Down with fun: The depressing vogue for having fun at work
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Re: Down with fun: The depressing vogue for having fun at work
#2Tony Hsieh's presentation at Startup School 2009 came off exactly like this to me, but I don't come to the same conclusion as the author — encouraging your employees to do jackass 'fun' stunts with attendant PR isn't much worse than just stocking the office with alcohol, though at least the latter is more honest and self-directed — at least they aren't going to show up at your cube as a mob and cajole you into doing a keg stand.
During the QA period I tried asking him what he thought about apparel startups that are going for the same no-discount high-touch model but starting with original goods instead of competing with retail (http://www.bonobos.com/ is most prominent, but there are a whole bunch). He interpreted that as if they were "copying the culture" and gave an obviously stock answer that set it up as a strawman doomed to failure.
Re: Down with fun: The depressing vogue for having fun at work
#3reminds me of what George Bernard Shaw said, "do not do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same."
Re: Down with fun: The depressing vogue for having fun at work
#4It has always seemed to me that if the work is good then it doesn't need sugar on top. What one wants is hard, interesting problems to solve and great people to work with. Once you have that, work is more fun than "fun".
Edit: But I have to say something about that asinine first paragraph. First, judging history by recent television dramas? He's joking, right? Second, the corporate culture of the early 1960s was notoriously soul-destroying and its loss is nothing to moan about.
Re: Down with fun: The depressing vogue for having fun at work
#5Where I work is pretty fun, however, I feel like as a company/startup grows it becomes harder and harder to keep it fun.
Not in the sense it that it is no longer fun at all, but keeping the same "culture" fit with new team members is hard. Your companies "culture" is something that grows organically with early employees, but as you hire more people, eventually much of your company "culture" moves towards ritual, which while is intended to improve the culture it is less genuine.
Re: Down with fun: The depressing vogue for having fun at work
#6The first time this happened:
"The company engages in regular “random acts of kindness”: workers form a noisy conga line and single out one of their colleagues for praise. The praisee then has to wear a silly hat for a week."
I would make it very clear it shouldn't happen again. If it did, I'd leave the company.
Re: Down with fun: The depressing vogue for having fun at work
#7"The most unpleasant thing about the fashion for fun is that it is mixed with a large dose of coercion. Companies such as Zappos don’t merely celebrate wackiness. They more or less require it."
Made me remember this scene.
http://movieclips.com/watch/office-space-1999/flair-minimum/
Re: Down with fun: The depressing vogue for having fun at work
#8I can't speak for everyone, but based on my experience, regularly drinking (even lightly) during the day would be likely to cause significant productivity loss. Duh?
Re: Down with fun: The depressing vogue for having fun at work
#9The first time this happened: "The company engages in regular “random acts of kindness”: workers form a noisy conga line and single out one of their colleagues for praise. The praisee then has to wear a silly hat for a week." I would make it very clear it shouldn't happen again. If it did, I'd leave the company.
Someone apparently swapped the definitions of "random kindness" and "humiliating harassment" in Zappos' corporate HR policy.
(On the other hand, if it'll help morale, I'm willing to suck it up and attend my company's upcoming pennant-race baseball outing. If asked nicely I might take one for the team and participate in multiple such events through the end of the postseason.)
Re: Down with fun: The depressing vogue for having fun at work
#10This reminds me of a group of roommates I had in college. They played Super Smash Brothers: Melee for the Nintendo Game Cube perpetually. They played the same level--a flat level without platforms or items--over and over again for one reason--to get better. They had little interest in having fun and cared more about being the best.
One of our other roommates suggested that they play the game to have fun. They liked the suggestion and, as they began playing again, started to compete over who was having the most fun. My other roommate's comments had completely missed them.