The company announces a “head of happiness”. Fruit appears in the kitchen, and a ping-pong table. Six months later the meetings are the same, and so are the evening messages. The title is there; the work has not changed.
What it is
The Chief Happiness Officer, or CHO, looks after the wellbeing of the people who work in an organisation: measuring how they are doing, proposing changes and supporting managers. The role usually sits within or next to HR, often alongside other duties. It began in North American tech companies and spread to Europe in the 2010s.
In Switzerland, the public broadcaster RSI reported in 2023 on a Geneva company that had certified 91 of them in four years. RSI also noted that the job is not about a relaxation corner: it needs measures of satisfaction and tiredness, concrete proposals, and managers prepared to organise work differently.
What the research shows
Mood affects work
In experiments with more than 700 people, Andrew Oswald, Eugenio Proto and Daniel Sgroi at the University of Warwick found that people put in a good mood were about 12% more productive on a laboratory task. A laboratory is not an office, but it shows that mood is not a detail.
Emotions spread from person to person
Sigal Barsade showed that mood spreads through a group. When a positive mood circulates, cooperation rises and conflict falls. That is why a team’s climate depends so much on the person leading it.
Caring for wellbeing keeps people
A 2025 study of 414 employees in Mexico found that where an organisation looks after wellbeing systematically, stress is lower and fewer people think about leaving. It measured everything at one point in time, so it shows a link, not a cause.
The serious criticisms
- A title does not change the work. At some companies the role lasted a year; at others, a month.
- Wellbeing cannot be handed to one person. If one person is in charge of it, the other managers feel let off the hook.
- Compulsory happiness. Parties, games and expected smiles become one more task.
- The risk of control. Measuring people’s mood can slide into surveillance.
How to keep what is useful
- Measure the group’s climate, not individuals. Anonymously, briefly and regularly, and then act on the results.
- Work on conditions, not rewards. Meetings, availability, workload, recognition.
- Make every manager responsible. Whoever holds this role supports them; they do not replace them.
- Start with small, visible changes. A clear rule about evenings, one meeting fewer.
- Be wary of window dressing. If a measure does not change how people work, it is decoration.
The word “happiness” and our point of view
The role’s name contains a demanding word. Happiness is serious and personal: it depends on a whole life, not just on work, and no company can promise it or demand it. Once it becomes a corporate target, it risks turning into one more duty, or one more number to monitor.
That is why Calm Performance talks about conditions. An organisation cannot make anyone happy, but it can stop using up people’s attention and energy: fewer interruptions, clear rules on availability, meetings that serve a purpose, trust, recognition. On those conditions, each person builds their own way of being well. This is where the two levels of Calm Performance meet: the person protects their attention, and those who lead create the conditions that make it possible.
Where we do not want to end up
- Happiness as an obligation. Nobody should have to look cheerful to prove they are a good colleague.
- Wellbeing as a shop window. Fruit, games and apps are no substitute for well-organised work.
- Measurement that becomes control. We measure the group’s climate, never the mood of individuals.
- Wellbeing only as a means. Being well at work matters even when it does not raise output.
- Wellbeing handed off. Everyone who leads is answerable for it every day, not one person with a title.
We use this knowledge for people who lead, with these cautions in mind. Happiness cannot be ordered. Conditions can.
Sources
- Oswald, A. J., Proto, E., Sgroi, D. (2015). Happiness and productivity. Journal of Labor Economics, 33(4), 789–822. doi.org
- Barsade, S. G. (2002). The ripple effect: emotional contagion and its influence on group behavior. Administrative Science Quarterly, 47(4), 644–675. doi.org
- Martínez-Arvizu, O. J., Salazar-Altamirano, M., Galván-Vela, E., Ravina-Ripoll, R. (2025). Happiness management and turnover intention: sectoral differences in stress mediation effects. Revista de Estudios Empresariales, 2, 109–135. doi.org
- RSI (2023). I manager della felicità. www.rsi.ch
- The Irish Times (2024). Can a chief happiness officer improve workplace morale? www.irishtimes.com
- The Guardian, Sustainable Business: Is a chief happiness officer really the best way to increase workplace happiness? (copy on the Wharton faculty site) faculty.wharton.upenn.edu
- The New Republic (2014). Chief Happiness Officer is the latest, creepiest job in corporate America. newrepublic.com