Sometimes work is stressful. Sometimes the stakes are high, the deadlines are tight, and everything feels very serious. That’s okay. That’s part of the deal.
But here’s the thing: we spend a lot of time at work. Roughly a third of our waking hours, give or take. If all those hours are grim determination and furrowed brows, something has gone wrong. Not with the work itself, but with how we’re approaching it.
The Fear of Fun
I’ve noticed a particular anxiety in some corners of management: the fear that fun undermines seriousness. That if people are laughing, they’re not working. That a relaxed atmosphere signals a lack of rigour.
This is, to put it gently, nonsense.
The best teams I’ve worked with have been the ones that could switch between deep focus and genuine levity. The ones where someone could crack a joke in a meeting without everyone nervously checking if it was “appropriate.” The ones where the occasional silly thing wasn’t a distraction from the work; it was part of what made the work sustainable.
Serious Work, Occasional Fun
You can ship critical features and hide an Easter egg hunt around the office.
A hidden nest of Easter eggs for colleagues to find. Serious business.
You can handle a high-pressure project and take five minutes to sort the communal chocolate box into a satisfying grid.1
Chaos is the enemy. Order brings peace. Also, now I know exactly where the hazelnut ones are.
These things aren’t opposites. They’re complements. The fun doesn’t dilute the seriousness; it makes the seriousness bearable. It reminds everyone that we’re humans doing work together, not productivity units optimising for output.
The Point
Work should be meaningful. It should be challenging. It should push you to grow and contribute something worthwhile.
But it should also, sometimes, be fun. Not forced fun, not mandatory team-building exercises or awkward icebreakers. Just… the natural fun that emerges when people feel safe enough to be themselves. When there’s room for a joke, a surprise, a small moment of delight in an otherwise ordinary day.
If your workplace has squeezed out all the fun in the name of professionalism, you haven’t become more serious. You’ve just become more exhausting.
Life’s too short. Hide some Easter eggs. Sort the chocolates. Laugh at something stupid with your colleagues.
The work will still get done. It might even get done better.
Yes, I did this. Yes, it took longer than it should have. No, I do not regret it. ↩︎