Enjoyment in Employment 

Many managers, particularly over-stressed managers, believe that the serious world of business is no place for play, fun, happiness, creativity or laughter; I maintain, however, that this belief is so misguided, dangerous and debilitating that it alone can potentially sink the most buoyant workforce. Many of the most successful people in business do not go out to work; they go out to play!

In the oftimes overserious, unimaginative and laborious world of work, comedy is capital, humour is a big-business asset and fun and play can promote profit. A single smile can lift the spirits, well timed mirth can inspire motivation and greater productivity, and appropriate laughter is a universal currency that can raise the stakes almost everywhere. Enjoyment in employment is vital!

Taking my "Enjoyment in Employment" work enhancement packages into the workplace is rewarding, valuable and enriching for companies, managers, employees and customers and clients. Enjoyment in employment is an essential ingredient of creative growth, innovative development and happy enterprise. "Enjoyment in Employment" is a lot of fun, but it is no joke, on the contrary, it is a serious business-minded proposition that is inspired by four key principles of business excellence. 
1. Human Resources, Humour Resources: The most important resources in any workplace are the human resources. Fax, computer, phone and tape are only as effective as the people who operate them. People are the principle asset. The human touch is the Midas touch.

2. Work is a glorious "G.O" - Goldmine Opportunity: Work is not just about getting the job done; it is about learning new skills, enjoying social interaction, developing confidence, fulfilling a purpose, tasting success, learning from apparent failures and experiencing fulfilment. Work can be liberating!

3. Work is a form of play: Work is as natural as play. Many of the truly great business entrepreneurs have been fired by an effervescent spirit of fun, excitement and creative play. The politician and newspaper proprietor, Lord Beaverbrook, for instance, once confessed, "Business is more exciting than any game"

4. Happy people produce happy results: The most effective workforce is a happy workforce that is well valued, highly prized, treated well and allowed to have fun, be creative, innovate, experiment and develop. People come to work not just for employment, but for enjoyment too.


Alas, many managers are currently failing in their primary duty to create a happy environment and a climate of content that is conducive to healthy growth of vital human resources. All too often, fun, creativity, generous praise, work satisfaction and even basic human decency are often sacrificed as being "nice, but non-profitable". As a result, industrial bugs and diseases proliferate such as, high work-stress, communication breakdowns, miserable morale, idea-droughts, absenteeism, high labour turnover, poor productivity levels and quality collapse. 

Theory X, Theory Y

Douglas Mcgregor outlined two opposing management philosophies of work called "Theory X" and "Theory Y" in his book, "The Human Side of Enterprise".

Theory X distrusts fun; Theory X also distrusts human beings! According to Theory X, work is undesirable and disagreeable; money is the only motivation for work; workers want to get away with as little as possible; workers see responsibility as a burden; creativity is exclusive to management; and, workers need to be marshalled, manipulated and forcibly led. 

By contrast, Theory Y attitudes support the integrity of the human spirit and the importance of fun, creativity and enterprise. According to Theory Y, work can be interesting and rewarding; a sense of purpose and fulfilment are obvious motivations for work; workers respond well to positive reinforcement and to being given personal responsibility; everybody has creative potential and an opinion well worth listening to; the more you treat a worker well, the more a worker will want to work well.

"Enjoyment in Employment" is a Theory Y management philosophy which believes work can be for pleasure and not just pain. Social psychology surveys identify that work is potentially a very valuable source of happiness for both men and women. These surveys also identify, however, that job dissatisfaction is for many people the major number one cause of personal unhappiness in life. Unhappy people tend to produce unhappy results. Work need not be a punishment, a labour, a struggle or a form of imprisonment. 

It is in the interest of all us - managers, colleagues, workers, clients and customers - that we make work joyful, fun and happy. 

Humour Benefits

The enlightened "Lighten-it-Up" manager recognizes that because people have to invest such a large chunk of life into work, every possible effort should be made to ensure work is fun, lively, enjoyable and rewarding. A highly-valued, well-motivated, happy workforce that is sincerely cared for also makes a lot of economic sense. 

