When you have just emerged from college and taken up your first job, you would very much rather the college atmosphere continued. Sure, there was hard work involved in getting your degree. But there was a good deal of fun too. The first thing you are told on the job, however, is that the fun and games are over. It is time to get serious.

Studies by the score have shown that you can get more output from a motivated workforce. People produce the best results when they enjoy what they do. Yet, companies believe in thrusting everybody into a corporate straitjacket. “Having fun is regarded as a waste of company time,” says Mumbai-based HR consultant Shashi Rao.

Why should corporate cultures insist on the “all work and no play” theme? First, CEOs believe that fun can be equated to irresponsibility. “Let me give you an example,” says the CEO of a large engineering company, “We started a cr?che at one of our worksites. It was necessary and useful. Then, one of the workers said he couldn’t leave his dog alone at home. As it was part of his family, he should be allowed to bring it to work. It didn’t stop there. There was a snake. Finally, somebody landed up with a borrowed elephant. It was all good fun. But you can imagine the disruption caused.”

But fun is fun, if you stick to some rules. “Rule No. 1 is to clearly explain to the employees what fun is and what it is not,” says employer-employee.com. Fun, says the site, is not making fun of co-workers or management, not telling off-colour jokes, it is not sexual, deceptive or sarcastic, and so on. Somewhat contradictorily, the site says that fun should be left to the workers to evolve, though the management should lay down the law beforehand.

Dennis Bakke, co-founder of energy major AES Corp and the author of Joy at Work, feels that unless employees are enjoying themselves, they don’t deliver their best. His corporate philosophy is: First, people should be trusted. Second, businesses don’t exist to make money. They exist to serve; social responsibility should come ahead of profits.

In India, it’s the young companies, particularly the BPO crowd, that seem to be still having fun. “BPO employees perform important and serious work for their client companies,” says a recruitment drive by Infosys subsidiary Progeon. “But they are also young and energetic and there is no reason why the work atmosphere should not be fun and exciting.”

Switch to a more traditional company, Tata Steel. Apart from fun and games, there is the occasional office picnic. Games are more important. The big thing in recent times is the setting up of an artificial rock-climbing wall.

Do the HR guys in these companies have rocks in their heads that they don’t realise how useful fun can be? Answers Rao: “No, they know all about it. But fun doesn’t seem to work when times are bad. When the dotcom bust came, the Fun Officers were the first to be shown the door.” It will take a lot more research before companies learn to tap into the fun vein at all times.

THE RIGHT LINE

Excuses by famous people at their next job interview

• Julius Caesar: My last job involved a lot of office politics and backstabbing. I’d like to get away from all that.

• Joseph Guillotine: I can give your company a head start on the competition.

• Hamlet: My position was eliminated in a hostile take-over.

• Genghis Khan: My primary talent is downsizing. On my last job, I downsized my staff, my organisation, and the populations of several countries.

• Macbeth: Would I go after my boss’s job? Do I look like the kind of guy who would knock off his boss for a promotion?

• Lady Godiva: What do you mean this isn’t business casual?

Source: Abbott, Langer & Associates