Who would say work was fun? Your job might be rewarding (some of the time). You may get on with your colleagues (some of them). But fun? It seems simultaneously too grand an ambition and too small.<\/p>\n
After the work-centric \u201chustle culture\u201d of the 2010s, then the backlash and widespread burnout brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, the general feeling around work right now could be described as ambivalent at best. At worst, it\u2019s openly combative, as evinced by frequent references to the \u201cbattle\u201d over working from home. Managers want employees back in the office; employees want flexibility, and to limit work\u2019s impact on their lives.<\/p>\n
Gen Z, who have replaced millennials as the youthful influence shaping the workforce, are especially adamant that it should not intrude on their boundaries. Meanwhile, AI looms, threatening large-scale unemployment.<\/p>\n
The world of work is in flux, with a fight for our time and our livelihoods at the centre. Fun doesn\u2019t seem to factor into it \u2013 but Bree Groff argues that it should.<\/p>\n
Employees ask themselves, \u2018Wait, do I want to change the world, or do I want to go home and cook dinner?\u2019<\/p>\n
An organisational consultant and \u201cchange expert\u201d at the New York-based company SYPartners, Groff has worked with C-suite leaders \u2013 people whose job titles begin with the word \u201cchief\u201d \u2013 at Google, Microsoft, Hilton, Calvin Klein, Pfizer and other big names, to transform their corporate culture and improve their employees\u2019 time at work. She has drawn on that experience for her first book, Today Was Fun, which makes the case for a new approach: what if work was neither our only source of meaning, nor a necessary evil to be endured \u2013 but a \u201cnice way to spend our days\u201d?<\/p>\n
It may sound naive, but Groff\u2019s breezy tone belies the wisdom of her point: work should be enjoyable. Too often, it is wildly out of proportion: we either \u201clive to work\u201d, and equate our personal worth with our productivity, our jobs with ourselves; or we\u2019re resigned to the fact \u201cwork sucks\u201d, and live for the weekend.<\/p>\n
Neither view is particularly healthy, sustainable or rewarding. Today Was Fun calls for a recalibration, simultaneously raising and reducing our expectations of the space work should take up in our lives. As Groff puts it in the book, \u201cWork should be a source of joy, because it\u2019s fundamentally good \u2013 and it should be only one of many joys.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Work is showing off our skills, working with others, figuring out challenges. That\u2019s all fun.\u2019 Photograph: Abraham Gonzalez Fernandez\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Her own reckoning with work came in January 2022, when her mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer; her father had already been diagnosed with Alzheimer\u2019s. An only child, Groff took immediate leave to dedicate herself to their care. When her mother died later that year, it gave Groff a new perspective on how she was spending her time, she says. \u201cI\u2019m going to run out of Mondays, just like my mother ran out of Mondays \u2026 there was this newfound urgency.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the same time, Groff was alert to the post-pandemic crisis in employee engagement, manifesting in \u201cthe Great Resignation<\/a>\u201d and \u201cquiet quitting<\/a>\u201d, or doing the bare minimum. \u201cI felt like I had something that I could share that would help people,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Groff knew \u201cfor a fact\u201d that work could be fun. She grew up in Chicago, where her mother was a kindergarten teacher and her father was an elementary school principal. Both evidently loved their jobs, without letting them derail their lives or define their identities.<\/p>\n It was a shock, when Groff entered the working world herself, to find it weighed down by so much baggage: back-to-back meetings, no time for bathroom or meal breaks, emails at all hours and busy work with no obvious point. The trouble is not so much work itself, Groff says, but all the \u201cpatently ridiculous, if not outright dangerous\u201d trappings and norms that come with it \u2013 chief among them the expectation that it may come at the expense of sleep, relationships or wellbeing.<\/p>\n We get paid to create value, not to suffer, Groff points out. \u201cAt its most essential, work is showing off our skills, creating something other people appreciate, working with others, figuring out challenges. If that\u2019s all fun, then how can we save that part?\u201d<\/p>\n One way, she suggests, is by tackling \u201cprofessionalism\u201d. It\u2019s usually prescriptive, allowing for only one version of leadership or success, and discourages people from showing up at work as rounded human beings. \u201cYou just sort of have to play along, like you\u2019re in some sort of performance,\u201d Groff says.