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Jan 29, 2018
Dan Rose, Content Creator at SkillPath
January 28th was the annual “National Have Fun at Work Day” which is cool except that it was on Sunday this year and most of corporate America wasn’t at work. Instead, they unknowingly celebrated their own “National Have Fun (Because You’re Off ) Work Day.” (The good news is that it was also “National Blueberry Pancake Day” which meant you had all day to enjoy those fluffy stacks of blue-speckled decadence.) However, instead of mocking the creators of “NHFAW Day” for their short-sighted plan of not just making it the last Friday in January, we’ll take the spirit of the day into consideration and ask you a simple question: Are you having enough fun at work?
If your answer is “yes,” then congratulations … you’re one of the lucky ones. However, most other employees in the country are on the other end of the spectrum. Worse, even their human resources departments acknowledge it.
One research study showed that 75 percent of the human resource executives and managers surveyed believed their employees did not have enough fun at work. Furthermore, the three “fun activities” used by most companies were (in order of popularity):
While employees definitely appreciate that, those three things don’t exactly move the needle on the “Fun-o-meter” very far. These days, it takes a little more than that to engage your workers.
The topic of fun at work has increased the last few years with the influx of the Millennial generation (people born between 1982 and 2000) into the workforce. With Millennials making up the bulk of the labor pool now, the demands for companies that engage them, challenge them and let them have fun at work while doing it is increasing.
Productivity experts almost universally agree that all work and no play in the office leads to employee burnout, increased absenteeism, lower morale and higher turnover.
In many companies, the biggest hurdle to having fun at work is a clash of culture and work ethic with conservative senior management who set the tone of the work environment. They write the rules about work, responsibilities of the job and general office decorum. In 2017, senior management is still made up of mostly baby boomers (born 1946 – 1964). This is the generation that still remember the days when “business casual” meant women could wear slacks instead of a skirt or dress … a fax machine was high-tech … and the computer age dawned with the company having one IBM computer on a desk that the entire department shared (complete with floppy disks).
In other words, boomers who grew up in business during a different era probably have a 180-degree difference of opinion with Millennials about what constitutes “fun” in the workplace.
For some boomers, the thought of putting a pool table or video game console in the break room is an affront to their senses. This is the 60-hour workweek workaholic generation. And, if they are in upper management, they live by the equation (work ethic = worth ethic).
So, if you are a worker who is craving a little more engagement and excitement at work, what is the solution to make both sides happy if management is reluctant to conform?
If management hesitates, present ideas that won’t cost the company much, if any, money to support.
With luck, management in your company will recognize the benefits of loosening up and get an engaged and happy workforce. When that happens, create a “Fun Committee” made up of people all across the organization. Plan some events appropriate for your business and employees. Until then, have fun anyway!
Dan Rose
Content Creator at SkillPath
Dan Rose is a content creator at SkillPath who uses his experience from a 30-year writing career to focus on timely events that impact today’s business world.
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