Management, Performance, Policies, Appraisal, Goals, Quality... Do these words ring a bell??? It should, as we hear them regularly in our workplace day in and day out. These are all words you would generally associate with a business workplace but the word - FUN would generally stand out as an odd man out in the workplace. Anyone who say that they come to work to have fun or consider work as fun would be looked at with disdain or may be even considered a lunatic. So what is wrong with having fun @ work??? Why should fun be considered a bane in the workplace??? Most organizations don't realize that the age old adage "All work and no play makes jack a dull boy" is not something that could be associated only with college/school but would also equally apply to the workplace. As someone who has very strong feelings and emotional attachment for the fun @ work principle, I decided that I should write about this in my first blog. So here I am, ready to share (and not teach/ advise) my experience about fun@work.
In-spite of repeated testimonies and endorsements from some of the successful and popular business personalities about the positive impact of work place fun, very few companies have taken it seriously and mention them as part of their mission statement. Most companies feel that fun is a double edged sword and could prove to be dangerous in office. But with the business landscape getting competitive every passing day, employees are working harder and for longer hours with increasing stress levels than ever before, thereby leading to an unbalanced personal and professional life. This creates the need for work place fun as it's benefits (for both the employee and the organization) definitely outweighs its risk. According to a Forbes article, "In a meta-analysis of 225 academic studies, happy employees were found to have 31% higher productivity and 37% higher sales, while business teams solved problems more quickly, were deemed better by bosses and got higher customer satisfaction ratings." This point has been strongly reiterated in a book titled - "Moonwalking with Einstein, The art, and science of remembering everything" by Joshua Foer, that I had read few weeks back. In one of the chapters in his book, the author discusses memory in terms of time. He feels that monotony collapses time and novelty unfolds it, i.e., a person who does the same work everyday sitting in the office cubicle will experience the day getting blended unmemorably to the next day and finally disappear, thereby making him/ her feel like living a shorter life filled with nothing memorable whereas a person with different routines will have his/her memory filled with lots of new experiences which stretches out psychological time and lengthens his/her perception of time.
The biggest realization from my own work experience is that workplace fun could be a great tool, similar to the professional development/ training programs, to build great teams with better understanding and communication, nurture potential leaders with greater courage and creativity, improve employee morale and engagement, thereby leading to greater productivity and better business results. I have seen employees, who were shy and pessimistic, getting transformed through such fun initiatives into bold and optimistic personalities, with some of them even getting promoted to the higher corridors of power as team leads and managers. This is all possible as fun activities give a platform for these shy yet highly potential souls to come out of their shell and showcase their inner potential without much fear. The biggest flip side seems to be that the companies that invest in workplace fun programs want to realize its benefits immediately without even giving a chance for the program to complete its metamorphosis. The other gloomy aspect seems to be that fun programs are run as a separate entity using professional business jargon similar to a professional development/training program. This needs to change and companies have to create fun as a culture that could be even integrated into day-to-day work, meetings, presentation, training etc.,
Creating a culture of fun @ workplace, even though sounds easy, could be a herculean task in itself, as it would require a long-term plan and a strong commitment from the top management, employees and importantly, the frontline/middle-level managers. As like any change, we cannot expect this to be embraced or accepted with open arms (even though it's fun and entertaining) right from the start and that's why there is a need for the long term plan and strong commitment. The excitement and participation towards such initiatives will definitely pick up and would become a critical part of the organizational success/ growth at some point of time. How quickly would this change be obvious depends on the implementation and the excitement shown by the top management towards such initiatives. During the implementation of such fun programs, organizations should make sure that the programs are designed in such a way that they are done without creating any negative impact on the productivity hours and in a minimal budget, as anything contrary to this could be met with stiff resistance at the start by the naysayers (against fun) within the top management. For example, conducting simple fun activities like asking people to participate in a 2 to 5 minutes of laughter therapy or physical exercise sessions, simple treasure hunt or some other games within the workplace. It could be done during the time period when the productivity levels would be the least (example, immediately after lunch break). This would not result in a greater loss of productivity hours as well as the budget requirement will be very minimal (almost nothing). Another example would be to present greeting cards customized with wishes (make it creative/funny/memorable and not too professional) from the top management or the team members on special occasions like the first day at work, birthdays, team anniversaries etc., instead of costly gifts (could be fine if it fits within your budget) or prizes. Being creative could help in minimizing the cost as well boosting the employee's enthusiasm towards such programs. This doesn't mean that organizations have to restrict such fun related activities only to the employees workplace. The other popular ones like the team outings, lunch/dinner, special gifts/coupons, festival/annual day celebrations should still be continued. Organizations have to wear their creativity hats to make these outdoor events more memorable by making people whole-heartedly participate in such events and not just create it as an opportunity for people to be away from work.
Another critical aspect that needs to be monitored during the program is to make sure that the employees don't cross their limits while having fun. This means drawing the line, with the managers acting as the gatekeepers of the drawn line and making sure that the employees understand the importance of not crossing the line and playing by the rules of the game. Also, organizations have to realize that too many restrictions could spoil the essence of fun @ work. For example, asking employees to compensate for the productivity hours lost (could be done occasionally if there is a business criticality) for the fun activities, by working over time could again result in decreased engagement and ultimately could lead to the program's failure. So there is a bigger responsibility for organizations to plan each fun activity in a balanced manner taking the above points into consideration.
There are plenty of resources available on the internet for people who would like to conduct fun activities in their office. Many of us don't even know that every year April 1st, widely celebrated as the April fool's day, is also being celebrated as the International fun @ work day (am not trying to fool you, its real). Also known as the National Fun @ workday, this day is being celebrated in various offices across the globe since 1986. Another interesting fact about the day is that the company - Playfair, which introduced this day, initially thought that it might be foolish to name April fool's day as International fun @ work day but later realized that it would be the perfect day to spread the message that fun @ work doesn't have to be considered foolish.
It's very important for organizations to realize that fun @ work is not something that has to be killed, buried and allowed to rest in peace and instead should be embraced, nurtured and allowed to thrive until the concept of office workplace exists in this world. Also with the support for work from home concept gaining louder, fun @ work could be the harbinger of hope that could save the work place concept from extinction.
Let's pray and work towards keeping the fun alive @ our workplace.
Long live FUN...
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