A chief happiness officer (CHO), or more rarely chief fun officer,[1] is the manager of workers' happiness within a company.
[2][3][4] Probably originating in North America, CHO posts are being created in European and UK companies to ensure workers' welfare needs are met.
[5] The role has been critizied for its possible cringiness, when it includes forms of compulsory fun: "Managers hope that "fun" will magically make workers more engaged and creative.
"[1] In the tabletop role-playing game Paranoia (1984), characters may have to accomplish "Mandatory Bonus Fun Duties" (first presented in the supplement Acute Paranoia, first published in 1986), one of which is happiness officer.
In the dystopia of the game, being happy is mandatory and punishable by law.