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Is work supposed to be fun?
I ask because I really don’t know what is a reasonable expectation to have of work. Does it depend on your industry, your job duties, or your work environment? If you’re working from a cubical, that means you’re not supposed to be having fun, but if you’re a stand-up comedian then your you’re allowed to have fun at work?
I recently overheard a coworker saying “Work is work, it isn’t supposed to be fun. That’s why you’re at work and not at home with your friends and family.” My gut reaction wanted to give her a piece of mind, tell her how miserable she sounds, how work should be fun and that she just needs to change her frame of mind. Maybe that was just the optimistic Gen Y in me though, because when I actually thought about my own situation I realized that I don’t have fun at work every day–not even most days. The truth is, most of us are probably not having fun at work.
But that begs the question: why not?
Sure, I understand that sometimes we have to do things that just aren’t fun because they help us reach our bigger goals (taking Biology Lab in college wasn’t fun, but I really wanted that college diploma). Sometimes we have to do things that aren’t fun just because they have to get done (printing out that FedEx label earlier wasn’t fun, but the letter had to get out). Still, everyone is always telling us that if we do what we love for work, it won’t feel like work. Career coaches, your parents, your friends, are constantly telling us that work should be fun not because they think we should find a job and then make it fun, but exactly the other way around. We should be finding what is fun & what we enjoy doing in our free time and turn that into our work.
Alright so what if you haven’t found a way to turn what you love doing in your free time into work? I still don’t think that society should be living under the impression that work isn’t supposed to be fun. Is that what parents are teaching their children today? Kids won’t ever want to grow up if they’ve been brainwashed into thinking that once they leave school they’re destined for a life of non-fun 40 hours every week.
Can we not instead change the constructs that define our expectations for fun at work? If everyone walks around saying “work shouldn’t be fun” then it won’t be fun. If my coworker thought that she would have fun doing her work alongside her kids, then why not do that?
I know, so many questions. And they’re not rhetorical. I honestly do not have the answers. If you do, please share :) What do you think about the place of fun in the workplace? Do you have a “fun” job or find ways to have fun at work? Do you also think that work isn’t supposed to be fun?
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Comments
04.09.10
Well, maybe work isn't necessarily fun. But it should at least be interesting and fufilling.
04.09.10
I think if you are smart there are two ways to be happy with what you do:
1) The majority of whatever you do as work is something you find fun to do but the rest of it, though less fun and possibly tedious to you is bearable because you need to do it and are having fun with everything else and overall you're happy. An example would be say a stand up comedian who loves being on stage, loves travelling but also then has to do the paperwork, accounts and tax and marketing (unless he has an agent). He does it because he knows he has to do the boring bits anyway but he gets a kick out of the performing and so he is happy.
2) What you do is bearable but easy to do but the end result is fun. Such as a writer, who loves to write creatively and churns out news articles for a day job and then gets to write reviews of games and music afterwards and work on her own stories. So she still gets to write what she wants and she gets paid for doing something she can do that's easy and she gets to meet lots of interesting people which is a fun thing for her as well. So she's happy. Or perhaps she enjoys it because she feels good that she's helping people communicate or is helping to inform others.
Fun I think = personal fulfillment = whatever criteria you as a person has. If it's meeting new people, doing something rewarding etc.
04.09.10
I have had the opportunity of working at a job that I loved! I coached gymnastics for 4 years and still fill in occasionally. The only down side was that the pay wasn’t great, if my pay went up a bit I’d stay there forever! I woke up every morning knowing that I was going to go in later see my smiling little kids, teach them something new and learn something from them as well. Sure there were days that I woke up and thought “ugh I really don’t want to go hull mats around and listen to other coaches’ whining” but in the end it was wonderful! Work can be Fun!!
04.09.10
@ Scott: Simply put - I think you nailed it.
@Marisa: I would say there's probably more than 2 ways to be happy with what you do. #1 is definitely what I strive for, though. And you also make a good point at the end--there really are not "fun" jobs per say, but rather people find certain jobs fun while others think it's not. It's just a great argument for making a great match between individual and the job.
@Christina: It stinks that the really fun jobs are some of the lowest paid jobs. I think the perfect mix would be to do some really fun part-time job that's easy on the brain (like teaching gymnastics)paired with more challenging, brain-stimulating part-time work to fulfill the intellectual side (like perhaps writing or consulting). The job that I've ever had the most fun with was as a personal assistant for an off-the-wall awesome real estate agent. Not necessarily the most prestigious of jobs, but man did I have fun (and I would totally keep doing it if the job paid more).
04.09.10
There are a lot of interesting and valid points here. I thought I would chime in and mention that a friend was recently talking about the dangers of turning what you do for fun into your work. Her example was a friend of hers who loved to cook starting a catering business. Suddenly her favorite hobby became a stressful full-time job and it sucked a lot of the fun out of it. Sometimes the things you love to do are just the things you love to do and monetizing them is a move in an unhelpful direction...
04.09.10
@Molly : I think that the problem with turning a hobby into a business, is that the part of the hobby you like is actually a very small part of the business. It's probably this way for most people who find their jobs frustrating and/or boring.
Probably the thing that was fun about cooking was the joy of creating a new dish - once. But scale that up a hundred-fold, then add in all the boring business stuff (accounting, sales, billing) and it's not fun anymore.
Christina had more fun working as a gymnastics coach because it was a larger part of her job. As an employee (rather than a business owner) she spent the majority of her time coaching, and a relatively small amount of time on other work.
I work in I.T. and the most interesting parts of my job are writing programming code, and fixing programs that don't work right. Unfortunately, that is a very small part of my job. But that's another post!
04.09.10
@Scott, I agree with you, too. There was a point in my life when I considered opening my own photography business, but when I started doing more portrait photography for clients and saw how other portrait photographers dealt with clients, I saw that there was much less creativity and it turned into "doing what the client says". I decided that to keep my photography genuine to myself, I couldn't open a business and leave my style up to clients' desires. I decided that it was something I valued for fun and personal fulfillment so much that I would have to find some other type of fun activity that I didn't value as much on its own to turn that into work. (Haven't found it yet) :)
04.11.10
"Kids won’t ever want to grow up if they’ve been brainwashed into thinking that once they leave school they’re destined for a life of non-fun 40 hours every week"
I've always been taught two things: one, that if I work hard enough at anything and become an expert in it, I can make it into my job, and two, all the work in school and at actual work is to help you get to the job or position that you want. So for instance, someone wants to write, so he/she can become an author, a blogger, a journalist, an editor, whichever job is the most appealing. Becoming the best in any of these fields can still become his/her "work," but it's also enjoyable.
Of course, you have to be realistic. There will be facets about your work (like the comedian example Marisa brought up) that you won't want to do for whatever reason: it's boring, it's tedious, etc. Well, suck it up! Life, and work, isn't going to be entertaining 24/7, and everyone should recognize that.
That being said, you have to enjoy SOME part of your job or you're in the wrong field or position.
06.23.10
Thank you dear Carlee. That was great!! God Bless you and parents and family.
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