don's report archive

Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)

Should Your Job Be Fun? Can It Be?
Sunday October 28, 2001

When you think about the kind of work some people do, it seems hard to imagine they could have fun doing it. Take firefighting, for example. While everyone in America admires the courage and dedication of the firefighter, who would associate such labor with fun? Think of burning buildings, smoldering rubble and other images of the firefighter on the job, and fun is about the last thing that comes to mind. I wondered about this the other day when re-reading one of my favorite worksite wellness books, namely, Bob Basso's This Job Should Be Fun: The New Profit Strategy For Managing People In Tough Times (written with Judi Klosek). OK, maybe SOME jobs can be fun, part of the time, if you really work at it. I suppose it's a matter of choice in how you look at the work you do. All that aside let me tell you about Bob's book.

This Job is a step-by-step guide for building a business by making life better for employees. It advocates "systematic fun" as a deliberate strategy for improving productivity amongst the folks Bob calls "New Breed Workers." These are people with high degrees of work satisfaction who also want to participate in decisions that affect them. Basso thinks these young people and nearly everyone else need a new kind of leadership. At the moment, I suspect they also need a better economy. A lot of people are happy just to have jobs at all these days, though I don't question the idea that they would likely be more productive if they were enjoying the work they do. In any event, Bob Basso's entire career has been a campaign to convince managers that having fun on the job is a viable profit strategy and the best way to manage people, especially in tough times. Thus, the current economic and other stresses of a war against terrorism should be just the thing for the testing of Basso's theories.

To transmit the right message, Bob believes managers should send three clear signals day-in and day-out, verbally and otherwise. The three messages are: "I care, you matter and this job should be fun." This Job contains explicit strategies that Basso maintains will lighten the workplace and boost productivity. He offers ample documentation in the form of examples and quotations from managers who practice what he terms "light management principles."

The concept of light management is based on several assumptions. One is that a new breed of workers exists in today's corporate world. They expect more, want to know more and need greater satisfaction from the work they do than preceding generations. They are children of the MTV/fast-food era, they have a lightning-short attention span and if they are not excited about a project, their focus wanes. There's more -- new breed workers need to know "how they're doing and where they're going" -- two questions Basso believes managers should answer truthfully and often. Such employees will not, indeed cannot, give their best if the job is dull and meaningless, if they are not treated well and involved in matters that affect them. A second, broader assumption unique to Basso's work is that "if our life at work is not fun, it's meaningless!" As you may have guessed by now, Bob Basso is pretty passionate about the value of and need for a positive work environment.

Among the many interesting perspectives that go with light management are the following:

It's impossible to manage people-- you can only manage the messages you send them.
Productive fun creates an environment of acceptance, raises expectations that things will get better and cements cooperative efforts. (If you don't believe it, check out the case histories and discussions in This Job that accompany each assertion.)
Companies should organize into "super teams" charged to "make it better" (M-I-B). This is Basso's way to open communications, improve customer service, cut costs and boost staff morale.
This Job is loaded with specific strategies for managers ranging from "battle cries," creating problem solvers, action now language, cutting to the chase (no filibustering) and hot lists, to mention but a few.
A key issue in light management is motivation. Basso believes the key to motivation is self-interest. Every person, without exception, wants a better life, thus, a prime challenge for all managers and wellness promoters is to create perceptual links between having fun and enjoying greater levels of well-being. The job of wellness-oriented light managers is to devise ways to help people appreciate the connections between wellness values and a better life.

While the idea of light management may seem unrealistic, futuristic or overly optimistic to some, and out of touch with today's realities of an economy in decline with high unemployment, most managers would probably appreciate Basso's chapters containing profit strategies for light managers. Resource materials in the back include lists of "great ideas," a light management assessment test, suggestions for setting up M-I-B teams, a light manager's guide to hot legal issues (including "smoldering smoking" issues) and evaluation forms unlike those you probably use -- and endure.

I sent this essay to my friend Bob Basso before I arranged for it to be posted here at the Wellness Center. I wondered how Bob might respond to the idea that perhaps some jobs, firefighting in particular, do not lend themselves to a "light perspective." Wait until you read his response! It is the highlight of this entire topic. Don't miss it -- it will run as the main part of tomorrow's DR.

All the best. Be well and look on the bright -- and the light side of life.

You can send a message to Bob , visit his website or order his book in our bookstore.

(Note: This essay will be filed in the archives in the MEANING DOMAIN under the skill area of humor. Additional articles related to this theme may be found there.)

(Ed. Note: Views expressed in this and other columns are those of the author and not necessarily those of the SeekWellness Editorial Board.)

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