A positive outlook can be great for your job as well as for those around you.

It has been an emotional week. The Prime Minister got narky about his plane food, Chinese worker Han Wushun blew himself up at his office in a wages protest, and our family spaniel died on my
birthday. Anyone, therefore, who had the misfortune to cross my path this week was likely to be scrutinised closely for their sense of emotional wellbeing and their potential to induce it in others.

For me it raised the question: why do so many people appear to be so miserable when going about their work?

To appear to be ecstatically happy only moments before being sacked could look foolish, therefore much better to present a miserable demeanour to all and sundry. Friends will comment on how wise you were to have anticipated being sacked (and thus being miserable) so far in advance.

Being miserable takes significant effort and condemns you to living a life in the slow lane. Nobody says "ooh I was feeling miserable all last week and it just flew by" or "I think I will go out and try to serve cold food to Kevin Rudd to make myself miserable all over again." It is the good times that fly by, the pleasurable experiences, not the unpleasant ones.

Knowing this, why don't more people strive to be happy in their workplaces? The day goes a lot quicker when you are having fun.

Part of the problem is that we are conditioned to make clear distinctions between fun and work. US psychologist Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi says that by age 10, children reliably differentiate work, which is important but dull, from play, which is unimportant but fun.

So the challenge is to unify these ideas - if only to make the day fly by but preferably to lead into a deeper level of satisfaction with what you are doing.

There is no reason to believe that only well-paid or glamorous jobs such as actor or television presenter are fun. Many who work in those roles are no fun to be around at all and indeed make the life of others total hell. It does not matter what job you do, the decision to make it more fun rests with you.

I was inspired this week by a lady on the checkout in my local supermarket. On approach she appeared miserable and I decided I was going to try to brighten her day. However, she got in first with a joke, which led into a pleasant few moments' conversation. The checkout experience flew by for me and probably went a little faster for her, too.

She was a great example of someone who was taking the initiative to improve the experience of her own job. I'd go back to that store because it was a pleasant experience.

Social commentator Dan Pink talks of our need for emotional connections in this disconnected age. We seek out experiences, products and services that have an emotional value that in some way extend or validate our own stories.

There is an opportunity here for retailers to improve the job experience of a checkout person and perhaps even increase sales. The job has been largely reduced to that of a human swiper - swipe the bar codes and swipe the credit card. This reduces the cognitive burden and engagement of the staff member. Why not encourage staff to engage in conversations with customers while the swiping is taking place?

There is a great opportunity here to lighten the burden of the staff member by making the role more interesting and giving the customer a stronger connection with the store.

Creating emotional connections is something that improves the lives of everybody and makes work perhaps not exactly fun but at least less like drudgery.

With a bit of effort, every week can be emotional but for all the right reasons.

Jim Bright is professor of career education and development at ACU National and a partner at Bright and Associates, a career management consultancy.