Should Work Be More Fun?

"Work is a 4-letter word", "Why do you think they call it work?", "I owe, I owe, so it's off to work I go."

Here's the million dollar question: Should you have fun at work?

We just had our quarterly staff meeting yesterday and Susie was clever enough to point out, though the economy is still ruddy awful and that things are tough, yes, it's still a time to have fun.

We've had a few staff meetings in the past based around the book Fish, which is a philosophy involving these four practices: Be There, Play, Make Their Day, and Choose Your Attitude.

It's an inspirational (but mildly fictitious) read, if you're looking for something to brighten up an outlook during these difficult days.

And it's exactly why we took some time yesterday to reconnect as a team, eat some amazing Greek food, play games (like leading a blindfolded partner across a "minefield"), and swap ideas with each other about how to overcome our most common fears, create better customer service, and work better as a group. (A huge hat tip to Julia for throwing an amazing meeting!)

And for those naysayers that say having fun at work doesn't pan out, I give you these small studies by the Fun Theory (a group sponsored by Volkswagen) which prove if things are fun, people will go the extra mile - whether it means walking up the stairs instead of taking the escalator or throwing trash away in a bin rather than on the ground.

Thoughts?