

Down with fun: The depressing vogue for having fun at work - v4us
http://www.economist.com/node/17035923

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blhack
The problem is that you have to allow people to have fun on their own, not
force them to.

It's the same as when I was 10 years old and my mom told me that I had to
clean my room; I wanted me room clean, I didn't like it that there was no
space on the floor to play, but as soon as she told me that I _had_ to do it,
it became a chore and I didn't want to anymore.

At my current job, a major part of my responsibility is coming up with
advertisements (The marketing goons joke that I made the "mistake" of speaking
up a couple of years ago that I do graphic design as a hobby). The best things
I've ever come up with, and the things that they have liked the best, have
been done when I've been sortof joking around in my DTP software. Some of the
best stuff started off as a joke.

Contrast this with telling me that I _must_ have something done by the end of
the day _or else_. This stuff almost _never_ comes out looking good.

Companies should let adults be adults. If I want to keep a minifridge full of
beer under my desk, but I keep it under control and my job continues to get
done, then why not?

That is one thing that, largely, my company has gotten right. I have the
freedom to work pretty much anywhere in the office that I want. If I decide to
sit out in the cubicle farm and mingle with the accounting people, I can. If I
want to take my laptop up stairs and sit in the storage room, I can do that
too.

I just wish that they would see the correlation between "letting Ryan work
where and how he is comfortable" and "things are getting done and we are
loving them".

How is this related to TFA? You have to let things happen organically. You
can't tell people that they're having fun, you have to let them do it on their
own. You can't tell me to "just get creative", you have to let me do it on my
own.

