According to a study from the University of Warwick in England, the productivity of employees who feel “happy at work” is 12% superior to that of their colleagues.

But, what does it mean for an employee to be happy at work? And how can companies cater to that sentiment of happiness?

Before going further, let’s define “happiness at work”.

“Happiness at work involves safety and health in an organization run by competent leaders as well as a community of workers who feel that their work is meaningful and useful, and represent it as a factor in supporting the management of their lifestyle” - Definition from the European Working Conditions Observatory (EWCO).

Value and implicate employees

Before even thinking about introducing services such as daycare, organic canteen and yoga classes, it is, therefore, necessary to cultivate a corporate culture that implicates and values each employee, no matter their hierarchic level. This recognition can be formal or informal: sending a simple email or a thank you card to an efficient employee, granting additional days off, celebrating a birthday or sending congratulations following a wedding or the birth of a child… There are plenty of ideas.

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Most companies experience periods of increased activity, either punctually or recurrently. Even though the expression "work overload" is often associated with a negative connotation, it should be acknowledged that periods of work overload are an integral part of the natural work cycle. What matters the most is learning how to cope efficiently by optimizing time-management and productivity. The Eisenhower matrix appears to be an unavoidable tool to achieve this!

Work overload: first cause of stress

Although work overload can be the consequence of an increase in the company’s activity (each team member must redouble their efforts to effectively carry out the tasks attributed to them), it can also be a direct consequence of a decline in activity (the company is in crisis and all of its players have to work more with fewer resources).

These periods of work overload, often unavoidable, have a direct effect on the stress levels and, therefore, managers and employees' time management system. Studies have shown that work overload is one of the main sources of stress in the workplace.

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“Question: What is a procrastinator’s busiest day? Answer: Tomorrow.” 

At one point or another in life, despite our good intentions, we all face procrastination. This voluntary act of constantly postponing a task has been around since the beginning of civilization and most people know the feeling of pulling an all-nighter to finish a piece of work due the next day.

Maybe you are even procrastinating right now while reading this article (but that’s okay, we are happy to have your attention ;-) ).

The reasons behind procrastination

To understand the science behind procrastination, it helps to think about the self. Reality is, when a person procrastinates, they think about their present self and their future self. The present self is the one faced with the task but a procrastinator attributes the said task to the future self because of its non-urgency.

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Jean de la Rochebrochard is a key player in the startup ecosystem. Since 2015, he has been a Partner at Kima Ventures, an "investment vehicle", founded by Xavier Niel and which specializes in the investment of startups. To this date, Kima Ventures has more than 500 startups in its portfolio and invests in about 100 startups every year.

Meetings form an important process for VCs and Jean used to spend a lot of time arranging meetings and attending them. It was very time-consuming.

"I used to spent a lot of time organizing my agenda, suggesting availabilities, answering and confirming them. That was a useless noise that I wanted to eliminate."

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No matter what walk of life you are from, whether successful or not, every now and then, everyone needs some inspiration to keep pushing forward and stay on top of their goals. Sometimes, reading the right words at the right time can provide the necessary motivation to remain focused on what needs to be done. Isn't that the recipe for productivity, and therefore success?

Because quotes can be powerful teachers, let's take a look at 5 quotes from some of our favorite experts on what productivity means to them and their secrets to achieving it.

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The #LifeAtJulie series is still going on and you have yet to meet a few members of our team. This month, we introduce Yacine Elliq, our Product Manager. He describes his role within the team and reveals what keeps him curious and always learning. He also happens to be our Chief Karate Officer!

If you want to meet other members of the team, you can check the previous episodes.

1. Hi Yacine, can you tell us a bit more about your background?

I followed a pretty traditional engineering path. After a few years of preparatory classes, I landed at Supaero, an engineering school in Toulouse. Although mainly oriented towards aeronautics, this school opened other doors for me and I took the opportunity to do a year off from my studies to work as a Management Control officer at Renault in London. This experience had a big impact on me. Apart from the fact that London is a magnificent city, I discovered that I was mostly interested in combining the so-called “hard” sciences with “soft” sciences. I also understood that being an engineer does not necessarily mean working in a consulting firm or spending days on computer simulations.

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