they’re highly likely
to leave for someone who is.

Sources: revisesociology.com, business.com, managers.org.uk, theguardian.com

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4 Focus on vocabulary

Part A: Match the vocabulary to the definitions.

1. approachable (adj.) a. easy to talk to and friendly

2. proactive (adj.) b. not believing or trusting in a claim made by someone

3. initiate (v) c. very obvious and doesn’t need pointing out or explaining

4. grumble (v) d. not willing to share information

5. self-evident (adj.) e. start a process or an action

6. reticent (adj.) f. openly expressing emotions in a way that isn’t appropriate or

needed
7. touchy-feely (adj.) g. taking action rather than waiting for something to happen or
for someone else to do something
8. skeptical (adj.) h. complain about relatively unimportant things without a view
to resolve any problems

Part B: In pairs, discuss the meaning of the phrases in bold and then answer the following questions.

1. What are you doing if you holding management accountable?

2. If you can’t get around a fact, what does it mean?

3. If you’re banging your head against a brick wall, what are you doing?

4. If something isn’t on your radar, what does it mean?

5. If someone gives you the side-eye, what are they doing?

6. If you fall back on a skill, what are you doing?

7. If someone is pulling your leg, what are they doing?

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5 Listening for gist

Listen to each of the speakers and decide which of the following jobs each of them do. You will not
need all of the jobs.

1. Chief Financial Officer

2. Chief Information Officer

3. Chief Executive Officer

4. Chief Marketing Officer

5. Chief Security Officer

6. Chief Happiness Officer

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6 Listening comprehension

Complete the table by ticking the correct box to answer the questions.

Who ... Speaker 1 Speaker 2 Speaker 3

A) used to provide
therapy for young
people?

B) hired someone
who used to be a
medical professional?

C) believes that
management needs to
be able to justify their
actions?

D) thought the role of

CHO wasn’t real when
they first heard it?

E) feels caught
between different
groups of people with
different priorities?

F) thinks that people’s

home lives were
generally worse a few
generations ago?

G) started the
company that they
work for?

H) has proof that

employing a CHO was
beneficial to the
company?

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7 Talking point

In pairs, discuss the following questions.

1. What do you think is meant by the quote, ‘Love what you do and you’ll never work a day in your
life’ from the article?

2. Would you agree with the author of the article that it’s ‘not possible or desirable’ for most people
to do this? Why/Why not?

3. Do you think the idea of a Chief Happiness Officer is a good one? Why/Why not?

4. Do you think the happiness of employees is the responsibility of a company? Why/Why not?

5. What do you think a company can do to increase levels of happiness for employees?

8 Extended activity/Homework

Read the question.

The idea that a company should concern itself with the happiness of its employees is a good
example of modern culture overstepping any kind of sense. A company provides a job, a safe
work environment and pay and that is the limit of what can be asked. Individuals can be only
responsible for their own happiness. Some of the most unhappy people in the world are those who
have been provided with everything they could possibly want. Employees are adults, not spoiled
children.

To what extent do you agree with the above statement?

You should:

• Write at least 250 words.

• Check your grammar, spelling and punctuation.

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Transcripts

5. Listening for gist

Speaker 1 - CEO: It used to be that ‘Happiness Officer’ was one of the unofficial hats that HR
wore. But it’s unsustainable essentially because as friendly and approachable
as our HR are, there’s this underlying fact that they are still working for us and
sort of, ‘on our side’ as it were. I wanted a CHO who employees could really
open up to, and for that reason, I recruited entirely outside of HR. We got an
ex-nurse with a Masters in Psychology in the end. Exactly the sort of person I
wanted, understanding, comforting and proactive. I’m a strong believer in holding
management accountable, even if I am management and could do without it
sometimes. So I wanted someone who would have the guts to tell us when
we’re doing it wrong and be able to initiate change. You can’t get around the
fact that when employees are happy, they’re less likely to leave - which saves us a
huge amount of investment, they’re more loyal, they work harder and they spread
happiness around. I never wanted to build a company that everyone hated being
in, I wanted it to be a place people enjoyed and felt that they belonged. A CHO
helps me do just that.

