“We don’t quit playing because we grow older; we grow older because we quit playing.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes

Looking back to the magical days of our childhood, life was all about fun. Play took centre stage, and productivity was yet to feature on our stressed-out radars.

Fast-forward a few decades, and a decided focus on fun is sorely missing from the average adult life. Now, that’s not to say we don’t have moments of fun, but how many of us make it a priority? How many of us work play into our day by affording it equal status with the more irksome tasks on our ever-expanding to-do lists?

Not many, I’d wager – because we simply don’t have the time. But what if having more fun was the key to getting more done; to feeling less stressed; to being our most vibrant selves?

Why fun at work is just as important as productivity

Having fun when you’re meant to be working is totally unprofessional, right? Actually, not at all.

Fun isn’t just something that happens outside of work. Building play into your working day is a great strategy for boosting productivity; in fact, people with a positive mindset are a whopping 31% more productive than those with a negative (or even neutral) mindset. They also tend to be more creative, more engaged in their work, and better able to tackle challenges.

Cultivating a positive frame of mind through a greater degree of fun in the workplace is therefore entirely professional – because it makes you a better worker.

At a time when people are struggling with their mental health to a greater degree than ever before, it will come as no surprise that having fun at work can even reduce the frequency of sick days. When our lives are work, work, work; stress, stress, stress, what respite do we have? When we introduce a little more jollity into our lives, we give ourselves chance to recharge and reconnect with the positive side of life.

Having fun at work is also a great way to flatten hierarchies, which can help to build more trusting relationships, encourage collaboration, and remove barriers to openness and transparency.

How to have more fun at work

So now you know that fun is good for you, and definitely not unprofessional, how do you start having more of it? As well as limiting any activities that drain morale (such as countless meetings that could well have been phone calls), you could try:

• Weekly team lunches

• Games consoles and board games in the break room

• Themed fancy dress days

• Making a big deal of birthdays

• Charity fundraising events

• Bring your pet to work days

• Trivia quizzes (great for remote working!)

• Simply sharing stories that have made you laugh

Here is a handy poster on how to play, laugh and have more fun.

Every workplace is different, so this is a good example of where once size does not fit all. Not everybody likes to have ‘organised fun’ at work, so options are important – as are activities that can be done at different times for different people, depending on their schedule (like email quizzes).

There’s also the chance that in a post-Covid world, you’re working from home and may need to find your own fun. That might mean taking regular breaks throughout the day where you do something that makes you happy, or arranging team activities over Zoom (if you’re not all zoomed out).

Employers should consider encouraging their teams to make time for fun during their day – even if that means taking a couple of half hours away from their desks to indulge in something they enjoy.

The bottom line is, work can’t be solely about work – otherwise, we never really get to show our best, most creative selves. And no one wants to work for a company whose culture completely overlooks the importance of employee morale.

A word of warning: using comedy as a mask

It’s worth noting that while fun is incredibly worthwhile in the workplace, some people use comedy to mask more negative emotions.

Employee morale is at an all-time low after the challenges of the past year, but not everyone knows how to express those struggles. Creating a sense of belonging is central to the thinking behind fun in the workplace, so if you think someone might be masking their emotions with comedy, try to create that feeling of belonging another way; such as creating strong bonds of friendships.

Talking openly to your colleagues about your own wellbeing and mental health goes a long way to encouraging openness in those around you. And when you build a culture of transparency in the workplace, it’s far easier to up the ‘play’ factor – because you’ll have a much better idea of what brings joy to the people around you.

Article by Emma Attenborough-Sergeant, The Wellness Writer. Helping leaders to improve culture with relatable mental health and wellness content.