My colleague won't stop commenting on everything I eat.

My assistant rolls his eyes at people and meeting.

My manager expects me to work 24-7.

Why does my coworker keep taking credit for all my ideas?

Have any wisdom for me?

Hi, I'm Allison Green.

Welcome to the Ask a Manager podcast.

Some of you may know me from my website, askamanger.org,

where I answer daily questions from readers about how to navigate all sorts of sticky situations with coworkers, managers, and employees.

Each week on this show, I'll take calls and talk directly with listeners about the toughest, most frustrating, or just plain weirdest work predicaments they're facing.

I'll help you figure out what to do and say

to handle these situations successfully and get the outcomes you want. So let's get started.

This week's episode is going to be a little bit different than our usual format. I'm so pleased

that Gretchen Rubin is joining us to talk about the topic of happiness and work.

Gretchen Rubin is a leading expert on the connections between habits, happiness, and human nature.

She's host of the award-winning podcast, Happier, with Gretchen Rubin.

And she's the author of multiple bestselling books, including the Happiness Project and her most recent book, The Four Tendencies.

Gretchen, welcome, and thank you so much for coming on the show. Well, thank you for having me. I'm very happy to be talking to you. I am thrilled to have you here. So let me start by asking

you this. Like a lot of people, I think, I first learned about your work from the happiness

project, where you dedicated a year to trying to be

happier and you tried tons of different happiness strategies and reported on what did and didn't

work. One thing that I love about that work was how relatable it was. You didn't just do a review of

...