Make Work Fun for Yourself

"The average person will spend 90,000 hours at work over a lifetime."--Gettysburg College News

For years I prioritized making an impact within my company over all other factors at work. I felt for the longest time that my value came from what I did, or the output that I contributed to my organization, as well as the feedback and recognition I received from colleagues and clients. After Covid hit, however, I switched industries completely from one focusing on travel and experiential education to one centered around technology solutions for businesses. I found myself working with a totally different type of employee--one much more introverted and less likely to provide feedback. I was the only foreigner in the company, parachuted in to a C-suite position previously unheard of--that of Chief Learning Officer. I wasn't used to the hierarchy and there was immediate distance amongst myself and my colleagues. It was a new start for me, and after the initial newness of the position wore off, it wasn't fun anymore. But I could change this and bring back the fun. This drive to find the fun has been my challenge and my motivation.

Without the recognition and connection that I had within my previous company's culture, I realized that I needed to make a change in my own worldview of profession and self-worth. I slowly came to the realization that my value and self-worth can come simply from being who I am, and it doesn't need to come from what I do. After the first few months of growing pains and frustration of being the invisible foreigner in the brand-new mysterious position of CLO, I felt myself undergoing a mindset shift with regards to work, and where I found my own value. I realized that while technology and B2B solutions may not be my passion, it was possible to find my passion for people, organizational culture, and learning within my role. I have stuck with my decision to grow and develop professionally as CLO, and I make "find the fun" by challenging myself to learn everyday. Rather than leaving the company, I decided to shift where I would put my focus and self-worth. It was time to concentrate on creating joy for myself within the boundaries of my new position.

We spend more time at work than we do with our friends or family, so why not focus on making work fun? This is something that my current manager and the Chairman of Pershing Technology Services Corporation (PTSC) where I work said to me in one of our one-on-one meetings. Here was my manager, my "boss" telling me to "make it fun" for the employees in my company. I decided to make it fun for myself as well.

If we can make work fun for ourselves, then surely we can hold up the fun mirror to our colleagues and help facilitate a mindset change, one small victory at a time.

But what does "making it fun" mean? Do we have to play games, pull office pranks, and laugh all the time? These are methods and actions, but they aren't for everyone. Before investing in a surplus of whoopee cushions, we need to hit the pause button and believe that we can make "it" fun just by being ourselves and letting go of our fear of status and rejection.

1. Make going to the office purposeful.

Now that we're living in a day and age where hybrid work is becoming more the norm, we might be asking ourselves why we are in the office in the first place. If we are simply there to do work on our computer screens and not interact at all with our colleagues, then might we better serve ourselves and our company by working from home or in a location that is more comfortable? We may work in a company where our colleagues even prefer to be engaged in intensive screen time. Increasingly, we need to be deliberate about and plan our interactions in advance, setting up face to face dialogues with at least 3 colleagues during our office time, for example, but always embracing the opportunity for chance encounters. If you're thinking about buying yourself a coffee, why not treat a colleague every now and then, spur of the moment? In this way, we can go to the office with the certainty that we'll have present, if not meaningful conversations with colleagues throughout the day. There's always potential for fun whenever there's interaction.

2. Mix it up with the work environment

Let's say that we're unable or uninspired to sit in the same seat for the entire work day. Moving to different locations even within the office may help us to interact with different colleagues, as well as stimulate our minds when we might be stuck in a certain place mentally. Maybe there are cafes nearby our office that can serve as the occasional workspace, even for a couple of hours. There's something about physically moving to different locations that helps with mental stimulation, adds to innovative thinking, and simply refreshes our thoughts. We can attempt to shift our mindsets as if we're going on small holidays whenever we move locations, and this mindset shift will help us to feel more relaxed and have fun as we're working.

3. Give ourselves the chance to be rejected

I realize that this one sounds odd, but it is a practice that I firmly believe in, and one that I try to apply at work as much as possible. There's a lot of fear of rejection with any job where there is hierarchy within the work place. We might want to make a change, or make a suggestion for something we feel will make our job and the lives of our colleagues more comfortable--higher pay, better chairs, Friday drinks, not having to wear long pants at work, etc. The point is, we all have ideas of how we can make our work spaces more fun and productive, but we keep a lot of these ideas within for fear of rejection. We need to give ourselves the chance to be rejected by speaking out, and we can even go so far as changing our mindset towards rejection, seeing each rejection we receive as a stepping stone in the path towards acceptance and success. More on the new chairs next time!

There are countless ways that we can increase the amount of fun we have at work, wherever it is we happen to be working from. This newsletter will explore how professionals strive to bring joy to the workplace, both for their colleagues and for themselves. It is a joy to write, and a joy to share. How do you make your work a playground for yourself and others?