September 17, 2007 | Posted in: Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully
I’m thrilled to announce an interview I did for a recent article in the London Times on the business of fun at work. We’re ready to get the British energized and pumped up for some play in the workplace. People all over the world are finally getting it that work made fun gets done and good times lead to good business.Check out the full article below or click on the link.
September 16, 2007
Forget work, just have some fun
Office jollity is replacing drudgery for today’s staff
THE attack monkey has struck again. So far the hornyheaded sock monkey has killed 45 employees at Appriver, an e-mail security firm based in Gulf Breeze, Florida.
Gulf Breeze is famous for a wave of UFO sightings in the late 1980s – but these attacks are more easily explained.
The monkey first struck three years ago after Hurricane Ivan ripped the roof off Appriver’s headquarters, forcing it to set up shop in a temporary location. Software developer Erik Forsberg used a digital camera to film his monkey – a doll made out of stuffed socks – attacking a colleague. The film was a big hit with staff and a wave of copycat killings ensued.
So far the evil monkey has killed staff members by electrocution, strangulation, poisoning, and a hit-and-run. The attack monkey finished off chief executive Michael Murdoch during a job interview. Murdoch appeared to suffer a fatal heart attack after reading the monkey’s salary requirements.
“He was worth every penny,” said Michael Hamstra, director of marketing. “It’s important that our people have fun at work. The monkey really helps build team spirit.”
Appriver is just one company determined to inject more fun into the workplace in any way it can.
Thanks to changing demographics and the success of companies such as Google, where the headquarters is as much a recreation centre as it is a workplace, “fun” is an increasingly hot topic in management circles.
Inevitably an army of “fun-sultants” are ready to help fun-challenged execs increase their jolly quotas.
Gail Hahn, chief executive of FunCilitators, has advised companies including Anheuser-Busch, IBM, Marriott and Nextel as well as the American armed forces on how to “lighten up”.
“People need to have fun at work and they are finally getting it,” she said. Hahn argues that the younger end of today’s work-force is significantly different from the “baby boomer” generation now reaching retirement. If they are not having fun, they will leave, she said.
“Baby boomers are workaholics. Their attitude is that they are lucky to have a pay cheque. Generation X have seen their parents work themselves stiff and still get downsized. They have been latchkey kids who have watched the sacrifices their parents made and they are not about to make the same ones. For them a life-work balance is hugely important,” said Hahn.
Consultant Laura Ricci, whose clients have included Lockheed Martin and Johnson Wax, agrees. “Management is facing a dilemma with the youth coming out of college. The younger generation have seen the high divorce rates and the stress of their parents’ generation. They say that, if you’re going to make us spend so much time at work, then you’d better make it fun.”
Previous generations of workers might have stuck with a job they didn’t enjoy but, thanks to the internet, today’s top workers can start looking for a new job in their coffee break, said Ricci.
But what is fun? Hahn has worked with companies that had competitions throwing blow-up dolls. Others made employees into human bowling balls, strapping them to skateboards and hurling them, crash helmet and all, at skittles in the car park.
Smaller projects have included “flowers for the hour” where a staff member is given a bouquet that is later passed on to a colleague. Allergy sufferers could presumably be given chocolates, unless they are diabetic, in which case perhaps a pat on the back would do.
A fun-filled attitude has certainly paid off at some of America’s biggest companies.
Google is almost evangelical in its pursuit of office fun. The internet giant’s California headquarters includes a volleyball pitch, rock-climbing wall and a games room.
Staff nip round “campus” on scooters. Company founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page even have a “party plane” – a Boeing 767 wide-body airliner configured to carry 50 funlovers. Last week Google became the only private company to secure landing rights for the plane at the local Nasa airstrip – a move that increases their fun while making the rest of Silicon Valley green with envy.
All this fun is a serious business in the tech industry, where long hours are the norm and talented staff are hard to retain. Many of these people are rich enough never to have to work again.
At Pixar, the animation studio, animators can work in their own personalised garden sheds – built inside the main office. They even have a band area for jam sessions, complete with electric guitars and drums.
And it’s not just tech companies that emphasise fun at work. Ice-cream mavericks Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield were early converts, setting up Ben & Jerry’s Joy Gang, a group of employees dedicated to making a happier workplace through fun activities. Greenfield is now a “Joy Pooh-Bah Emeritus”, acting as a sometime consultant to Joy Gang initiatives.
Then there is Southwest Airlines. Staff at the discount American airline have been known to roll toilet paper down the cabin’s aisle and hold competitions among passengers as to how many squares are on the floor. Hahn said she was once surprised to find a diminutive cabin-crew member hiding in one of the overhead bins.
Southwest Airlines has been named one of the Top Five Best Companies to Work for in America by Fortune Magazine and has had the fewest customer complaints for 18 years in a row, as reported by the Department of Transportation’s Air Travel Consumer Report. It has an average employee turnover rate of less than 10% and last year received 284,827 resumés and hired 3,363 employees.
“It’s a bit like contented-cow syndrome,” said Hahn. “Happy cows produce more milk. Good times lead to good business.”
But there is a dark side to fun as well. Not every employee wants to be treated like a cow.
Ricci said: “I’ve been to 20 company picnics and haven’t enjoyed one. They are an opportunity for career suicide.”
A birthday card on the wrong day, a congratulations note with the name misspelt will do more harm than good, she said.
Staff particularly loathe being forced into activities that are favourites of their managers but that they feel obliged to attend. As fans of Ricky Gervais’s The Office will know, a boss’s idea of fun can easily end up making him or her look ridiculous.
Meanwhile, the attack monkey is going from strength to strength and is the star of popular videos (killerofficemonkey. com/movies.htm ). In fact, Appriver has recently taken on so many new staff that the monkey can’t keep up. “But I’m sure he’ll be making his rounds again soon,” said Hamstra.
GET STARTED ON MONDAY
HERE are some tips from Gail Hahn’s 52 Ways To Have Fun At Work:
Create a surprise celebration Celebrate the uncelebrated – Mondays. What better day than Monday to start things off right. Have a bit of fun at the beginning of the day, at the beginning of the week. After meeting a sales goal, landing a big account or exceeding production expectations the previous week, let all the employees know that on Monday you will be bringing in a special treat. Start the week off with some fun to pump up morale and boost productivity.
Practise fun shui Be more organised and get more energised to make more room for fun, says Hahn. Colour-coded files, coloured paper clips and the like can make the office a happier, brighter place to work. And, says Hahn, don’t forget to add ‘fun time’ to your (multi-coloured) calendar.
Don’t wait until deadbeats leave to say goodbye to them Have you ever known somebody who could just light up a room . . . when he or she left? Do you have any of these people in your life? Just delete them. They’ll sap the life energy right out of you.
Fill your day with ‘energy inserts’ Surround yourself with toys and playful items that speak to you.
Gaia Hart
As the CEO (Chief Energizing Officer) at Hartful Living including GaiaHart.com and BizBuilderCards.com; I’m a Messenger and Mentor for women entrepreneurs, connecting them to their capacity to energize their work and their lives in the art of living Hartfully. At BizBuilderCards.com, you can make a living through giving with greeting cards and gifts to build your network net worth as an additive to your current business or an easy way to send gratitude and kindness to the world.
3 Comments
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Christina Ricci
December 20, 2007
Hello webmaster…Thanks for the nice read, keep up the interesting posts..what a nice Wednesday . Christina Ricci
Christina Ricci
January 11, 2008
Hello webmaster…Thanks for the nice read, keep up the interesting posts..what a nice Thursday . Christina Ricci
James
August 3, 2016
Thank you so much for sharing… I was very entertained by your post. 🙂