Happy Enough: Rethinking Wellbeing at work
- Pooja Sachdev
- Jan 22
- 6 min read
Have you had your 5 portions of fruit and veg today? 8 hours of sleep? The right number of steps? Grams of protein? Minutes of screentime…?
We live in an age of high-performance wellbeing, where every part of life - body, mind, work - can be optimised, tracked, and benchmarked.
Managing all this can sometimes feel like a full-time job!
Organisations, too, are increasingly concerned with employee wellbeing and engagement. Companies host wellness weeks, offer meditation apps and mindfulness sessions, and leaders talk about thriving cultures.
The implicit message is: you must feel better to perform better. Wellbeing has become another KPI.
Yet, despite our collective effort, the proportion of people struggling with mental health is growing, and levels of burnout and quiet quitting at work remain high. In fact, the more we chase happiness, the further it seems to drift.
And I sometimes wonder whether we may be chasing the wrong thing.
What’s wrong with the pursuit of wellbeing?
The “pursuit of happiness” has long been held as a fundamental human right, and in many ways, seen as the meaning of life itself. [1]
Modern wellbeing culture, however, often equates happiness with constant positivity, energy, and motivation. That’s an unrealistic (and frankly exhausting) expectation, especially in the context of work. No one is meant to feel inspired every day, and no workplace can be a permanent source of joy.
People don’t need to be ecstatic at work - they need psychological safety, meaning, and space for the full range of human emotions.
When we chase an idealised form of happiness, we inevitably fall short and then feel guilty or defective.
Happy Enough is my invitation to replace the pursuit of “more” with the practice of “enough” - a state of contentment that allows for fluctuation, imperfection, and even struggle.
What Does Happy Enough Mean?
Happy Enough reframes wellbeing as sustainable flourishing. [2]
It replaces the relentless pursuit of positivity with a hopeful steadiness - a balance of joy, purpose, and acceptance.
To be well, not perfect.
To be enough, not exhaustive.
This means thinking beyond simplistic definitions of happiness and understanding the wider picture - including context and culture.
The different forms of happiness
Happiness itself has many forms...
Psychologists distinguish between hedonic happiness (the pleasure of positive emotion, comfort, and joy in the moment) and eudaimonic happiness (the deeper fulfilment that comes from purpose, meaning and growth over time). Layered on this is what we call relational wellbeing, which comes from a sense of belonging and social connectedness that sustains us through life’s ups and downs.
In the workplace, these play out differently. A team social can spark hedonic joy in the moment (or maybe the opposite for some people who dread those “forced fun” events!). But the long-term sense of fulfillment (the eudaimonic kind) comes from knowing that our work matters, and that we’re learning and growing. When organisations focus only on the first type (pizza Fridays, perks, etc.), they miss the deeper levers of wellbeing that sustain people over time.
Embracing Happy Enough begins with understanding the different types of happiness and recognising that meaning, purpose, and relationships matter as much as mood. And this becomes even more nuanced when we look at context and culture.
Context and Culture
Previous generations held a more pragmatic relationship with work satisfaction. Our parents and grandparents didn’t expect their jobs to be endlessly inspiring. Work was often a source of structure, security, and contribution, not necessarily a daily passion or designed for self-actualisation.
I’m not advocating for a return to a purely transactional mindset when it comes to our careers. But there is something to be said for allowing the possibility that a “good enough” job can coexist with a rich, fulfilling life.
Purpose can be distributed across different spheres: family, friendships, community, creativity. Maybe not every job needs to light us up every day. Maybe in some cases or at certain times in our lives, stability in the work sphere is just what we need – while joy or fulfilment comes from elsewhere.
Our understanding of happiness is also profoundly shaped by culture.
In Western societies, happiness is often seen as individual achievement – a personal state of success or satisfaction. In many Eastern and collectivist cultures, happiness is tied to harmony, duty, and relational balance. There’s no universal formula for happiness. Global organisations need to recognise how cultural narratives might shape employee expectations and experiences of work.
Without context and culture, we risk promoting a narrow version of wellbeing that might not resonate with or serve everyone.
What does this mean for organisations?
For organisations, this requires a mindset shift.
