In their lifetime, the average person will spend more than 84,365 hours at work. That’s a hell of a lot of time, so it’s no wonder that improving workplace wellness and employee satisfaction is a business worth over £48 billion, and counting.

The way we feel about our careers has never been more conflicted. We’re more ambitious than ever, but after the uncertainty of the pandemic, amid an ongoing cost of living crisis and with the rise of trends like quiet quitting and rage applying, it feels like most of us are at a crossroads with how it comes to work. We might be fulfilled by certain aspects and enjoy the day-to-day on the whole, but we also have deep-rooted complaints that corporate pizza lunches, ping pong tables and office drinks won’t fix.

While globally, 74% of workers claim to be satisfied with their jobs, according to a recent UK YouGov poll just 17% of British workers say they love their job. More than 76% of workers are frequently tired, and one-third of all employees in the UK – almost 10 million people – feel undervalued at work.

But the real question isn’t how we can find more joy and happiness at work, but whether we should even be striving for it in the first place.

Is finding joy in the workplace really something we should be striving for?