5-12-10 Shoulda Told Me #10

In the past, I’ve talked about how you should find a career that follows your passion (3-19-10 A Couple of Things to Consider and 3-15-10 Do Overs?). Here’s another reason why this is important. Work isn’t always fun. Big surprise, eh? We’ve all heard the cliché --- “that’s why it is called work”.

And as I’ve said before, your career is way too long to not have a passion for what you are doing.

The corollary to that is…. Life is way too short not to have fun along the way. That means your work life too. Yes, there are times when you have to be serious and studious at work. But there are also times when you should be enjoying yourself and having fun at work. Just don’t take it too far.

A few years back, the department I was in started up a “have fun at work” team. I mean, really, do we need a TEAM to help us have fun? In this case, apparently our bosses thought so --- thought that they could introduce a more enjoyable experience to our daily lives through this team. Interestingly, it was mildly successful. But just as interesting, it didn’t really last long.

Why? Because in my opinion, having fun at work cannot be forced. It doesn’t work so well when someone looks at you and says, “okay, for the next hour everyone have fun!”, right? Having fun at work is spontaneous. And it is unique to the individual or to the team.

So having said that you should have fun at work, I should also point out that there are limits. You should never have fun at someone else’s expense. You should never use “blue humor”. And you should never engage at inappropriate behavior on the way to having fun.

Still, I wish someone had told me early on in my career that is was okay, in fact encouraged, to have some fun at work. It makes the days fly by. And it creates an environment where people WANT to be in your organization. It gives you an edge in attracting and retaining the best (including yourself!). So look for those opportunities where you and those around you can have a good time.

Cheers!