September 23, 2010 at 00:39Down with the fun!
- Transfer
I present to you the translation of an article on the theme of the so-called “corporate fun” so popular in our time.
One of the pleasures of watching the movie Mad Men, the drama about the advertising industry of the early 60s of the last century, is a comparative assessment of how much office work has changed over the years. One of the obvious changes allows humanity to be proud of itself: people no longer treat women as second-class citizens. But another obvious change causes exactly the opposite feelings: people have lost the art of enjoying a stay in the workplace.
In those days, advertising workers enjoyed simple things. They smoked at the workplace. They drank during working hours. They made love affairs with colleagues. They did not communicate in order to make friends, but in order to get drunk together.
Nowadays, many companies are obsessed with "fun." Silicon Valley software companies set up mountain climbing walls right in the lobby and scatter inflatable toys around the office. Wal-Mart makes its cashiers smile at everyone and always. The cult of "fun" has spread like a disgusting contagious disease. The American IT company Acclaris has a “chief fun officer” on its staff. The structure of TD Bank (the American branch of the Canadian Toronto Dominion) has a “Wow!” Department, which has costumed teams who arrange “pleasant surprises” for good employees. Red Bull installed a slide for riding in the London office.
Fun at work becomes a business with its own rules. India, Madan Kataria, positioning itself as a “giu-giggling”, provides corporate clients with “fun yoga” services. The British company “Fun at Work”) offers “more fun than you can bear”, including replacing the reception clerk with characters from the popular (in Britain) “Ab Fab” series. The London-based company Chiswick Park advertises itself under the slogan "enjoy-work" ("enjoy-work") and holds events at lunchtime such as shearing sheep or grazing geese.
The cult of fun grows in breadth and depth. The recognized champion is Google: its employees are happy with volleyball courts, bike paths, a yellow brick road, a dinosaur statue, regular roller hockey games and several professional masseuses. But two other companies have challenged Google: Twitter (a microblogging service) and Zappos (an online shoe store).
Twitter's website deliberately emphasizes the company's insanity: workers wear cowboy hats and say, “Crazy things happen every day ... and this is ridiculous.” The company has a team whose work is to make other employees happy: for example, distribute cold towels in the heat. Zabble boasts that “fun and little oddities” is one of the company's core values. Zabble director Tony Hsieh shaves his head baldly and spends 10% of his time studying what is called the “science of happiness”. He once joked that Zappos was suing the Walt Disney Company for the right to be called "the happiest place on earth." The company encourages regular "random acts of courtesy": employees line up in a noisy line and single out one of their colleagues for "praise."
This cult is governed by the three most popular management quirks at the moment: delegation of authority, engagement, and creativity. Many companies are proud to empower first-line workers. But studies show that only 20% of employees are fully committed to their work. And there are even fewer creative ones among them. Managers hope the fun will magically help captivate employees and make them more creative. But the problem is that as soon as it becomes part of corporate policy, the fun loses its appeal and becomes the exact opposite: at best a waste of time, at worst a tedious duty.
The most unpleasant thing about this fun mode is that it is involved in a large dose of coercion. Companies like Zappos not only welcome the “nuts”, but to one degree or another require it. Forced fun almost always gives back slavishly. Twitter calls its office Twofis. Boston Pizza encourages employees to send "golden bananas" to those of their colleagues who can "have fun and be the best at the same time." A rough managerial calculation is often hidden behind the facade of “fun”: the desire to position your company as the best among your competitors, or to improve productivity through team building. Twitter even boasts of "working hard to create an environment that exudes productivity and happiness."
Along with imposing ersatz fun on their employees, companies are fighting against other things. Some force smokers to hide, like criminals. Only a few are allowed to drink at lunchtime or leave early. A whole army of amateurs to interfere in other people's affairs - from lawyers to HR workers - is waging war against “romance in the office,” especially between people of different ranks. Hewlett-Packard, for example, recently dismissed a very successful top manager, Mark Hurd, after one of the contractors made a very vague statement about sexual harassment (the case was subsequently settled peacefully). Khurd was immediately intercepted by HP rival - Oracle.
Fake merchants met with some resistance. For example, when Wal-Mart tried to impose alien orders on its German employees (such as a mandatory smile and a ban on romantic relationships in the workplace), he thereby provoked a guerrilla war, which ended only when it was declared in 2006, that this supermarket chain is leaving Germany. But such victories are extremely rare. For most of the slaves of their salaries, forced to pretend that they have fun at work, the only outlet is to mock their "tormentors". Examples can be found in modern media. “You don’t have to be nuts to work here. On the contrary, we suggest you take a medical test to make sure you are normal, ”says David Brent, the director of The Office. At the nuclear power plant where Homer Simpson works, “funny hats days” are regularly held, but safety precautions are not followed. The series “Crazy People” reminds people of the world that they lost - a world in which bosses do not think that “fun” is a management tool, and in which workers may well miss a glass of whiskey after dinner. Let’s drink for it!
