In this article, I thought about happiness. Actually, what is happiness? Why is happiness an important thing in this life? As a worker, is there anything to do with happiness and productivity at work? How influential is happiness in daily life activities? And I want to start with data about how happy Indonesians are. According to the 2023 World Happiness Report which I quoted from Data.Tempo.co, Indonesia obtained a score of 5,277 on the 2023 happiness index. With this score, Indonesia is in 84th position out of 137 countries that participated in this research. At the Southeast Asian level, the level of happiness of Indonesian people is in 6th position out of 9 countries studied. Indonesian people's life satisfaction is only higher than in Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar. Singapore is the happiest country in Southeast Asia and Asia, with a score of 6,587, and is ranked 25th at the world level. At the global level, Finland is the happiest country with a score of 7.804, followed by Denmark with an index value of 7.586. Scandinavian countries are countries that are relatively happier than other regional countries. According to data I got from Data.Tempo.Co, high per capita income reflects a high level of happiness in a country.1
What about Indonesia? What is the happiness data like in Indonesia? According to Budiawan Sidik Arifianto, in his article that I read on Kompas.Id, explains that in Indonesia, happiness is measured by “Badan Pusat Statistik”. This happiness measurement began in 2014, carried out every three years through the “Survei Pengukuran Tingkat Kebahagiaan” (SPTK). To date, there have been three surveys that have produced the Indonesian Happiness Index. The results of three surveys in 2014, 2017, and 2021 show that the Indonesian Happiness Index continues to increase. In 2014 the Happiness Index was recorded at 68.28 points, then in 2017 it was 70.69 points, and in 2021 it was 71.49 points. The communities with the highest levels of happiness are outside Java-Bali. From the 2021 survey, the ten provinces with the highest Happiness Index in sequence are North Maluku, North Kalimantan, Maluku, Jambi, North Sulawesi, Riau Islands, Gorontalo, West Papua, Central Sulawesi and Southeast Sulawesi. Of these ten regions, six of them have even been ranked in the top 10 happiest provinces in at least two consecutive surveys. The six regions are North Maluku, North Kalimantan, Maluku, North Sulawesi, Riau Islands and Gorontalo. Interestingly, three regions in Java, namely DKI Jakarta, West Java, and Banten, are included in the ten provinces with the lowest happiness levels. West Java and Banten in two consecutive surveys were included in the ten provinces with the lowest happiness index.
In this survey, three dimensions were assessed, namely life satisfaction, feelings or affection, and meaning of life. According to the survey, of the three dimensions, the highest score was found in the life satisfaction dimension index (75.16). Meanwhile, the meaning of life dimension received a score of 73.12 and the feelings dimension received the lowest score of 65.61. In the feeling dimension which consists of three indicators, the lowest score is found in the indicator of feeling not worried or anxious. Meanwhile, the highest score is on the indicator of feeling happy/joyful/excited. The meaning of the life dimension consists of six indicators. Of the six indicators, the lowest score was recorded in the self-development indicator (66.09) and the highest score was in the self-acceptance indicator (76.15). Finally, the life satisfaction dimension consists of five indicators of personal satisfaction and five indicators of social satisfaction. The achievement of social satisfaction indicators is higher (80.07) than personal satisfaction (70.26). Of the 10 indicators, satisfaction with education and skills received the lowest score (62.79) and satisfaction with environmental conditions was the indicator with the highest score. From the overall assessment, it was analyzed that the highest factor that causes Indonesian society to be happy is the social environment. Then what makes Indonesian people feel less happy is more from the emotional dimension, namely feelings of anxiety and worry.2
In my opinion, happiness is currently running on social media and in work institutions or wherever there is a knowledge of mental health. In the past, in my opinion, mental health promotion was not as intensive as it is now, mental health campaigns or promotions that we often encounter on social media pages, on television, or in seminars, make us understand more about mental health. So mental health is an important concern in today's life. In my opinion, the existence of knowledge that is widely promoted makes people understand what happiness means and how mental health is important in carrying out daily productivity. Then I thought, what does happiness have to do with daily productivity or in this case a job? Happiness at work is closely related to productivity, work quality, and customer satisfaction. Happy workers tend to be more productive and engaged and interact well with coworkers and customers. Happy workers enjoy what they do and work harder and smarter.3
According to Januwarson, there is a relationship between work and happiness. When a person feels happy at work, he will transfer his energy when he goes home and vice versa, when he is happy at home, he will bring good energy to the office. The existence of a relationship between work and happiness is important because if a person can enjoy his work, then he will find a way to carry out tasks successfully even in the most demanding and challenging situations. When someone feels happy and enjoy work, their behavior can be predicted in a positive direction, and they can face various work situations, even the most difficult situations can be overcome easily (Januwarsono, 2015).
Having a feeling of happiness is very important to fill daily productivity, it feels like our hearts must always be happy to be able to get through day after day which may be full of challenges and problems that exist in our daily lives. By writing this article, I thought about how to condition myself to always have happy feelings. I want to do a deep reflection on every sadness I have so that I can anticipate my actions to ensure that I feel happy and happy again. Indeed, we cannot deny all the problems that exist in our daily lives, but we can anticipate and act on them if feelings of sadness, anxiety, or confusion start to come. I enjoy writing things like this because writing about happiness and how the ins and outs relate to daily productivity, makes me think about how to deal with my situation, and through this writing, I also realize that the happiness factor is important in increasing productivity. Work and can overcome various problems and challenges in our daily work, therefore I started to analyze my situation, what things should I do if there might be feelings of sadness, anxiety, and confusion in my life and be able to maintain the stability of my feelings of happiness so that I can live this life better.
References:
Tempo.
(2023). Indeks Kebahagiaan Indonesia Terendah Keempat Se-Asia Tenggara.
Diakses dari https://data.tempo.co/data/1638/indeks-kebahagiaan-indonesia-terendah-keempat-se-asia-tenggara
Kompas.
(2022). Memaknai Kebahagiaan Masyarakat Indonesia. Diakses dari https://www.kompas.id/baca/riset/2022/10/20/memaknai-kebahagiaan-masyarakat-indonesia
Januwarsono.
(2022). Karyawan yang Bahagia: 12% Lebih Produktif, Mengapa dan Bagaimana?
Diakses dari https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/karyawan-yang-bahagia-12-lebih-produktif-mengapa-dan-bagaimana-/