As someone who has spent a large chunk of my career analysing employee survey data, I know how much we hang on that crucial engagement score! But sometimes, perhaps the goal shouldn't be solely to drive a higher number... but to understand what's actually going on.
To take a step back and ask:
“What’s a realistic score for this person/ team at this time?” “What else do we need to be measuring or understanding about their context?”
We need to design cultures where people are enabled to contribute, and experience meaning and growth in a way that makes sense for them, without necessarily feeling pressure to be perpetually engaged or seen to be “thriving”.
This might mean:
Having honest conversations to understand what people need, where they are, and what their context and challenges are right now, rather than relying solely on simple universal metrics
Challenging ways of working that drive exhaustion e.g. back-to-back meetings, always-on pressure, role confusion – does it really need to be this way? What’s the long-term cost of not changing these norms?
Systemic changes that drive sustainable wellbeing (like flexible working and manageable workloads) rather than quick fixes or superficial perks (like smoothies and apps)
Job design that takes account of recovery and rhythm, normalising boundaries and rest, rather than endless performance and urgency
Valuing steadiness and resilience over time, not just high engagement, and looking at long term performance not just short-term results
Building belonging, fairness and psychological safety, so people can be honest when they are not ok. Do people here feel safe? Heard? Hopeful about their future?
Adaptive environments that respect different life stages and needs, and cultures, rather than ‘one size fits all’ wellness
What does this mean for Leaders and Coaches?
As leaders and coaches, we need to recognise that engagement and inspiration will naturally ebb and flow. Our role is to help people find what they need to be able to be well and do well – long term.
Here are some reflections that could guide a conversation around sustainable wellbeing rooted in resilience, purpose and hope:
Understand the context and range for each person. You can ask: Where in your life do you have enough? and What are you hopeful for? Invite people to define their own “minimum viable wellbeing” – the essentials that keep them steady and optimistic.
Reframe trade-offs as choices, not failures. Help people see that every yes carries a no. Making intentional trade-offs preserves wellbeing – perfection is rarely possible. Ask: Where might “good enough” serve you better than “perfect”?
Normalise variability. We are cyclical beings. Ebb and flow, recovery and renewal are all part of the process. No one can be productive and positive all the time!
Revisit the purpose of work. Not every role needs to always inspire awe. Sometimes meaning lies in doing solid, reliable work that supports others. Recognise and value the quieter satisfactions of competence and contribution. Ask: What does your work mean to you right now? How does it serve your purpose?
Articulate hope amidst uncertainty. At the heart of this is hope – the quiet confidence and conviction that you don’t have to be perfect to be fulfilled, and you don’t need constant excitement to feel alive. You can do well and have a meaningful, satisfying life even if it’s messy, uncertain, or imperfect.
Ask: How can hope guide your next step – even when the full picture isn’t clear?
Conclusion
In a culture obsessed with optimisation, Happy Enough is a quiet rebellion – but it’s not about “settling”.
It’s about discerning what truly matters and giving each person permission to define their own happiness, to choose realism over perfection, to have seasons of contentment rather than constant striving. To perform without breaking.
As coaches, leaders, and culture-shapers, our job is not to push people towards constant peak performance or euphoric motivation. It’s to create conditions where people can do good work, rest well, and live whole lives – within and beyond the workplace.
NOTE: A version of this article was first published in Coaching Perspectives, the magazine of the Association For Coaching, in January 2026.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Pooja Sachdev is an organisational psychologist and co-author of 'Rewire: A Radical Approach to Tackling Diversity and Difference', which was published by Bloomsbury and described by the FT as "the most refreshing approach to diversity I have read."
She is a coach, counsellor, consultant, and founder of Rewire Consulting. Specialising in organisational culture, diversity & inclusion, and leadership, Rewire helps build positive work cultures that enable people, teams and organisations to fulfill their potential.
Sachdev, Pooja. “Positive Psychology, Psychotherapy and the Pursuit of Happiness” (Thesis, MA Integrative Counselling, 2011)
Seligman, M. E. P. (2011). Flourish: A visionary new understanding of happiness and well-being. New York: Free Press.
Comments