Depressing fashion for workplace fun
One of the pleasures of watching the movie Mad Men, the drama about the advertising industry of the early 60s of the last century, is a comparative assessment of how much office work has changed over the years. One of the obvious changes allows humanity to be proud of itself: people no longer treat women as second-class citizens. But another obvious change causes exactly the opposite feelings: people have lost the art of enjoying a stay in the workplace.
In those days, advertising workers enjoyed simple things. They smoked at the workplace. They drank during working hours. They made love affairs with colleagues. They did not communicate in order to make friends, but in order to get drunk together.
Nowadays, many companies are obsessed with "fun." Silicon Valley software companies set up mountain climbing walls right in the lobby and scatter inflatable toys around the office. Wal-Mart makes its cashiers smile at everyone and always. The cult of "fun" has spread like a disgusting contagious disease. The American IT company Acclaris has a “chief fun officer” on its staff. The structure of TD Bank (the American branch of the Canadian Toronto Dominion) has a “Wow!” Department, which has costumed teams who arrange “pleasant surprises” for good employees. Red Bull installed a slide for riding in the London office.
Fun at work becomes a business with its own rules. India, Madan Kataria, positioning itself as a “giu-giggling”, provides corporate clients with “fun yoga” services. The British company “Fun at Work”) offers “more fun than you can bear”, including replacing the reception clerk with characters from the popular (in Britain) “Ab Fab” series. The London-based company Chiswick Park advertises itself under the slogan "enjoy-work" ("enjoy-work") and holds events at lunchtime such as shearing sheep or grazing geese.
The cult of fun grows in breadth and depth. The recognized champion is Google: its employees are happy with volleyball courts, bike paths, a yellow brick road, a dinosaur statue, regular roller hockey games and several professional masseuses. But two other companies have challenged Google: Twitter (a microblogging service) and Zappos (an online shoe store).
Twitter's website deliberately emphasizes the company's insanity: workers wear cowboy hats and say, “Crazy things happen every day ... and this is ridiculous.” The company has a team whose work is to make other employees happy: for example, distribute cold towels in the heat. Zabble boasts that “fun and little oddities” is one of the company's core values. Zabble director Tony Hsieh shaves his head baldly and spends 10% of his time studying what is called the “science of happiness”. He once joked that Zappos was suing the Walt Disney Company for the right to be called "the happiest place on earth." The company encourages regular "random acts of courtesy": employees line up in a noisy line and single out one of their colleagues for "praise."
This cult is governed by the three most popular management quirks at the moment: delegation of authority, engagement, and creativity. Many companies are proud to empower first-line workers. But studies show that only 20% of employees are fully committed to their work. And there are even fewer creative ones among them. Managers hope the fun will magically help captivate employees and make them more creative. But the problem is that as soon as it becomes part of corporate policy, the fun loses its appeal and becomes the exact opposite: at best a waste of time, at worst a tedious duty.
The most unpleasant thing about this fun mode is that it is involved in a large dose of coercion. Companies like Zappos not only welcome the “nuts”, but to one degree or another require it. Forced fun almost always gives back slavishly. Twitter calls its office Twofis. Boston Pizza encourages employees to send "golden bananas" to those of their colleagues who can "have fun and be the best at the same time." A rough managerial calculation is often hidden behind the facade of “fun”: the desire to position your company as the best among your competitors, or to improve productivity through team building. Twitter even boasts of "working hard to create an environment that exudes productivity and happiness."
Fun doesn't have to be required.
Along with imposing ersatz fun on their employees, companies are fighting against other things. Some force smokers to hide, like criminals. Only a few are allowed to drink at lunchtime or leave early. A whole army of amateurs to interfere in other people's affairs - from lawyers to HR workers - is waging war against “romance in the office,” especially between people of different ranks. Hewlett-Packard, for example, recently dismissed a very successful top manager, Mark Hurd, after one of the contractors made a very vague statement about sexual harassment (the case was subsequently settled peacefully). Khurd was immediately intercepted by HP rival - Oracle.
Fake merchants met with some resistance. For example, when Wal-Mart tried to impose alien orders on its German employees (such as a mandatory smile and a ban on romantic relationships in the workplace), he thereby provoked a guerrilla war, which ended only when it was declared in 2006, that this supermarket chain is leaving Germany. But such victories are extremely rare. For most of the slaves of their salaries, forced to pretend that they have fun at work, the only outlet is to mock their "tormentors". Examples can be found in modern media. “You don’t have to be nuts to work here. On the contrary, we suggest you take a medical test to make sure you are normal, ”says David Brent, the director of The Office. At the nuclear power plant where Homer Simpson works, “funny hats days” are regularly held, but safety precautions are not followed. The series “Crazy People” reminds people of the world that they lost - a world in which bosses do not think that “fun” is a management tool, and in which workers may well miss a glass of whiskey after dinner. Let’s drink for it!