aha! by jordan ayan
a short excerpt from some required reading:
"a great example of a company that encourages fun in the workplace is microsoft. during a visit to their corporate headquarters, i encountered employees engaged in an exciting game of miniature golf in the hallways. true to form, this was no conventional game, however; the way they played demonstrated the fabled creativity of microsoft's people. the elevators were used to move the ball from the "tee" (on the first floor) to the "green" (on the second floor). although there may not be a direct correlation between microsoft's enormous success and the apparent fun enjoyed by its employees, it's easy to surmise that innovative ideas and products developed by microsoft arise from its employees' ability to relax in the midst of difficult work and to be whimsical and playful during the day. in fact, microsoft managers get a "morale" budget to spend on spontaneous fun in whatever way they see fit."
spontaneous fun? bring in the strippers!
posted by monica @ 9:02 AM
1 Comments:
This is a bit misleading. It implies that any employee at any time has the ability to cut loose and do whatever they can to relax, which isn't true. I'd have probably been disciplined if I did that in my building. Maybe in my own office it would have been okay, but definitely not in the hallways.
I don't need to tell you this, though, 'cause your strippers suggestion is ironic enough.
And morale budgets were hardly ever spent on spontaneous events. Unless you count Friday-afternoon surprise-beer-party spontaneous. But I don't, because something spontaneous can't be counted on every week. Which doesn't really make it all that surprising, either.
There is something to be said for the 'relaxed' environment MS does have, though, and it is more relaxed than many other companies. The correlation mentioned in the piece may be accurate, but only if you leave out the corporate hand and attribute the success and the demand for leniant workplace laws to employees. The connection I'd make is this: companies fuck off when your employees want to have some fun, and in turn they'll work hard for you.
I recall a pullout quote from the brochure you get when interviewing, something along the lines of "don't forget your cape." There was a story earlier in the brochure that talked about who the typical employee might have been as a child, specifically referring to those children who were imaginative, creative, full of life: the kids who might have worn capes while playing. I didn't see one person there wearing a cape, interviewing or not. Perhaps the relaxed atmosphere is more utopia than it is reality?
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