A few months ago I wrote about the perils of working too hard. In September this year, the UK Government's Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) promoted "Work-life balance week" in an attempt to curb the UK's long working hours. (I doubt that these two events are connected, but I'll take the plaudits anyway).

The DTI wants to encourage workers to take proper lunches (at least half an hour, but preferably longer) and to go home on time. Where appropriate, it also wants to encourage flexible working hours, teleworking and job sharing. And it's putting its money where its mouth is, actively encouraging its own staff to take up these proposals.

Full marks to the DTI for leading the way here. It has realised what many people have always known, namely that long hours in dull surroundings are not conducive to the creation of high-quality, professional work. By letting staff work at times and in locations that suit them - while still ensuring that they are properly supervised - a far higher quality of work can be obtained. Or, to put it more simply, "happy staff = better quality work."

Happiness is a hard thing to measure and promote, but there's plenty of research to suggest that it can be fairly accurately evaluated. For an interesting example, see the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit paper from December last year. This, and other research, shows that job satisfaction and happiness are closely linked, in several ways.

Time spent at work, including the commuting time, is particularly important. Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert has written at length about the "OA5" (Out at 5pm) company, where people do their work and go home sufficiently early to enjoy themselves in the evening. They can eat at leisure, socialise, generally recharge their physical and mental batteries and arrive back at work the next day feeling refreshed and ready, rather than tired and miserable. This used to be the norm in the UK; hopefully it will be again.

Equally important, though, is what you actually do at work. Mindless, repetitive tasks, or work that receives neither praise nor criticism, will quickly sap an employee's creative energy, leading to listlessness, lack of initiative, cynicism and feelings of worthlessness. Again, this isn't a complicated thing to understand; if you get the same amount of feedback - i.e. none - whether you work hard or don't work at all, it's hard to motivate yourself to work at all. This quickly leads to apathy ("I can't change this, so why bother?") which can spill over into the employee's private life, clouding their world view and making it hard to find another job and escape the cycle.

It's fair to say that the public sector has been one of the worst culprits for this sort of employment over the years, boasting more than its fair share of jobsworth, cynical, vindictive and job-for-life managers, all perpetuating the cycle of "do nothing, make sure others do nothing too." The DTI has taken the first steps towards changing this damaging culture. Let's hope others follow suit.