Sometimes work gets SO hard, pressure gets SO intense and deadlines get SO fast - all you can do is laugh till you snort. After all, what is a good laugh without a snort?
There's something cathartic and refreshing about fun @ work; as the legendary English Nanny Mary Poppins once said 'a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down' and isn't that the truth for helping us get through work days that are hard and seemingly never ending?
The idea of fun @ work isn't new; in medieval times Court Jesters played a vital role in the life of European monarchs, they were fools, tension lifters and truth tellers - because especially in those times when life was cheap, the stress could become unbearable if not lightened, sweetened or delivered with a giggle or a snort!
Of course the folks we work with make all the difference to our fun @ work. At 'The Greatest Coffee Company in the World' where I'm blessed to work, we have a FINE crop of funsters; from the quiet, mischievous ones to the louder more extraverted varietals - we know how to have a good time and that having a good time is OK.
I've worked in other environments where fun wasn't encouraged, but instead was viewed as time wasting, trivial and distracting. Big mistake. No, HUGE mistake.
Fun @ work builds bridges of trust and respect that logic can never match. It reveals character and ingenuity that powerpoint can't hope to portray and helps us demonstrate our humanity and connectedness in a way that no personality profile, team building exercise or intervention will ever hold a candle to. Quite simply fun @ work is good!
And don't get me started on the impact of fun @ work on productivity, creativity and problem solving. When we have fun @ work we immediately enter the realm of possibility and 'other-ness', even for a short time we exit our work-constraints and instead push back the boundaries of our minds to make way for more of the ridiculous. These very acts of 'exiting and pushing back' are the little windows through which imagination and innovation can enter the scene, and enter they will if we let them.
So when did you last have SO much fun @ work you snorted?
Is today your time?
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