This BX2019 session ran in partnership with the Economic and Social Research Council. In their classic work, Kahneman, Krueger, and colleagues find we are least happy spending time at work and commuting. And we’d probably rather be alone than spend time with our boss. Given that we spend 1,514 hours a year at work (and, by some estimates, a third of our adult lives), we think the workplace needs to do better.
Professor Katy Milkman’s research helps us think about how to improve the workplace. Meanwhile, Laszlo Bock (former Senior Vice President for People Operations at Google and author of Work Rules!) is the CEO of Humu, a company ‘making work better through science, machine learning, and a little bit of love’. On stage, they discuss lessons from science and on-the ground experiences using behavioural insights to make the workplace more engaged, diverse, inclusive and productive. Work, after all, should rule and not suck.