This article was originally inspired by Denmark — a country often ranked among the happiest in the world. But the same questions now echo across Europe and beyond: How well are we really doing at work? And what have we forgotten about being human? Here are 5 ideas to break the cycle. This article is rooted in the book The Power of The Smile – 7 Guidelines for a better Worklife and was first published in POV International.
The Paradox of Modern Happiness
By Søren Jensen, Founder, Power of Smile
A Ukrainian mother laughed softly as she walked off to collect bottles in central Copenhagen late one Saturday night. She had fled Kyiv with her two small sons when the war began.
“You can’t be serious, Søren,” she said, smiling. “You Danes can’t really be unhappy at work. Look at you — celebrating, drinking, dancing in the streets! Shouldn’t you write about something more fun?”
Six months later, a monk in bright orange robes sat down beside me in a small café near the Dalai Lama’s temple in the Indian Himalayas. He wore white sneakers, checked his iPhone, and smiled just as broadly when he heard about my book project.
He didn’t know much about Denmark, but he did know one name: Hans Christian Andersen.
“Your famous writer once told the story The Emperor’s New Clothes,” he said. “Isn’t your country living the opposite tale? You have everything — wealth, comfort, opportunities. You wear fine clothes. But have you forgotten something inside? Are you naked within?”
That question stayed with me.
Are we losing touch with some old, simple human truths?
It is a mystery. Denmark — and many other countries in Europe — ranks among the most prosperous and supposedly happiest places on earth. People around the world envy our welfare, safety, and freedom.
But the reality is more complicated.
Stress, disengagement and mental fatigue are rising everywhere. Eighty-six percent of Danish employees doubt they can stay healthy through a full working life. Similar concerns are now seen across the continent.
So what is happening to us?
Are we losing touch with some old, simple human truths — about kindness, joy, and community — in our obsession with productivity, cleverness and speed?
A personal journey
Some years ago, I began my own search for the good working life. After more than 25 years as a communications leader in the Danish public sector, I was exhausted. Too few smiles. Too much pressure.
So I stopped.
I trained as a master coach.
I travelled — to the world’s largest personal development event in Florida, and to the Dalai Lama’s home region in India.
I worked with Ukrainian refugees in Copenhagen and coached more than 150 leaders and employees in Denmark.
And I read. Hundreds of studies, books, and scientific papers — and yet I kept returning to something far simpler: what happens between people in everyday moments.
That insight became my book The Power of the Smile – 7 Principles for a Better Work Life (2024). It’s not an academic manual. It’s a deeply human — and personal — book. A call to remember that change doesn’t always begin with systems or strategy, but with the way we think, speak and look at one another.
Five ideas to break the cycle
We’ve spent decades and millions on wellbeing programmes and reforms. Still, the trends keep worsening.
Maybe it’s time to ask: What if we’ve been looking in the wrong direction?
Here are five ideas to begin with:
1. Change the language – from endurance to engagement
In Denmark, one of the major pension companies now asks people whether they can “endure a whole working life.” What a tragic question.
What if we instead asked: How can we build a working life we actually love? How can we cultivate joy, meaning and a sense of contribution — not just survival?
Only one in five employees feels truly engaged at work. Yet engagement correlates directly with sleep quality, physical and mental health, and lower absence.
The words we use shape what we see. So perhaps we should talk less about preventing burnout — and more about nurturing energy and joy.
2. Share responsibility for mental wellbeing
Years ago, I helped design a national stress campaign in Denmark. The key question was: Who is responsible? Employers? Employees? Society?
At the time, we avoided focusing on the individual — fearing it would sound like “blaming the victim.”
But today, as stress and illness rise, perhaps it’s time for a new balance.
When I personally hit the wall, I realised something simple and brutal: in the end, when you can’t sleep at night and everyone else is at work, there is only one person who can take care of you — you.
We all carry responsibility — together and individually.
3. Start simple – smile and say thank you
We love complex leadership models and feedback systems. But sometimes the simplest truths are the ones we’ve quietly abandoned.
When I worked as a press officer in the Ministry of Environment, a senior colleague once told me:
“If you don’t hear anything, it means it went well.”
That was meant as praise. But think about it. We often forget to express gratitude or appreciation.
We talk endlessly about mistakes, rarely about successes. We hide behind irony, afraid to show warmth.
Yet a single smile, a sincere “thank you”, can change the atmosphere instantly. We know this — and still, we forget.
4. Keep it simple – help people where they are
I once ran a coaching programme for 110 care workers. At the end, 88% said they now believed they could improve their work life — with just a few simple tools.
That number amazed me. It shows that solutions don’t have to be grand or complicated. Albert Einstein put it like this: “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it.”
Technology, digitalisation, and endless documentation are reshaping how we work and communicate. We spend more time behind screens, less time face to face. We risk forgetting the simple human art of looking each other in the eye.
Let’s help people right where they are — not with another system, but with presence and support.
5. Give local leaders more freedom
In the public sector, I spent years watching local managers lose autonomy. Budgets tightened. Decisions moved upward. Yet these are the very people who know what their teams need.
What if we trusted them more — and gave them flexible resources to act, coach, and develop their people?
Studies show that up to 60% of employees feel no one at work supports their personal growth. Imagine the potential if that changed. Support people in their development.
Trust leaders to lead.
Smiling is not naïve — it’s neuroscience
We smile too little — at work, on the street, even at ourselves. And it costs us more than we think.
Science shows that smiling reduces stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, increases endorphins, and can even lower blood pressure.
The world’s longest-running happiness study confirms this as well: even small, positive interactions with strangers make us happier and more resilient.
Philosophies and spiritual traditions say the same in their own language:
The kinder we are — toward ourselves and toward each other — the better we thrive as human beings.
The genuine smile never lies. You can always feel it.
Time to bring the smile back
We once knew this.
Even Danish businesses knew it — remember the legendary Irma stores and their motto built on the smile? Perhaps it’s time to open the museum cases and bring that spirit back to the future.
As the American writer Les Giblin said back in 1968:
“If you don’t use your smile, you’re like a person with a million dollars in the bank and no cheque book.”
So, how’s your own account today — your work-life bank account? Are you investing in smiles, kindness and connection?
Maybe that-s the most human place to start.
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This article is rooted in the book The Power of the Smile – 7 Guidelines for a Better Work Life by Søren Jensen (2024).
You can read an English summary of the book here.