How To Be Playful Yet Still Professional

by Kenneth Vogt⁽³⁾
Content Crooner Inc.

Happiness in the workplace is making a comeback as more and more companies recognize that worker happiness translates into bottom line profits in the long run. Treated like mere cogs in the machine of commerce, employees tend to become at best apathetic and at worst actively unhappy, both conditions that will directly affect their output and interactions with your customers. The answer to ensuring your workforce stays smiling and productive is to put a little playful spark into everyday work routines.

Consider the workplace itself. Walk in the front door and do a circuit of the space - what does it communicate to you and your staff? Certain visual enhancements that can be seen by your employees but not customers or clients can brighten up even the most stressful day. Hang a few cartoon calendars, put up a cork board for funny pictures, and encourage your employees to decorate by adorning their cubicles and the break or lunch room. Secretly installing gag keyboard pranks, such as a "panic button" shift key slipcover that can be easily removed if need be, can bring a smile to even the dreariest of Mondays.

Giving your employees something to look forward to can also perk up a particularly long workday. Make a memorable move by distributing foam dart guns to the staff and calling for short office-wide "battles" once or twice a week. Obviously, games like this should be held on lunch hours or other times when customers aren't around, but using this particular tack to break up the monotony of long inventory nights is particularly effective. Keep score on a whiteboard and have novelty trophies at the office holiday party to present to the winning individual or team.

Outside of the workplace, scheduled retreats can not only build a better attitude and teamwork between your employees, it can also invite a playful camaraderie that will lead to a lighter mood once your crew returns to work. While it's naturally important to pick a retreat that will improve productivity and promote teamwork, don't forget your employees are people too - have fun with it! If seminars take up most of the day, try booking something more entertaining, such as a local laser tag arena, to end the day or weekend on a high note. This combination of experiences ensures that your staff will learn valuable cooperation skills and still have fun.

No matter what you implement in your office to keep your employees in a good mood, be aware that there is always a balance to be achieved between playful and professional. Looking capable in the eyes of your clients while enjoying a reputation as a fun boss are not mutually exclusive states of being; don't accept the common misconception that they can't live in harmony. Obviously, how heavily you lean to one side or the other depends on your industry, workload and other day-to-day factors, but having a workforce that smiles freely is sure to bring benefits to your profits and productivity.

Kenneth Vogt is CEO of Content Crooner, a high quality content distribution service that gets you more targeted web traffic. Discover how to create quality content that drives targeted traffic to your web site in our free report.

Article submitted Tuesday, November 22, 2011 & read 12 times.

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