Cube Bowling by Dyanna
Monday is always a great time to ask this question:
Do you have fun at work?
No, no, I’ll let you grab your coffee first before you answer.
You want to know what the best part about this question is? HR people answer it in entirely different ways than any other employee.
HR people go “Yeah, we celebrate birthdays monthly, we have a game room and we have special activities every month.” That’s not the answer to the question though. That’s like asking me if I love my wife and saying “Yeah, I buy her a birthday present every year, cook dinner and suffer through a romantic movie once a month.”
Employees answer this question legitimately though. Do they have friends at work? Is there camaraderie? Are they allowed to interact without some micromanager hovering over them? Do the people they work with gossip? Do they joke? Do they laugh? Do they have fun? I can get the answer from your employee. Can you? Does it matter?
When I tell people my wife works in wine production, they always think the job must be really fun. Do they assume she’s just kicking back and drinking wine with the boys all day?
What I do know is that she often does have fun at work. It has to do more with the people and the culture than the work though. Honestly? Creating good wine is a lot of hard work (70+ hour weeks during the height of grape harvest). It takes patience (you might not see the results of your work for three years). You taste some wine as part of the job (but some of it smells or tastes like rotten eggs, bread or vinegar).
The great part about many jobs is that they can be very rewarding. HR can be rewarding. Making wine can be rewarding. But even with those rewards, having an environment that encourages fun can be the difference between an okay job and a great job. When budgets get tight and there’s no raise in the books, what kind of company do you think does better?
Can there be too much fun? Can there be too much ice cream? Of course. All things in moderation, right? I’ll eat the veggies of doing business and GSD (Getting Stuff Done) but I want dessert too.
Make mine a chocolate peanut butter too.
August 10, 2009 at 7:12 am
Fun? Is fun the right word? I really like my job (and my co-workers). I look forward to seeing them each day. When you say “fun,” though, I get nervous, and worry that you’re about to force me to play Guitar Hero with my boss.
August 10, 2009 at 7:18 am
Hi Lance,
You raise some interesting questions and interesting distinctions. I have had fun jobs that were not particularly rewarding. My best friend was the asst manager at a cinnamon roll shop when I was 16 — I was paid to b.s. with him, read the paper, listen to music and occasionally make & sell cinammon rolls. In that order. F U N. But not satisfying. In my current role I work LONG hours, have had to lay off more people than I want to say, and have an older workforce that has resulted in me confronting the reality of dead or dying employees more than I would like. And, unfortunately, the “fun” stuff for other people (in better financial times we do stuff like take the whole company to a college football game, or take everyone to a horse race at Churchill Downs) often creates some hard work organizing and executing on the part of my department. Definitely not as much fun, but infinitely more rewarding.
I’d be interested to see if there are any studies out there that link “fun” and “satisfaction” to see how often companies that rate highly on one alo rate highly on the other. Great topic — I think about this a lot, so it’ll be cool to see what your readers have to say.
August 10, 2009 at 8:25 am
This is a very interesting thought. I just recently read a book on “neotny” The idea of playing at work. Why is that adults we don’t laugh? We don’t use our imagination? We’re afraid to be too creative?
There is another topic that could spin off this…..millenials. The age range of 1980-1995 birth year. We’re a creative group that is turned off by a stuffy corporate 9-5 work environment. For me personally, I thrive in my work envirionment. We’re encourgaed to have fun and play at work. Thinking out of the box is rewarded. I am much more productive when I’m left to self manage and work because it’s fun as opposed to the “I have to”
Kate Rawlings
SearchPath International
[email protected]
440.724.6587
August 10, 2009 at 11:59 am
When I’m employed, I do have FUN. In the sense, that I love what I do. I love writing, reporting etc., and each day on the job is different. Does that fun mix in with frustration sometimes, sure. But it’s fun for me.
August 10, 2009 at 1:49 pm
@Mary Ellen – Fun is the word I am looking for at least. Is it more enjoyment? I enjoy fun places so maybe I am personalizing it.
@Scott – No idea on the study. I had a job like your Cinnabon job but I still didn’t like it. Always seemed like such a waste.
@Kate – I am a Gen Y too so I understand that but I know a lot of Gen Y’ers that do better under structure even though they think they don’t. I would want to separate structure from fun/enjoyment. I don’t think they are that closely related.
@Job seeker – That’s great and exactly the point.
August 10, 2009 at 7:18 pm
Yes, I have fun at work. The team I work with has had some stressful assignments over the last couple of years, and we have several “Brainwell” sessions a month where the white board gets full use, creativity and humor are encouraged, and we get messy. Then we create an appropriate level of orderliness from the mess and it’s usually a good product.
We recently had a team meeting that included board games. We got a lot of interesting looks from passers-by in the building. “Why aren’t they working?” We were, of course. comparing strategic games to non-strategic. How are the choices different? What involvement of others is required?
Fun and hard work can go together. I’m fortunate in that way.
August 11, 2009 at 11:25 am
One of the things we tell people in our business is that we want people to enjoy going to work as much as we do. On occasion, people look at us in a confused manner because enjoying the job is not what people typically think of first. Enjoying your work means not only having fun and gaining a deep sense of satisfaction but being able to contribute.
This is an important topic to bring up, your job can be both satisfying and enjoyable which makes going to work fun.
August 11, 2009 at 7:47 pm
I came home from a two hour session with a team working on client relationships. I/we couldn’t have had a better morning, but “fun” is simply the wrong word for me. I think of that experience as “fascinating, intriguing, richly productive, meaningful.” I do have a lot of fun with people, but when I refer to my vocation and my work, “fun” is just not ususally in the vocabulary.
I’m neither serious nor stuffy. . . and a terrific amount of laughter takes place in my sessions, but the adjective “fun” doesn’t work.
August 18, 2009 at 6:56 am
I must agree with most of the people that have made comments thus far, how we define “fun” is really the key driver on how the question is answered. A great deal of people will think fun as being some half hearted, laughing, and/or non business. I believe it is more than possible to have a good time at work, enjoy what you are doing and feel that you are productive and contributing to a team. If that is the definition, I am always having fun!!
August 19, 2009 at 7:53 am
Keeping up employee moral is a large part of the job for anyone working in the field of HR. Having fun at work is key to maximising productivity, however one must find the balance between work and play as the business is likely to suffer if there is too much of one or the other. It has been proven that happy people work to a higher standard, and having a little fun is one way to keep people happy!
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