Workers Just Want To Have Fun

Thanks to BBC Radio Solent for inviting me on to their Saturday morning show to talk about fun in the workplace.  (Though it did provoke some fury in The Offspring, who don't like to be disturbed from their regular Saturday morning date with Toonattik - "Muuuuuum, what are you doing uuuuuup!   Go back to bed!")

Anyway, Solent's attention had been drawn to this report in The Sunday Times.  Apparently the workplace is a fun place to be these days, with companies investing in ever more exotic ways to keep their staff smiling.  A happy workforce is a more productive workforce, the theory goes.  Also it's far more expensive to recruit new staff than it is to keep the workers you've already got, so anything that aids the staff-retention mission makes economic sense. 

Obviously this won't work with every workplace - you wouldn't want to turn up to your local funeral parlour to find the staff doing a conga or playing table football.  And if you've seen The Office, you'll know the inevitable conclusion of a boss imposing their definition of fun on a workforce.

As for the reported army of "fun-sultants" who are apparently beaming in to help with this corporte sanctioned merriment - ye gods!  If you ever turn up to work and your boss says that the fun-sultants are coming in today, just turn on your heel and walk away fast.  Or maybe that's just me.

When I am working with a client who wants to find a new job, one of the first things we do is to look at what their ideal job might consist of.  And the interesting thing is that fun doesn't always figure terribly highly in the list.  Far more highly prized are

• Flexibility - this is the biggie, particularly for working parents.  People resent the culture of presenteeism and want some choice over when, where and how they work.
• Fulfillment - people want to feel like their work makes a positive difference to the world and preferably enhances it in some way
• Creativity - people like to be challenged to create something new.  Stimulates the grey cells, keeps you alive.
• A sense of autonomy and choice - people want a sense that they have some control over what they do.

Basically, nobody wants to feel like a hamster in a wheel, taking pointless action which ultimately leads nowhere.  It's good if your culture at work has space for fun, but that won't neccessarily be enough to make a workforce feel valued enough to want to stay.  Buying a round of lollipops is not enough.