As we all return to the office, navigate hybrid working models or continue to WFH, many companies are now tasked with creating connection and culture in this brave new world. Everything was so darn serious last year. How do we make it fun again, they are asking themselves?

The idea is a noble one. We all work hard, so it’s great that companies want to make it enjoyable. The only thing is: I hate forced fun. And I’m wondering if this could be a career-limiting move. 

At my work, it started with weekly meditation and yoga sessions. I like that. You can opt in if you like, and it’s a good way to feel calm and centred. Then things got kooky. A competition to find out who has the cutest pet (disturbingly, this included images of bathing rabbits and an indoor goat). Trivia nights followed. Then this: let your kids apply makeup and share the photo. That is a hard pass for me, knowing my children would likely take it as a chance to exact vicious revenge for screen-time limits. Another: wear a crazy hat. And attend the silent disco in your living room! 

I’m usually pretty fun. If a tune I like comes on in a coffee shop, I bop along. I’m an upbeat person. But right now, I feel like the grumpy old man sitting in the corner of a party wondering when he can leave. And honestly, I’m surprised at how bah-humbug I am about all of this. After all, I’ve always been a joiner. I’ve never met a planning committee I didn’t like. I’m all over the class-repping at my kid’s school. I think I have just hit a “fun” wall. 

Partly, because I feel like a few fun events don’t even begin to make up for the bone-weary, under-resourcing many of us are experiencing at work. I just think it feels like too little. It’s like walking into a party after you’ve had a big blow-up with your boyfriend, and plastering on the smiles because you know you have to. And I balk when I hear that teams who show up will win brownie points with the powers that be. “They see everything,” one slightly paranoid colleague told me. This makes me want to join in even less. 

Do you know what would fill my heart with warmth for my workplace? If they used our time in lockdown to rethink the insanely bright lighting that gives us all low-level headaches everyday. Or topped up our vacation days to say thanks for working so hard. Some visibility on how much freedom we will all have to piece our work-life-boundaries back together the way we want when the office re-opens.

Mostly, I think I just like to choose when I have fun. And the truth is that for as many people like me, there are going to be others who really value these activities. Who want to participate. Who get a kick out of entering their Poodle cross pandemic dog into a competition.

The part of me that prides myself on my ability to collaborate doesn’t like the idea that I could be viewed as anti-team. Or someone who doesn’t care about participating in activities that people have clearly put effort into planning. But I think I am trying to listen to that part of me less these days. I’m turning down the volume on that inner voice that is so focused on pleasing everyone else. And I’m thinking more about what feel meaningful.. and right now, that does not include a my 6-year-old going postal on my face with lipstick.