Global Declines in Happiness
By: Bea Boccalandro, Founder and President of VeraWorks
A report by the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen suggests that the 2020 global decline in happiness is as sharp as all eight billion of us divorcing at once would have caused. The study also found that for every 100 new COVID-19 cases another 7,200 people, on average, become anxious. In the United States, cases are still skyrocketing so it’s likely that suffering will continue escalating through Christmas and New Years. (Yet, the Purposeful Palm’s tip is not just for Americans.
The rest of the world might have handled the pandemic more competently than we did, but meaningful declines in hardship and restoration of healthy normalcy are still far off in the future.) And yes, as we would expect, the Happiness Research Institute also found that our kindness toward others will help improve our own mental health. (For more on that, of course, read Do Good At Work!)
Bea Boccalandro, Founder and President of VeraWorks
Bea is author of Do Good At Work: How Simple Acts of Social Purpose Drive Success and Wellbeing (New York: Morgan James Publishing, 2021) and president of VeraWorks, a global consulting firm specializing in workplace purpose. She’s helped dozens of large and small businesses—including IBM, Disney, FedEx, PwC, Toyota and QVC—ignite purpose in the workplace. Her presentations across over 100 countries and teaching at Georgetown University and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, have inspired tens of thousands of people to make their work more meaningful.
Learn more about Bea at www.BeaBoccalandro.com.
