A friend of mine told me over coffee that she had been for an exciting job interview. Everything had been going really well. The job was interesting but salary was not great - however she reasoned that she was fortunate enough to needing a high income as her husband had an excellent job.
Then the interviewer told her his expectations of coming at 8am and being in the office the expected 8 hours with 1/2 hour deducted for lunch.
My friend explained that she had to drop children at school 8.20 and could not come before 8.30-8.45 and had to leave between 4-5pm most days. 
As she was telling me the story I could tell that she had gotten so disappointed when the interviewer just flat turned her down due to these limitations.
I was thinking... what kind of person is interviewing my friend, who is a very educated and intelligent, and does not see that she has high morale and passion for what she does? How could anyone miss that she would be an asset to any organisation she would join.

I have several friends that are stay at home moms, because they find it impossible to find a job that allows flexibility around children drop off and pick up. Consequently there is a hidden workforce that has capacity, intellect and passion that is not being utilized, especially in expat societies.

Hiring mothers is always a good choice - by giving them flexibility and understand for drop off/pick up and sick children you gain a productive and efficient worker beyond any expectations.
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My next step would be to have two mothers on maternity leave work sharing as General Manager - would that not be awesome?
Do you know anyone who already does this? I would love to hear about it. 


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Going back in time, there are interesting stories from Greek and Norse mythology explaining the original purpose of hospitality.
 
In ancient Greece, the cradle of European intellect, Zeus was often called “Zeus Xenia”, the protector of the traveler. Philoxenia is the Greek word for hospitality. Philo means “I am fond of/I love” and Xenia means “the unknown guest”.
 
Philoxenia consists of two basic rules:
 

• The respect from host to guest. The host must be hospitable to the guest and provide them with food and drink and a bath, if required. It is not polite to ask questions until the guest has stated their needs.
• The respect from guest to host. The guest must be courteous to the host and not be a burden. 

Xenia was considered to be particularly important in ancient times when people thought gods mingled among them. If someone had played host poorly, there was the risk of incurring the wrath of a god disguised as a stranger.
 
As a fond lover of the Greek style of hospitality (and their food), I find that even today these two rules apply. The Greeks are famous for their hospitality and temperament, right? I have experienced, as a Greek island hopper, invitations to weddings, feasts or even overnight stays in Greek homes. As long as you treat the Greeks with respect and honor, you will be treated as royalty. 

I am grateful for the above comments, however I have disagree. Why would a emotion like sadness decrease the morale of the team? 
I know most managers have raised their voice and showed anger/frustration, so why not show sadness?
We know that 90% of all our decisions are including emotions. Our emotions are part of us being humans. I say it is because we are scared of sadness and we fear that it will make us look weak.
I argue that knowing/showing our weaknesses displays signals of strengths. Only the strongest leaders are able to display the full range of emotions. 
You have to have a relationship with your team in order to be able to show the full range of emotions - so if it lowers the moral it tells me that the leader does not have close relations with the team.

In 2 days I will give a speech at Spotlight Hotel Investment Poland & CEE in Warsaw about the topic of my passion and book "Put your people first and the rest will follow". 
I am sitting in the hotel room and reviewing what I am going to talk about. I have the slides ready and I am working on the introduction:
                                                                         Why focus on happiness?
I have been working with this topic for 5 years now, and I have become so absorbed by it that I have almost forgotten why  not everyone focus on this?
Am I close to the truth if I say it's because of FEAR?

• fear of losing control
• fear of not being the best
• fear of others making better decisions
• fear of not being needed

or am I wrong?
Could it be something else that drives senior leaders away from focusing on happiness of their people. 
Could it be ignorance? Could it be that leaders still today do not know/ be aware of the amazing impact happiness has on productivity, creativity, trust, loyalty and most importantly the health of the people.
I refuse to believe that any senior leader want to be a tyrant towards their people. So why are so many of us still behaving in this way?
Weekly I am reading about people who are leaving their jobs because of "bullying bosses".
I got a few of my slides for my presentation from a friend and passionate believer in Happiness at work Michal Srajer and one slide in particular is very powerful. The rocks of separation between: 
what we know                                                                                                                               what we do

Science have been telling us for at least the last 30 years that you get better results from people if you treat them fairly, respectfully, give trust and autonomy. Then your people will reward you with loyalty and dedication and all the other benefits that comes with happy people.
If no other argument will convince a leader to be do what is right - the customer/guests and clients will like your people more if they are happy. 
A happy person makes me happy and makes me stay longer - ie buy more...would that convince you?
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