Sometimes you gotta laugh!

Ok, let’s be honest – work is tough.  But it should also be fun.  Somehow, someway, you need to find those moments of levity in the day.  You need to stop, set the keyboard to the side and share in the story, the laugh and the smile.  You need to spend a human moment with your co-workers.

Let’s start with the basics – there are 8,760 hours in a year, assuming you work 40 hours a week (yeah, right, most of us are working more than that) totaling 2080 hours, assuming you take 3 weeks of vacation a year (120 hours), that means that you are spending 1, 960 hours a year in the office with your co-workers.  Folks – that’s 22% of the year.  Let’s dig a little further – assume you sleep 6 hours a night for a total of 2,184 hours of rest, which would mean that you are awake for 6,576 hours each year.  If you then calculate the amount of hours in the office, you’re just shy of 30% of your waking moments being spent with the people you work with.

If you can’t find a way to be happy for 30% of your waking moments, you might need to think about make a change in life.

Over the years, I’ve worked in all sorts of companies – small specialized development shops, startups, consulting firms, high growth companies and international companies.  You name it, I’ve seen it!  Anyhow, while each place was different, there were always people that made it special.  People I could rely on to “have fun”.

When I was a partner in a consulting firm – we had a phenomenal team of players that worked hard, got the job done, but weren’t afraid to let their hair down.  I remember one day, my partners and I were in one of the offices reviewing the books.  Suddenly the door burst open. The staff had all gotten squirt guns and proceeded to douse us.  There was nowhere to hide; there were desks, filing cabinets and chairs.  And absolutely nothing to use as cover.  We all were soaked by the end of the encounter which lasted all of probably five minutes.  I love the fact that we had built an environment where the team felt comfortable that they could do that!

Another company that I worked for allowed the development team to essentially shut down mid-afternoon on Friday’s and we would then play video games at the office.  Talk about a way to build camaraderie within a team!   I don’t even remember the names of the games anymore, but I do remember everyone yelling between offices and taking the battle to each other.  It definitely gave everyone a way to wind down the week.

Today, because of the role I play, I sit in meetings for a good part of the day.  The secret to making that work is the relationships across the organization.  We’re all willing to get the job done, but we’re not afraid to have a few laughs along the way.  Our meetings are a mix of intense focus – broken up by those quick moments of laughter.  Sometimes it’s about the circumstances we find ourselves in, sometimes it’s about the various sports teams we root for (Go HAWKS!), and sometimes it’s about nothing at all – hey, sometimes you really do just have to sit back and laugh.

To me, it’s always been about finding the environment that allows me to thrive professionally, but also about finding the environment where I fit in and can have a little fun when the moment shows itself. 

I think the worst moments I’ve had professionally are when I’ve forgotten that rule.  If you’re in a job that’s driving you nuts – I would ask as simple question: why?

View my LinkedIn profile and request to connect: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/david-collison/1/640/503/