<\/p>\n \u2018Professional dress codes are dreary, rigid and infantilising.\u2019 Photograph: Neumann Und Rodtmann\/Getty Images<\/p>\n She appears on Zoom today with her hair still wet from the shower. In the book, she describes this as one of her small but routine displays of resistance to professional dress codes \u2013 which, she argues, are representative of an approach to work that\u2019s unnecessarily dreary, rigid and even infantilising. \u201cYou\u2019re just as smart in your workout gear as you would be in a blouse,\u201d Groff says, when I confess to wearing leggings off-camera.<\/p>\n But, since the post-pandemic reckoning, there is a widespread feeling of fatalism that prevents us from aspiring to make work better. \u201cWe\u2019ve normalised this idea that work is just drudgery and we do it because we have to,\u201d says Groff.<\/p>\n It may reflect an overcorrection to hustle culture, born of the Silicon Valley startup boom. Tech founders and influencer-entrepreneurs taught a generation that you could achieve anything if you just leaned in and embraced the \u201cgrindset\u201d. With company perks such as free meals, bottomless snacks and even office ball pits<\/a>, it didn\u2019t even have to be a sacrifice \u2013 work could be fun.<\/p>\n Groff rejects that version as being more of a bribe. \u201cCompanies want employees to have fun so they overwork and devote their lives to the business,\u201d she says. \u201cYou start to think: \u2018Wait, was that a free lunch just so that I don\u2019t leave the building?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Even learning and development, often framed as a benefit, could be seen as cultivating people to be company assets, Groff says. With Apple, Meta, Google and other big companies even footing the bill for employees to freeze their eggs<\/a>, \u201cyou start to enter this dystopia \u2026 The more we intertwine ourselves with our employers, the harder it is to feel a sense of independence, and the harder it is to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, since burnout became a mainstream concern, there is greater awareness that over-investment in work as a source of happiness, identity or meaning leaves people open to being exploited.<\/p>\n The fact is, Groff continues, C-suite executives have a greater stake in the success of their businesses, as is reflected in their paychecks. They shouldn\u2019t expect the rest of the workforce to feel equally motivated to go above and beyond.<\/p>\n Think of what needs to be in place first. If you\u2019re stressed and sleep-deprived, you\u2019re probably not having fun<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s so obvious for leaders to tout that message that \u2018we\u2019re changing the world\u2019, but it puts any employee in the position of asking themselves, \u2018Wait, do I want to change the world, or do I want to go home and cook dinner?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The tussle over hybrid and remote working is causing trust to break down on both sides, Groff says, encouraging surveillance from management and presenteeism \u2013 showing up to work while unwell and being less productive \u2013 from employees. Lack of flexibility is also widely cited as a factor in plummeting levels of employee engagement. Gallup\u2019s recent State of the Global Workplace<\/a> report found that just one in 10 UK workers felt engaged, one of the lowest rates globally. In the US, it was nearly one in three \u2013 still a 10-year low<\/a>.<\/p>\n Perhaps, Groff suggests, if work was more fun, there wouldn\u2019t be the same power play over where people do their work; they may even be eager to come into the office.<\/p>\n Fun has repeatedly been shown to be a factor in the difference between thriving and just surviving at work. Gallup\u2019s survey of German adults<\/a> found that 81% of engaged workers reported having fun at work in the past week, compared with only 10% of those who were disengaged. \u201cBeing miserable at work can even make your life worse than having no work at all,\u201d researchers concluded.<\/p>\n \u2018Was that a free lunch just so I don\u2019t leave the building?\u2019 Photograph: Tashi-Delek\/Getty Images<\/p>\n There is a \u201cmassive\u201d business case for making work more fun \u2013 but that\u2019s not why we should prioritise it, Groff says. In Today Was Fun, she likens it to rest: good for productivity, \u201cbut far more important is that [it] is good for enjoying your life\u201d.<\/p>\n Fun is a good metric because it\u2019s hard to force, or fake. Instead of trying to lure workers back to the office with free lunches, employers could consider what it feels like to spend time there, says Groff. \u201cAre people \u2013 especially the leaders \u2013 relaxed and happy and joking? Is it a fun place to be, or is everybody just in meeting rooms in their button-downs all day?