Work-Life Balance Creates Happy Living For Danes - Wiking

KUALA LUMPUR, June 3 (Bernama) -- Work-life balance has been recognised as one of the reasons that leads to happiness among the people of Denmark, regarded as the happiest people in the world. Denmark Happiness Research Institute chief executive officer, Meik Wiking said other than five weeks paid holiday, Danes are given 52 weeks of parental leave, out of which parents can receive up to 32 weeks of monetary support, from the state. Based on the World Happiness Report from 2012 to 2016, Denmark which has an estimated 5.7 million population, is ranked as the top five countries listed as 'happy living'. "Besides, the Danes believe in the fundamental of trust which they feel can make people happy. They also don't judge other people's lives and that helps them to lead a satisfying lifestyle," said Wiking at the Happiness and Well-Being seminar here, Thursday. The seminar co-organised by the National Institute of Public Administration (INTAN) and Royal Danish Embassy was attended by INTAN director Dr Mazlan Yusoff and Danish Ambassador to Malaysia Nicolai Ruge. Wiking said to sustain democracy and good governance, the Danish people have a high level of trust in institutions as well as low level of corruption in the country. Other reasons behind their happy living are a high level of social capital and a high level of volunteer works, he said. According to Wiking, although happiness was multidimensional and subjective, it could be measured through three dimensions which are cognitive (life satisfaction), affective (mood) and eudaimonic (purpose). "For example under cognitive aspect we would ask people to evaluate their lives by asking questions like 'how satisfying your life is' and under the affective aspect we ask questions like 'did you feel happy yesterday, Were you feeling lonely and so on," he said. -- BERNAMA