I don't agree with this. Maybe the pager influenced their state of mind. I know whenever I get interrupted when I'm doing something enjoyable it makes me annoyed. And vice versa, whenever I'm doing something boring, I'm glad to be interrupted. Maybe that is what was happening in the pager experiment.
I suppose it depends how you define work and free time. Working at my day job and I'm not happier. Working on my own personal projects and I am happier. Depending on how you define work then almost any activity could be considered work. I'm happiest when working on my surfing. And of course I'd be less happy during free time if that consisted of doing absolutely nothing.
It's true for me but I'm self employed and work on my own projects.. I know quite a few regularly employed people I'd pin this on too, though.
I'd argue that it's due to the structure of work life versus home life. At (office) work, you typically have set hours and a certain set of activities to perform - the reality vs expectations gap is quite small.
In your "free" time, however, you expect to have a good time, yet usually have to wash clothes and dishes, cook food, go grocery shopping, and 101 other dull activities that merely wrap around the occasional fun things like watching a movie, going out, having sex, whatever. The reality vs expectation gap in your free time is gigantic for many people.
Happiness is really a subjective and uniquely learned process for each person... Everyone has a different set of assumptions, expectations, and mental processes they have to deal with, usually all of which have to be overcome on some level to be truly "happy".
For most people, being engaged in work gets them to that state of living in the present, where the mind is fully focused on a task and doesn't get a chance to explore itself.
For me though, being truly happy is being able to relax in that free time, soak up the present "nothingness", allow the mind to wander, take everything as it is (without judgment or assumption), and just be grateful for everything I've been blessed with (even if there are negative circumstances).
Seems like Maslow dealt with this a long time ago. Working probably makes people happy because people realize that by doing so they're ensuring that their basic needs - food, shelter, "belongingness" - are being satisfied through work.
It would be interesting to repeat the same study for people who are financially secure.
This is clearly part of a wider conspiracy of mid-level managers to convince their employees to work themselves to death eschewing family, friendship, and life goals.