Speaker 2 - CHO: Sometimes, it’s like banging your head against a brick wall. I’ve got people
grumbling about why they’re not happy, and then I’ve got management telling me
why we can’t do anything about it. But there are other days when everyone smiles
as I walk through the building and I feel like I’m making a real difference. I think it’s
that the degree to which I’m being successful or not is so self-evident. Everyone
knows if they’re happy and the people around them are happy. The CFO could be
making terrible financial decisions and that’s not on anyone’s radar until several
months down the line. But if the atmosphere is bad, everyone’s giving me the
side-eye. But that’s not happened yet. I love having conversations with people
that feel meaningful, even more so when they were reticent in the beginning. I
get up each day feeling as though I’m doing something important. I do have a
background in HR and I guess I learned how to read people with that, but I also
worked as a youth counselor for years, and the skills I learned there are the ones
I fall back on the most now. Honestly, sometimes, there’s not a huge amount of
difference between adults and kids!

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Speaker 3 - CFO: The first time I heard someone mention getting a CHO, I thought they were pulling
my leg. It sounds like something out of a children’s TV show! My father would have
laughed you out of the room if you’d suggested it to him. His generation was all
about getting the job done and then going back home to the family. Never mind
all of this touchy-feely stuff. You were being paid and that was all the happiness
you were entitled to. Of course, there were also a lot more problems in the home
in those days: alcoholism, violence. Still, I had to find money in the budget for a
whole new executive position which I wasn’t very pleased about and I remained
skeptical about the whole idea for a long time. That was about five years ago
now and, although there’s a big part of me that thinks it’s all ridiculous, I can see
it reflected in the figures I deal with. Turnover is way down, people are staying
much longer. Productivity has increased by about 40% which more than makes
up for the increase in training schemes and the changes in spending priorities. I’m
a numbers guy and the numbers tell me it’s been a good move.

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Key

1. Warm up

5 mins.
This task opens the lesson by asking students about their own thoughts and experience regarding happiness in
the workplace. Ask them to discuss the questions in pairs or small groups. Circulate and help as needed. You may
want to bring some key examples of what causes happiness in a company back to the class to share ideas.

2. Finding vocabulary

5 mins.
This highlights some of the higher-level vocabulary in the article and will aid comprehension.

1. desirable 2. wellbeing
3. confidant 4. cultivate
5. front 6. anonymity
7. demeanor 8. cheerful

3. Skimming for gist

5 mins.
You may want to set a strict time limit on this task to encourage students to skim-read rather than read in detail.

A. Why have a Chief Happiness Officer?

B. What does a Chief Happiness Officer do?
C. How do you measure employee happiness?
D. Do you need a Chief Happiness Officer?
Sources:
https://revisesociology.com/2016/08/16/percentage-life-work/#SnippetTab
https://www.business.com/articles/how-a-cho-can-save-your-business/
https://www.managers.org.uk/ "What does a Chief Happiness Officer actually do?"
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/feb/25/commercial-no-brainer-why-role-of-happiness-officer-is-
taking-off

4. Focus on vocabulary

10 mins.
This task looks at some of the vocabulary and language in the listening task. For Part A, ask students to do
this unaided in the first instance, but allow them to use a reference later if needed. Be sure they can correctly
pronounce the target language. For Part B, ask students to quickly discuss the questions. Circulate and help as
needed.
Part A:

1. → a. 2. → g. 3. → e. 4. → h.
5. → c. 6. → d. 7. → f. 8. → b.
Part B:

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1. Requiring them to be responsible for their actions.

2. You can’t escape it or pretend it doesn’t exist.
3. Trying to do something that has no hope of success.
4. You’re not aware of it.
5. Glancing at you sideways to express disgust or disapproval.
6. Use it to support you, particularly when you’re in a difficult situation.
7. They are joking with you or making fun of you in a kind way.

5. Listening for gist

5 mins.
This task gives the students a chance to listen to the audio for the first time and get the general idea about what
is said.

1. Speaker 3 2. Not used 3. Speaker 1

4. Not used 5. Not used 6. Speaker 2

6. Listening comprehension

10 mins.
Ask the students to complete the table after the first listening, then allow them to listen again to check their
answers.
A) Speaker 2
B) Speaker 1
C) Speaker 1
D) Speaker 3
E) Speaker 2
F) Speaker 3
G) Speaker 1
H) Speaker 3

7. Talking point

10 mins.
Ask the students to discuss the questions in pairs or small groups. Circulate and help as needed.

1. It’s the idea that if you really enjoy your work, it won’t feel as though you are working.

8. Extended activity/Homework

40 mins+.
Ask the students to plan their essay based on information and conversations from the lesson as well as their own
ideas. Make it clear that all ideas are welcome as long as they can be defended. Then ask them to write and edit
their work. Be sure to give them feedback on their writing.

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