Imagine the following two scenarios.

1. Susan works as an Administrative Assistant in an office environment. She always seems happy – not over-the-top happy, but always cheerful and friendly. No one can recall her ever being in a bad mood.

2. Fred works as an Administrative Assistant in the same office. His life seems to always be in turmoil and everything is a problem. He’s a perennial victim, and few have seen him in a genuinely good mood.

Now imagine you’re a coworker and are looking for someone to go to lunch with. Who would you choose? What if you were a manager looking for someone to promote – who would you choose? Who would you pick if you had to lay one of them off? Hopefully the answers are obvious.

As a general rule, people like to be around happy people. Customers buy more from happy people; coworkers work better with happy people; and bosses promote happy people faster. Unless you’re a funeral director or some similar occupation, having a happy demeanor is an absolute necessity for connecting with the people around you.

Now, the cynics and contrarians among us might say something like, “I hate those perky, happy people – they drive me crazy, and I think they’re fake!” Fortunately, they are a tiny minority. The majority of people, in fact, would far prefer to work with a perky, happy person than the cynic and contrarian. Many of us have witnessed work environments where one single individual with a chronically sad or cranky disposition have dragged everyone’s mood down. You don’t ever want to be that person!