Who Took the Fun Out of the Workplace?

Workplace engagement and employee satisfaction are strongly linked to a business’ productivity, however employee engagement in the U.S. has consistently been shown to be dismal at best and stagnant in 2015. In her latest article at FunHappyEnjoy.com, Susan Sherbert – upcoming Indigo River author, humor columnist, and entrepreneur – demonstrates how happiness has been sucked from the workplace, and what businesses can do to get it back.

Susan aims to help readers foster happiness in the workplace, naturally tapping into raw worker creativity and passion. Making positive changes and creating events just for the sake of increasing productivity does little to inspire tired, grouchy employees. They will only participate out of force or love of money, completely missing the essence.

“Imagine how powerful people, and our workforce, could be if we were [as] fearless, creative, imaginative, and passionate about what we do [as children]!”

According to Susan, businesses miss the point on fun in two big ways:

1. Fun is not funny: The corporate world confuses fun with being funny. While laughter has several positive qualities, not everyone has the same sense of humor and many businesses are cautious lest they offend anyone. Happiness, however, is about the smiles, not the laughter – it is about engagement, participation, and common bonds. In a business sense, team building and teamwork.

2. Businesses prefer entertainment: Businesses also confuse fun for entertainment. Fun is active and requires energy and engagement, entertainment is passive. Corporate presentations can be educational and even entertaining, but they are rarely fun. Employees should be asked to show how they would do it, rather than have the company show them how.

The solution, according to Susan, is embracing childlike thinking for happiness both in your private and professional life. For many employers, the concepts of happiness and fun are not lost on them; rather, they are restrained by “conventional” adult thinking. Taking to a younger mindset helps remove unnecessary concern and opens up one’s ability to express their real joy and creativity regardless of rejection or scrutiny. As Susan points out, “Imagine how powerful people, and our workforce, could be if we were [as] fearless, creative, imaginative, and passionate about what we do [as children]!

Susan is the author of the “Have Fun, Be Happy, Enjoy Life” blog and the upcoming “A White Hat and Rose Colored Glasses,” over 50 books in the “Corny Joke” series, a humor columnist, and the writer of a Sliver Award-winning newsletter for over twelve years. Additionally, she has been a business owner and entrepreneur for the past fourteen years. Susan seeks to help both businesses and individuals find a balance between living in the grown-up world and still thinking like a wide-eyed child through her writing, events, and seminars. For more from Susan visit FunHappyEnjoy.com or @SusanSherbert on Twitter.