Forget productivity! Author and consultant Bree Groff believes the true sign of a successful workplace is how much fun the employees are having. Is this the answer to post-Covid burnout and disengagement?
Who would say work was fun? Your job might be rewarding (some of the time). You may get on with your colleagues (some of them). But fun? It seems simultaneously too grand an ambition and too small.
After the work-centric “hustle culture” of the 2010s, then the backlash and widespread burnout brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, the general feeling around work right now could be described as ambivalent at best. At worst, it’s openly combative, as evinced by frequent references to the “battle” over working from home. Managers want employees back in the office; employees want flexibility, and to limit work’s impact on their lives.
Gen Z, who have replaced millennials as the youthful influence shaping the workforce, are especially adamant that it should not intrude on their boundaries. Meanwhile, AI looms, threatening large-scale unemployment.
The world of work is in flux, with a fight for our time and our livelihoods at the centre. Fun doesn’t seem to factor into it – but Bree Groff argues that it should.
