3 Tips for Dealing with Workplace Fun Suckers
It’s not easy dealing with those negative, fun-sucking employees who never want to participate in any fun activities or who squash anyone’s efforts to do something a little different or bring an element of fun into the workplace. Having once worked in a soul-sucking, fun-sucking organization, I feel your pain! Here are 3 simple tips that might help you respond to the fun-suckers in your workplace.
I’ve got three ideas for you on how to deal with the fun-suckers at work, the employees who always seem to crap all over any of your fun initiatives. You want to try something a little goofy, a little wacky, celebrate some offbeat theme day, or you’re doing something you have never done before and out come the fun suckers, “That sounds SO stupid!”
Three things you can try in response to those dreaded fun-suckers.
#1. Include them. Sometimes fun-suckers are fun-suckers because they just don’t feel included. They don’t feel like they’ve ever been asked for their input or for their ideas, and the only way they can express that frustration is by crapping all over your ideas like a seagull. So include them. Invite them to your meetings, ask them for their input.
#2. Inspire them. You have to remind the fun-suckers of why you’re doing this, why this matters, why it’s important that you add a little bit of fun into your workplace, or why it’s important that sometimes you blow off steam with some goofy fun stuff. So you’ve got to inspire them and you have to have a conversation with them about what does inspire them. If this particular activity doesn’t inspire them, what kind of fun activities does inspire them? Which, of course, circles back to the first suggestion to involve them.
#3. Ignore the fun suckers. Don’t let them bring you down. Don’t focus on the bottom 10% of your employees who are sucking the fun out of your workplace. Instead, focus on the people who want to bring some energy, who want to bring some passion into your team and try some new things and do some, yes, sometimes wacky, even outrageous things in your workplace. Focus on the people who want to shake things up instead of the fun-suckers. Don’t use the fun-suckers as an excuse to not do anything or try anything new.
Now, I think you have to, to be fair, make sure that when you create fun events, everybody feels equally invited to participate. Everyone has to feel like they can participate if they want to without feeling like they are forced to participate, because forced fun typically isn’t so much fun for most people. So include your fun-suckers, inspire your-fun suckers, and ultimately, if that doesn’t work, ignore your fun sectors.
What about you? What do you do in the face of fun-suckers in your workplace? How do you manage the fun-suckers? When you’re trying a fun outrageously different event and people start going, “That’s stupid,” what do you do? Please leave a comment in the comment box below. I would love to hear your ideas and your suggestions. If you haven’t subscribed to my Inspiring Workplaces YouTube Channel, please join our growing community as we talk about all things workplace culture and workplaces that rock.
Michael Kerr. Michael is a Hall of Fame Business speaker and the author of 8 books, including The Jerk-Free Workplace and The Humor Advantage.