\u201d<\/p>\n Though Groff\u2019s focus is primarily on office workers, everyone\u2019s experience of work could be improved by making it more fun, she argues. \u201cMaybe you work at the steel mill, but there\u2019s got to be a break room somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n Even surgeons sometimes joke around. In Today Was Fun, Groff uses the example of Peter Attia, a Stanford-educated surgeon who went through a period of playing clips from the cult film Napoleon Dynamite while performing various transplants. \u201cFor an entire month \u2026 we never stopped laughing at this thing,\u201d Attia said on his podcast, adding that, if anything, it seemed to improve patients\u2019 outcomes.<\/p>\n While it\u2019s unrealistic to expect work to be all fun, all the time, believing that \u201cmost work, most days, should be fun\u201d can give us a helpful steer. \u201cDid I have fun today?\u201d can be an unexpectedly clarifying question. \u201cThink of what needs to be in place first. If you\u2019re stressed and sleep-deprived, you\u2019re probably not having fun,\u201d Groff says.<\/p>\n Of course, Groff acknowledges, sometimes a job is just a job, especially during an economic downturn. But even small tweaks to your role can make a difference to your day-to-day experience. \u201cUsually, with a little bit of planning, you can make some sort of shift. I think it\u2019s still possible for us to say, \u2018What are the kinds of days I want to have?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Life is too short to spend five days out of every seven willing time to pass. Our ability to have fun could even prove our competitive edge against AI. Robots, after all, can\u2019t have fun \u2013 so they can take on all the boring, repetitive or soul-sucking bits, Groff suggests, and we can find an approach to work that prioritises joy, relationships and wellbeing.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t need to feel like I\u2019m changing the world, and I don\u2019t want to feel crappy about it \u2013 but is there a way to have a good day, improve somebody else\u2019s life, maybe make a friend? Maybe that\u2019s plenty.\u201d<\/p>\n As we say our goodbyes, Groff with her hair still wet and my cat joining me on camera, we both agree: today was fun.<\/p>\n Five ways to make work more fun<\/p>\n Make it more personal Check in with your colleagues Share your \u2018user manuals\u2019 \u2018Thin-slice\u2019 your joy Go where the fun is Today Was Fun by Bree Groff (Page Two Books, Inc., \u00a319.99). To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com<\/a>. Delivery charges may apply.<\/p>\n Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters<\/a> section, please click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Who would say work was fun? Your job might be rewarding (some of the time). 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Much of what\u2019s considered \u201cprofessional\u201d isn\u2019t actually necessary to do your job. Groff suggests doing what you can to personalise or humanise your experience. You could kit out your desk with mementoes from home or holiday, stationery that puts your stamp on your work or fidget toys that help you focus. You could express your individuality through \u201cdopamine dressing\u201d, wearing clothes that bring you joy. Simply avoiding the use of jargon goes a long way.<\/p>\n
Our experience of work is largely shaped by our immediate colleagues. Groff suggests leaders can foster team spirit and cohesion by holding a daily check-in, where everyone shares how they are feeling on a scale of one to five \u2013 as demonstrated by a show of fingers. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to care about how each other is doing,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Everyone likes to work in different ways. Asking your colleagues about their individual styles and preferences, and communicating your own, may alleviate the friction that prevents work from being fun and help build deeper relationships. Groff suggests team members ask each other how they respond to stress, and how their colleagues can help them, and discuss the skills they\u2019d be eager to share or learn. You could even put together individual \u201cuser manuals\u201d.<\/p>\n
During hard times, in or out of work, it\u2019s still possible to have a good day, hour, or even minute \u2013 what Groff calls \u201cthin-slicing\u201d joy. Treat yourself to a coffee before a tough meeting, go for a walk at lunchtime and take note of the blooms or greenery, or schedule a call with a colleague to vent. Even just cracking a joke can lighten the load and ease a tough day.<\/p>\n
If, despite your best efforts, your workplace remains stubbornly un-fun, Groff suggests it may be time to move on. \u201cYou don\u2019t need a fancy, well-reasoned argument for leaving a role \u2026 Every day you spend in a role that isn\u2019t working for you is one of your precious and finite days on this planet.\u201d<\/p>\n