More and more companies, big and small, are happy to entertain the idea of humour programmes for the workplace. Companies are gradually beginning to witness that to care for the health, happiness and welfare of its employees can actually be a cost-effective moral obligation that pays a hat full of happy dividends. "I Care-You Matter-This Job Should Be Fun" companies, as business consultant Bob Basso calls them, are not only highly pleasurable to work for, they are also highly profitable.

An increasing number of business humour initiatives are now being set up, and they come in many different colours, forms, shapes and sizes. More and more training programmes, in particular, are experimenting with interesting sounding workshops like, "The Joy of Stress", "Team Spirit", "The Time of Your Life" and "Smile Management". Other humour initiatives include executive juggling, stress buster days, fun committees, orienteering adventures and comedy clubs.

Perhaps the key overall benefit of a humour initiative is that, humour and happiness help to make hard work easier. A few more essential benefits are listed below.


Happy Creativity: Joel Goodman of the Humor Project explores the intimate relationship between the "AHA" of creativity and the "HAHA" of laughter and fun. "Humour and creativity are at least kissing cousins," he explains. An appetite for fun and a capacity for creativity are often each a product of one another. 

Stress Busting: Companies pay heavily for an absence of mirth, merriment and wit in the workplace because an absence of humour is a classic sign of too much negative stress. An absence of humour also leaves an individual and team that much more prone to further outbreaks of negative stress. 

Team Spirit: A free exchange of supportive fun, humour and laughter between members of a team can enrich the experience of each team member. Benefits include, better team work, healthy cooperation, loyalty, mutual respect, strong performances, an appetite for hard work, and better communication.

Motivation and Morale: Fun can be, an aim of work, a product of work, a reward of work and an excellent work motivator. Work for the sake of fun is always more rewarding than work for the sake of work. Those of us who work for fun keep on running long after the workers who work only for work have wilted, waned and collapsed by the way-side. 

Communication: Approximately only 15 per cent of company employees read their company reports, the main reason being that most company reports are dry, dull and distinctly unimaginative. Memos, faxes, telephone messages, bulletin boards, goal sheets and meeting minutes that are presented humourously, imaginatively or with creative aforethought tend to give pleasure, make a point and inspire a productive, positive response.

Happy Working Relationships: American humour consultant, Malcolm Kushner, recommends in his book, The Light Touch "Just ask yourself these questions: Do you know someone who lacks a sense of humour? How do you feel about this person? Do you try to minimize your interactions with him or her? Do you try to avoid doing business with this person? Your answers should suggest why humour can play such an important role in establishing business relationships."

Productivity: The most productive workforce in the world is a healthy, happy workforce led by a healthy, happy, "I can hear you" management team. Enjoyment energizes employees; fun keeps us fighting fit; and mirth makes for merry motivation and morale. 

Better‚health and less absenteeism: Matt Weinstein, a humour consultant in Berkeley, states "If you take yourself too seriously, there's an excellent chance you may end up seriously ill". Conversely, work can be a wonderful medicine, particularly where a spirit of fun, play and creativity is encouraged.

Quality Control: Bob Basso and Judi Klosek paint a portrait of a new, modern type of manager called the Light Manager in their book, This Job Should be Fun. They assert that a chief qualification for being a Light Manager is,"To realize that the only way to improve quality is to allow people to enjoy their work, laugh, celebrate, and feel good".

Mirth is a Marketing Tool: A smile is one of the powerful selling agents in the world. The next time you sit before your television set, count the number of advertisements that use humour, laughter and smiles to create attention, stimulate positive interest and help you to make up your mind! 



Humour Initiatives

The most valuable benefits of any business humour initiative are the bonding and liberating effects on team spirit. Supportive humour keeps the spirit of a team both happy and healthy. More and more companies are turning to humour programmes to enrich the spirit of their teams, and, thereby, enrich the quality and profitability of their work.

