Happiness at Work Is a Human Right | Daniela Jinés episode artwork

EPISODE · Aug 14, 2026 · 51 MIN

Happiness at Work Is a Human Right | Daniela Jinés

from Compassion in a T-Shirt

What if happiness at work isn’t a perk, but something much more fundamental?In this episode of Compassion in a T-Shirt, I speak with organisational happiness and wellbeing strategist Daniela Jinés about what it really means to be happy at work — and why happiness, compassion and human performance may be much more closely connected than we realise.Daniela shares her remarkable journey from law and human rights into humanitarian work and organisational happiness, including the personal health crisis that forced her to reconsider how she was working and leading. We explore happiness not simply as pleasure or positivity, but as something connected to self-awareness, purpose, relationships, safety and the way we treat ourselves and others.We also explore the pressures built into modern working life — threat, drive, burnout and our relentless focus on productivity — and ask whether responsibility for wellbeing sits with individual workers or with the organisations around them. Daniela makes the provocative case for happiness at work as a human right, while also acknowledging how difficult systemic change can be.Along the way, we discuss the hedonic treadmill, the neuroscience of happiness, compassionate leadership, Daniela’s HAND Model, self-compassion and the inner critic, and the small everyday actions that can help us create happier and more compassionate workplaces. Again and again, the conversation comes back to one deceptively simple starting point: self-awareness.Timestamps:00:00 Welcome to Compassion in a T-Shirt01:20 How did happiness become your life’s work?05:25 What do we actually mean by happiness?11:40 What role do self-awareness and self-empathy play?15:20 What gets in the way of happiness at work?18:15 Are our workplaces built around threat and drive?27:40 Is burnout an individual or organisational problem?30:40 Have we become too focused on productivity?36:35 What is the HAND Model?45:15 How can we make work happier and more compassionate?Links:Find Daniela Jinés at her website:https://happyorganizations.org/If you would like to learn more about compassion focused therapy, you can find Dr Stan Steindl's book The Gifts of Compassion here: https://www.ausapress.com/p/the-gifts-of-compassion-how-to-understand-and-overcome-suffering/Say hi on social: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drstansteindlTwitter/X: https://twitter.com/StanSteindlInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr_stan_steindl/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stan-steindl-150a5264/Website: https://www.stansteindl.com/YouTube Video URL: https://youtu.be/KIOQrynBTeY*Affiliate Disclaimer: Note this description contains affiliate links that allow you to find the items mentioned in this video and support the channel at no cost to you. While this channel may earn minimal sums when the viewer uses the links, the viewer is in no way obligated to use these links. Thank you for your support!Video hashtags:Compassion, HappinessAtWork, WorkplaceWellbeing, SelfCompassion, OrganizationalHappiness, CompassionateLeadership

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Happiness at Work Is a Human Right | Daniela Jinés

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