Dr. Laurie Santos

Jan-Emmanuel Deneuve, who's a professor of economics at the University of Oxford, did this really cool study recently with the job site Indeed. If you haven't been on Indeed, it's one of these job sites where you can rate all this stuff about your job, like what your salary is and importantly, how happy you are at work and so on.

And he was able to get, by collaborating with Indeed, he got access to 15 million data points about people's ratings at work and their happiness at work. So for a nerdy social scientist like me, that's like a huge, oh my God, it's a big data set. And what he was interested in is what are some of the factors that predicted happiness at work?

And he was able to get, by collaborating with Indeed, he got access to 15 million data points about people's ratings at work and their happiness at work. So for a nerdy social scientist like me, that's like a huge, oh my God, it's a big data set. And what he was interested in is what are some of the factors that predicted happiness at work?

And he was able to get, by collaborating with Indeed, he got access to 15 million data points about people's ratings at work and their happiness at work. So for a nerdy social scientist like me, that's like a huge, oh my God, it's a big data set. And what he was interested in is what are some of the factors that predicted happiness at work?

And he got a group of economists to make predictions and they predicted the usual things you might expect. Well, it's your salary. It's having a good manager. It's like work-life balance. Those factors were important, but they weren't at the top of the list of what really made for a happy work life. The thing that was most important for a happy work life was what he called your sense of belonging.

And he got a group of economists to make predictions and they predicted the usual things you might expect. Well, it's your salary. It's having a good manager. It's like work-life balance. Those factors were important, but they weren't at the top of the list of what really made for a happy work life. The thing that was most important for a happy work life was what he called your sense of belonging.

And he got a group of economists to make predictions and they predicted the usual things you might expect. Well, it's your salary. It's having a good manager. It's like work-life balance. Those factors were important, but they weren't at the top of the list of what really made for a happy work life. The thing that was most important for a happy work life was what he called your sense of belonging.

But it really is about mattering. It was made up of three different factors in terms of these Indeed questions. One was The things that I do at work matter to the organization. The organization recognizes the things that I do matter. So you feel like you matter. The organization has recognition that you matter. And the third factor was, do you have a best friend at work?

But it really is about mattering. It was made up of three different factors in terms of these Indeed questions. One was The things that I do at work matter to the organization. The organization recognizes the things that I do matter. So you feel like you matter. The organization has recognition that you matter. And the third factor was, do you have a best friend at work?

But it really is about mattering. It was made up of three different factors in terms of these Indeed questions. One was The things that I do at work matter to the organization. The organization recognizes the things that I do matter. So you feel like you matter. The organization has recognition that you matter. And the third factor was, do you have a best friend at work?

Which is really just straight up social connection. Presumably, if you have a best friend at work, you're doing things where you matter to that person. It matters if you show up or not, right? This was the thing that predicted happiness at work much more than what people were being compensated with in terms of money.

Which is really just straight up social connection. Presumably, if you have a best friend at work, you're doing things where you matter to that person. It matters if you show up or not, right? This was the thing that predicted happiness at work much more than what people were being compensated with in terms of money.

Which is really just straight up social connection. Presumably, if you have a best friend at work, you're doing things where you matter to that person. It matters if you show up or not, right? This was the thing that predicted happiness at work much more than what people were being compensated with in terms of money.

much more than just all this stuff they teach MBAs about how to be a good manager. Just feeling like what you were doing mattered was really a big factor in how happy you were at work. And how happy you are at work predicted all this other stuff, the stuff that you might expect, retention at work and so on.

much more than just all this stuff they teach MBAs about how to be a good manager. Just feeling like what you were doing mattered was really a big factor in how happy you were at work. And how happy you are at work predicted all this other stuff, the stuff that you might expect, retention at work and so on.

much more than just all this stuff they teach MBAs about how to be a good manager. Just feeling like what you were doing mattered was really a big factor in how happy you were at work. And how happy you are at work predicted all this other stuff, the stuff that you might expect, retention at work and so on.

But an amazing thing that it predicted, and one of the reasons Jan's paper is getting a lot of press right now, is that it also predicted how well a company is doing. In other words, companies who had more happy workers wound up earning more money. If you just look at their stock performance, they do better. And so it's not just like, the idea is like mattering isn't just ephemeral.

But an amazing thing that it predicted, and one of the reasons Jan's paper is getting a lot of press right now, is that it also predicted how well a company is doing. In other words, companies who had more happy workers wound up earning more money. If you just look at their stock performance, they do better. And so it's not just like, the idea is like mattering isn't just ephemeral.

But an amazing thing that it predicted, and one of the reasons Jan's paper is getting a lot of press right now, is that it also predicted how well a company is doing. In other words, companies who had more happy workers wound up earning more money. If you just look at their stock performance, they do better. And so it's not just like, the idea is like mattering isn't just ephemeral.

Now it's relevant for like capitalists. It's relevant having people at work that feel mattering matters for how much money a company is making.