Which is more important to your overall well-being: The work you do or the people you work with?
Today, we tend to focus a lot on the work itself. For years, young people have been told to "follow your passion” and "do what you love.” Companies of all stripes have lured talent by promising that together, they and their employees can change the world. And although companies also brag about their company cultures, often this is a code for perks like flexibility.
But a new book by the director and associate director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development taps that long-running study on contentment to make the case that relationships — including our work relationships — are far more important than we give them credit for. "The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness," by psychiatrist Robert Waldinger and psychologist Marc Schulz, draws on more than 80 years of data. Multiple generations of researchers followed the study’s participants — mostly Harvard undergraduates and low-income boys living in Boston tenements — for most of their lives, interviewing them and asking them to fill out questionnaires every few years. Many of their children now participate in the study.