Does your boss want you to have more fun at work?

Dec 2012

I recently asked my Facebook friends to tell me the name of their employer’s in-house group dedicated to making work more fun. Here’s what I heard from friends who work at for-profits:

The last place I worked had the BEST workplace culture… It was usually the “Marketing Team” who organized the parties, outings, etc. But sometimes specific committees were created. “Make Art | Drink Wine Committee” for example.

At my last big agency we had Ginger who walked around giving us beer and making us talk to people who weren’t programmers.

My workplace has each department do it. A few weeks ago the director of mind sciences had a Chinese monk come in and teach us tai chi. It was amazing!

Those who work at non-profits offered these answers:

Wait…we’re supposed to have fun? In seriousness though our “special events” department takes care of those things, such as they are.

“Staff Council” lol

My employer has just recently started taking this seriously, scheduling monthly movie breaks in the conference room, bringing in a Foosball table and setting up a Foosball tournament, etc., but no official title (yet). One of the major points in our five-year strategic plan is “Rewarding Experiences” for staff.

At a seven person non-profit, our development director organizes FUNdraisers. I wish I worked somewhere with a group to make work more fun. That sounds nice.

I call myself the Party Planning Committee (cause I watch “The Office” too much), and occasionally corral others into planning things with me. But otherwise, fun isn’t in the budget.

 

Looks like there is some work to do in closing the divide between for- and non-profit workplace cultures. What’s the name of your in-house committee working to improve culture?


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