“I never did a day’s work in my life — it was all fun.” —Thomas Edison
What exactly is the charm of Happy Hours? What leads us to being on a lookout for them?
Is it because they’re ‘Happy’ Hours, or because it’s when you find a little or a lot of delight for the effort you put into going out? I believe that it’s the latter. It’s because of that extra fun. Who doesn’t like some extra for the same effort or money? Except when it’s extra work for the same salary. Isn’t it?
But have you ever wondered how awesome it’ll be if all hours were happy hours Friday? If that toiling work schedule becomes ‘Happy Hours’, would you then still want to slip away into the weekend as soon as it’s Monday? I don’t think so. In fact, the only way to be satisfied with your job is to have Happy Hours at work.
Now, what exactly are Happy Hours at work? No, it’s not to get that extra work to do for the same salary. But it is about that extra delight. About that special compliment or words of praise and recognition that potentially come your way when you are consistently doing good work. These Happy Hours at work are all those little things that lead you to falling in love with your work, with your company culture and potentially with your boss. Simply imagine a Monday when you are dying to get out of bed to head to work because you love it so much, and a Friday when you still can’t get enough of your work and workplace. It seems unreal, right? I know it does, because it is unreal indeed.
So let’s think of some of the things we can do to make sure you take away some quick tricks of having ‘Happy Hours’ at work:
- Personalized Work Culture – Various studies have shown that a lively, personalized organisational culture improves business performance. The positive spirit exhibited by leaders adds the much needed zeal and inspirational vibes to being at work. The Global Employee Engagement is stuck at an anemic 30%. This is a metric that needs crucial attention and solution. It’s the HR and the leadership’s role to make happy employees. This can be done only through engagement which creates a sustainable relationship between the enterprise and its people. When people are engaged, work week becomes a lot more fun. Create a character sketch of each person at your workplace and understand what makes him/her happy/sad, motivated/de-motivated, smile/sulk. This will allow you to deal with employees and each other as though you know each other in and out. Zero down on some key points for each person and then you are good to go! You won’t need an HR Department anymore.
- Bring in some Sense of Humor – A good joke, a sense of fun, a surprise, a prank – they instantly lighten the mood, lift morale, and unite people. Consider appointing a Chief Humor Officer in your team or division, or if it is a small firm, then one for the entire firm.
- Being ‘yourself’ at work – It’s very important to be able to be the person you are in reality at work without any pretense. So, find a workplace that allows you to represent your true person!
- Find out what fun means to different people – Everyone’s idea of fun is slightly different. Have exercises like “5 Minutes of Crazy”- A weekly exercise where a volunteer leads everyone in an activity that is fun to him/her. Fun knows no comfort zone, and so try and enjoy what fun means to all your peers and colleagues. Who knows, you may figure out that your boss is a way more exciting and cool person than you!
So try all of this and more in the sense of having fun all the time. Share some more ideas with us on this post, “What’s your idea of fun?”, “How do you make work life interesting?”, or anything random, that can help engage people at workplace! But keep in mind that the flipside is that life is good when it’s real and not imaginary. Just like happiness is valued more with intervals of sadness, the charm of happy hours is in the longing for them. And hence, no workplace can be fun all the time. Or rather, they shouldn’t be. But if you look at history’s most successful entrepreneurs, leaders and employees, you will see a common thread: they all love what they did. We may not achieve that perfect synergy, but getting there is half the fun! The idea is to enjoy the work hours and be on a lookout for those little things that we agreed give us a kick at work and just keep yourself going till you can TGIF!
So my signing off question to all of you is, that if all hours are happy hours, then will “Happy Hours” remain as awesome? Let me know what you think!