Initiative #1: Fun Committees. The principal aim of a Fun Committee is to inject a spirit of fun and happiness into all parts of the workplace. A Fun Committee is made up of between four and eight democratically elected M.D.'s (Mirth Directors) who are representative of the entire company structure. All company employees can forward suggestions to the M.D.s who hold a Fun Committee meeting once a month or so. The very best ideas are then put forward to the managing director for serious consideration. 

Initiative #2: More and more companies are now exploring the possible positive benefits of Fun Committees, or M.I.M.E. Groups (Make It More Enjoyable) as they are sometimes called. Some typical ideas inspired by Fun Committees include: a birthday party policy for company employees; Christmas Parties and Financial New Year Parties; a holiday photograph board; company memorabilia, such as T shirts, car stickers, badges and crazy mugs; colourful memos; and red carpet visits for "New Company Baby Day".

Initiative #3: Laughter Rooms. One of the chief functions of a Fun Committee can be to create a Laughter Room for employees to play in during their lunch breaks and coffee breaks. Step One, circulate a questionnaire to all employees asking them what they would like to see in the Laughter Room. Step Two, make an order for funny videos, books, cartoon manuals, comedy cassettes and anything else that your budget can handle. Step Three, have a well publicised opening day. Step Four, devise a lending scheme. Step Five, enjoy it! A Laughter Room is one of the best refreshments available to a hard working workforce. 

Initiative #4 "HAHA" Team: The term, "HAHA", stands for "Honorary After Hours Activities". A typical HAHA Team is made up of a representative organizing committee who aim to put on events, entertainments and other social opportunities for company employees and their families. Theatre trips, cinema visits, orchestra nights, "Meal of the Month" evenings, wine and cheese evenings; company allotments; sports teams for local leagues; and, even a company holiday club are just some of the initiatives inspired by HAHA teams. One of the big bonus benefits of a HAHA team is that they can often achieve cheap rates by group-booking.

Initiative #5: Save the Environment Squads. Productive teams need a productive environment, and a productive environment requires constant creative and imaginative attention. The aim of the Save the Environment Squad is to ensure that the working environment always remains clean, healthy and inspirational. Some of the chief considerations for this action squad will include, lighting, colour schemes, office furniture, music, office fragrances, bright bulletin boards, pictures and posters, ionizers, temperature control, air conditioning, electromagnetic protection and VDU guidelines, for example. Excellence is inspired by a happy environment.

Initiative #6: Company Newsletter: A company newsletter is a wonderful communication tool for encouraging team spirit, motivation and morale, fun, corporate identity and a positive interest in company affairs. The best company newsletters are created and designed in-house. Positive features of a company newsletter may include, personal employee profiles, a good news column, competitions, quizzes and crosswords, a classified advertising section, awards, progress updates and a promotions column. An imaginative public relations officer will also attract outside advertising and local special offers and opportunities for company employees. 

Initiative #7: Stress Buster Days: A fundamental aim of all company policies should be the reduction and elimination of all negative and unnecessary stress. The most productive and profitable of companies are "people orientated companies" that are happy to care for the health, happiness and welfare of its employees. Company culture should be committed to removing the waste and misery that is caused by bad stress. Stress Buster days are as much about prevention as about cure - these events can work wonders for a wobbly team spirit and low company morale. 

Initiative #8: Quality Circles: A quality circle is a positive worker participation scheme that aims to devise and introduce methods for improving work quality, solving production problems, reorganizing workspaces, simplifying and improving work structures, communicating workers' needs, reviewing training needs, enhancing communication systems and offering professional support to employees. Quality of work is a melody that makes work more fun, enjoyable, highly satisfactory and personally very rewarding. 

Initiative #9: Fun Raising! Create a "Joke Wall"; devise a company mascot competition; start a Monday Club to banish the "Thank God it's Friday" feeling; hold a Financial New Year Party as well as a New Year bash; create a games room; reward your workforce imaginatively and impressively; hold imaginative Fun (d) Raising days. Never miss an opportunity to create fun. 

"Enjoyment in Employment" asserts that people with a winning smile win because they smile! In today's competitive, cut-and-thrust business climate, people need their full creative potential for personal victory - a part of that creative potential includes humour. Don't go to work tomorrow; go to play!