In 2015, the Industry with the Happiest Workers May Surprise You

You might want to get your thinking caps out to find this answer, or should we say – your hard hats. Construction workers topped the list as the happiest employees in 2015. While construction workers aren’t your average office desk jockeys, many have to wonder, what makes them the happiest?

Besides their industry booming right now, one main reason construction workers reported to really whistle while they work is very simple – collaboration. Jay Walter of a home building company, JWH Group explains why.

“This is an industry that has many walks of life with people working in an office to people out on site. One thing that unites everybody at the end of the day is kicking back for a little bit with a few beers and talking stuff out — the good and the bad.”

Bringing this mindset into the world of office furniture, it’s clear to see that many office designs are geared towards creating teamwork environments as well. While employees spend more than half of their work day in deep concentration and around one fourth in collaboration, there has to be a very “happy” medium of nose to the grindstone in office cubicles and a little bit of conference table chitchat thrown in the mix. Xsite from Kimball Office is a great example of office furniture created for collaboration. See a project we completed using Xsite to enhance company partnership.

Our little golden nugget take away for this may perhaps be that employees’ joint effort and communication creates positive environments. Even more so, whether you’re sitting behind an office desk or a diesel forklift, one main principle trickles into every single industry: happiness is wherever you make it.