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Down with fun: The depressing vogue for having fun at work

economist.com

61–70 of 75 posts

Re: Down with fun: The depressing vogue for having fun at work

#61
post #49

I think I may have worked at the most "fun" corporate environment ever. The parties! The BBQ! The evenings on the roof top deck in Tribeca! The pillow room! The Wii! The wall-o'-drinks! The buddha statues! The one-team-cooks-a-full-lunch day once a month! The expeditions to South's! That one guy who was always napping in the weirdest places trying to be polyphasic! The singing, the dancing and the hilarious coworkers…

Hah, as I read your comment I thought "this description sounds exactly like Limewire." Did you work with Mike S?

Don't think so. Was he part of Store? Cuz I left before their hiring really picked up steam. Heard it really went downhill right after I left (not claiming that was why).

Re: Down with fun: The depressing vogue for having fun at work

#62
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Always remember that the Economist is written by 24-year-old grad students trying to sound like wise old men. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist#Editorial_anonymi...

Don't pass off other people's speculations as facts and then quote Wikipedia as if there is a reliable source in there that backs up what you are saying.

It's true. My old boss used to get interviewed by The Economist from time to time. Their editors really are a bunch of 25-year-olds.

Re: Down with fun: The depressing vogue for having fun at work

#64
post #35

This article tries to say that fake-fun at offices should be banned, but what it actually says is that what modern companies do for fun isn't their idea of fun (their idea of fun seems to involve smoking and drinking and sexually harrassing co-workers). Believe it or not, Googlers love the ball pits and the massages, and Twitter peeps are very appreciative of the HR people whose job it is to make sure everyone's happ…

> involve smoking and drinking and sexually harrassing co-workers I read it as trusting your employees to behave like adults ... like not to get drunk, and to let them engage in harmless flirting or even dating. A wink is not sexual harassment, a joke about sex (even if a little brutal) is not sexual harassment. Also, people have their own habits / vices ... if you've got smokers in your company, provide a place were…

> a joke about sex (even if a little brutal) is not sexual harassment.

That's an issue of quantity and quality, not of the thing per se. Enough jokes about sex aimed at the same person and it could easily be sexual harassment.

Re: Down with fun: The depressing vogue for having fun at work

#67
post #35

This article tries to say that fake-fun at offices should be banned, but what it actually says is that what modern companies do for fun isn't their idea of fun (their idea of fun seems to involve smoking and drinking and sexually harrassing co-workers). Believe it or not, Googlers love the ball pits and the massages, and Twitter peeps are very appreciative of the HR people whose job it is to make sure everyone's happ…

Drinking is very good, and not all office romance is sexual harassment, although it's true the article's examples are . . . unfortunate. I think the article's message is a sound one: Googlers talk about how much they love the ball pits, but I don't know anyone who's gone in more than once. However, we all enjoy the team bar in the hallway. There is something to the idea that "fake fun" is not as fun as "real fun" --…

As a non-drinker and non-smoker I can't speak to the fun of those things anywhere, far less at work. Sexual harrassment would be super-entertaining but probably less so for my co-workers.

So, I guess it's a ball pit for me.

Re: Down with fun: The depressing vogue for having fun at work

#68
post #27

Rather than force fun, I think it's much more effective for management to simply loosen up and let people be themselves. I work at a large company where management doesn't really care how people go about their work, as long as it gets done.

A planned, documented 'team building exercise' has knowable risks and liabilities. "Letting people be themselves" is the stuff of nightmares to HR people.

"organic fun" in workplaces is great while it lasts, but that seems to only be until the first lawsuit.

Re: Down with fun: The depressing vogue for having fun at work

#69
That's not fun. That's smoking, drinking and having sex - adult activities, not the regressive infantilism one usually associates with "workplace fun."

If you smoke at your desk, someone will complain about catching secondary lung cancer or it might trigger an asthma attack. Also, the workplace will stink of cigarette, cigar or pipe smoke - not a good sign if you're trying to win a contract from a health store.

If you drink, you'll get drunk at work. Fights could break out, and you'll screw up work that you should be concentrating on. And if you have to get into a car and take off for the client at a moment's notice whilst still drunk, that's deadly lethal.

Other kinds of drugs? Not really. Drinking at work is close to lawbreaking especially where you might need to drive to a client, but smoking a joint in the office is right out.

As for sex ... forget it. You're not going to work for that. You go to work to earn money for you and the company. Where does that sort of adult activity end? Do you allow open displays of sexual activity? Does your firm only allow straight affairs, or do you still go all Victorian if two lesbians or two gay guys take off on some torrid affair, all open public displays of affection in the workplace?

Think about all those employees at your workplace. Think of the one or two that always crop up, even in the most enlightened offices, who will sneer and grumble "Disgusting" under their breath at the sight of two guys locking lips in the copy room.

I know that firms need policies of fun at work to prevent them becoming grim, isolated monasteries. But smoking, drinking and sex are not the best choices of "fun" to allow in the workplace, any more than conversations about sex, football, politics or religion at the watercooler.

Re: Down with fun: The depressing vogue for having fun at work

#70
post #41
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good points. It does make me wonder, though, what would happen if everyone simply began refusing to do meaningless work. Would the world grind to a halt? I doubt it. I bet we'd eventually figure out how to reorganize things.

You have a revolution brewing there, brother. I'll add to that: what if people would just stop sugarcoating everything & tell what they really think.

You try that. I did that last week and almost got fired (I'm currently experiencing a "fun" work environment, that's why I'm reading).
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