I Like Being Surrounded By Happy People

By Planit Canada President, Peter Mate

Although humans are very diverse, there’s one thing we all strive for – Happiness. Some of us search for happiness through money, fame, power or a multitude of other things in life. I believe the workplace is an opportunity for employers to deliver happiness to the people that work there.

People often ask me why I put so much time, money and energy into trying to make working at Planit Canada as best as it can be. The answer is simple. If work is a happy place, it helps the people there be happy. I like being surrounded by happy people. I bet our customers like being served by happy people. I bet spouses, parents, kids love seeing the people they love come home from work – happy.

Most of us spend more time at work than doing anything else. In any given week, we might even work more than sleep, than see our kids, than spend time on our hobbies and any other one thing we like to use our time for.  Since we spend so much time at work, I believe it’s the single biggest opportunity to make an impact on someone’s life.

When we hire, we hire for fit. Often said, but harder to make happen and follow through. We’re not perfect and I’ve always said that working at Planit Canada is not a bird cage. I’m OK if people realize the fit is not there or is no longer there. This is perfectly natural. As long as we are as clear as we can on who we are and what we’re about, we’ll have a better chance at attracting the people who are at that stage in their lives.

I’ve been spending a lot of time and money over the past year working on making the new office building as good as I can. We’re building a state-of-the-art gym in the basement, a covered bicycle rack with a small fleet of cruisers, a rooftop patio with views to die for, walking distance to everything our amazing little town has to offer and our new microbrewery neighbour as a bonus! If you have the choice where to work, doesn’t this sound appealing? How do you go from this space to sitting in traffic driving into the city? Or better yet, how do you go from a company that cares so much about your happiness to one that doesn’t? At Planit Canada, we care about each other and it shows in everything that we do.