Our work is SO serious! SO important!

So can we allow ourselves a little fun in our work? Why not?

OK, so sometimes the work really is super serious. I want my surgeon to know as much as she can and not play around with my life. But even in this example, you’ll find that medical professionals often develop a wicked sense of humor, to take the sting out of the weight of their work.

People need a bit of a respite.

So how do you find the right balance in YOUR group? How much fun and play should you encourage, or even allow?

First, look at what’s serious about your work and what’s not. Then examine the environment AROUND your work, just stuff that happens that’s really not about producing results. Birthdays. Whether people need to show up exactly on time. What people do for lunch.

I heard a story recently about a workplace where the security guards were getting really serious about whether people would park forward or backwards in the parking stalls. (I’ve actually been there, which is why this stuck in my memory.) Well, the workers started playing around with how they could bring some humor into the situation, and decided that EVERYBODY would park backwards on a particular day.

Evidently the whole team got into a bit of trouble with the boss, but it tells me that they needed to blow off a little steam and found a relatively harmless way to make a point. I’ve seen this kind of pranking at universities as well, and in fact places like MIT are famous for it.

Sure, maybe a little slap on the wrist accompanied by a wink. If it’s not really important, why fret about it?

Let people have some fun.