Encouraging
fun at work produces
positive results for you
By
Jim Collison, President, Employers of America
Coach to America's Employers
Stop having
fun at work? That's what Joan O'C. Hamilton urges, writing
in Business Week E.Biz (May 15, 2000).
The thrust
of her article is that "workers -and their families
-can do with less company-sponsored merriment." "Can
We Stop Having Fun Yet?" the headline blares. She
reports examples
of organized, employer-sponsored fun-and-games, then
ends with this:
"I must close with a sentiment that I've heard muttered
at plenty of (Silicon) Valley shindigs: 'Wouldn't it
be great if we could just have the cash they spent on
all this?'
I'll give
Hamilton this: There certainly are people who go too
far in goofing off. And there are workplaces where having
fun gets turned into having frat parties. Hamilton, in
her column, says, "...I am here today to speak for
the victims. The poor, downtrodden employees yearning
to go home. The party-pooping, costume- hating working
stiffs."
The reality
is that too few people are having fun at work. And there
is plenty of evidence (in addition to common sense) that
suggests employees who have fun at work also make more
money for their employers. Hamilton, referring to comments
from bankroller George Zachery of Mohr, Davidow Ventures,
writes, "he notes that the real game is making money,
not mischief." Well, the fact is that people who
are having fun in their work are helping make the money
grow.
It's just
possible that working stiffs (to some degree, isn't that
all of us drawing paychecks?) can have fun now and then
while they work, just as professional athletes get some
pleasure in their work. Here's Paul Sullivan, writing
in the Chicago Tribune of Sammy Sosa's slamming
a two-run home run to tie a game with the White Sox: "...Sosa
hopped high into the air and instantly went into airplane
mode, running to first with his arms extended outward
like a little kid in his back yard." What's wrong
with working stiffs enjoying their work like little kids
in their back yards?
Nothings
wrong with it! In fact, it makes good, bottom line business
sense to encourage fun at work. Here's some evidence
for Hamilton and other scowling naysayers:
- Ninety-six
percent of execs (in a survey by Accountemps) believe
people with a sense of humor do better in their jobs
than those who have little or no sense of humor. (HRFocus, Feb.
'93)
- Employees
who take part in silly games think more creatively
and develop more innovative solutions to problems.
A Cornell University study found that people who'd
just seen a funny movie increased their "creative
flexibility." (HR Focus, Feb. '93)
- Employees
with the Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver,
after viewing humorous training films and attending
workshops, showed a 25% decrease in downtime and a
60% increase in job satisfaction. (HR Focus, Feb.
'93)Twenty
middle managers at Digital Equipment Corp., in Colorado
Springs, increased their productivity by 15% and reduced
their sick days by half...in the nine months following
a workshop conducted by a humor consultant. (HR Focus, Feb.
'93)
- A
survey of 329 company executives found that 97% agreed
that humor is valuable in business...and 60% felt that
a sense of humor can be a deciding factor in determining
how successful a person can be in the work world. Another
survey found that 84% of personnel directors interviewed
said that employees with a sense of humor do better
work. (Terry Braverman, Training and Development magazine,
July '93.)
- An
HR survey found that a majority of workers think their
offices are too bleak. ("Let the Good Times Roll:
Building a fun culture," in Harvard Management
Up- date.)
- Here's
one for Hamilton and other sour skeptics to consider:
Pessimists die earlier. That's the conclusion of a
study of 839 patients who originally came to the Mayo
Clinic in the early 1960s. They were given a detailed
personality test, including an optimism-pessimism scale.
Researchers followed up 30 years later. They found
that the optimists in the tested group lived longer
than the pessimists. (Mayo Clinic Proceedings)
- For
those, like Hamilton and people she quotes, who grouse
that they'd rather have the money than the fun...consider
the study by Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.. In a test,
the manager of special accounts marketing offered cash
rewards to half the participants in the test. He offered
non-cash rewards to the other half of the participants.
Those participating were sales associates and managers
at 900 company-owned stores and service centers. Result:
Those rewarded with non-cash produced results almost
50% greater than those offered just cash.
The studies
confirm that almost always people will forget the little
extra money...but will remember, and appreciate, the
little extra fun.
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