Thursday, February 28, 2008

Are You Having Fun @ Work Place?

On my way to a meeting this morning, I heard over the FM radio a special program on work place culture. The Radio Jockey (RJ) was reporting live from the office of a particular organisation, sharing all the fun the employees were having. She interviewed a number of employees and you could catch the excitement as the employees narrated the various fun activities at work that the management promoted..The list seemed endless . . . The RJ too was impressed and she wished she was working there.

This made me think about my own workplace and I found myself asking the question , 'AM I having fun @ work ? I work in the virtual world with a team that is on the other side of the globe.Very rarely do I have meetings with people sitting in front of me. What fun can you have when your life is a series of conference calls, chats and endless emails ? All of this happens in a small corner in my house that I call 'Home Office'. Time zone is the other challenge, I need to work late at night to be connected with my US colleagues .

By now you may be feeling sorry for me . . . but Wait a minute, I am not complaining or mourning my existence in the virtual world. Yes I would love to work in a regular office and be involved in the fun activities there . However I feel that more than fun at work, the question is "Do you enjoy your work?" I like what I do and that coupled with the fact that I don't have to commute two plus hours every day to get to a physical office makes me a envy of many. One of the other 'plus' in my job is the creative freedom that I enjoy to turn out outputs that is needed by the business. The list does not end there, there are lot of other privileges that I enjoy at work (I am not talking about Pay& Comp or other perks) All of that keeps me at work and makes me jump out of my bed every week day morning with the thought, 'Wow a new day, another opportunity to be at work!"

I am aware of the specially appointed 'fun Officers' in many BPOs, whose main job is to make sure the workforce in these organisations are having fun at work. The fun officers are constantly on their feet coming up with more and more new activities that will induce fun in the work environment. Over a period of time what was fun at one time looses its fun quotient and it becomes business as usual activity.

I am for fun in the workplace but then if you don't have fun activities at your work place or cannot take part in it, don't worry, find a job that you enjoy doing. Job satisfaction which gives you the joy of work is more lasting than fun !