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Subject:Re: Levity in the workplace From:Doreen Mannion <DoreenM520 -at- AOL -dot- COM> Date:Sat, 14 Jun 1997 22:02:33 -0400
In a message dated 97-06-13 13:06:12 EDT, paul -at- VEDGE -dot- COM (Paul Branchaud)
writes:
<<<<All this talk about people not having enough time for their outside
interests, needing vacations, being unhappy in their workplace, and other
unpleasant stress-inducers has me wondering what people do to lighten the
mood and prevent them from "going postal".
How do you make your job fun?>>>>
1--We all have toys in our cubes or offices. Things like my wizard, which is
battery-operated. Typical question to the wizard: "Will product xyz ever go
GA?" Typical answer from the wizard: "It is certain but not possible."
2--Creative writing. We had a high-priority project for which we received no
input from development. I gave each writer an hour to write one chapter of
the user guide. One writer asked, "Since development is so arbitrary, can we
be arbitrary and decide how long each chapter must be?" I said, yes, every
chapter had to be 10 pages, no more, no less. We gave the finished product to
my boss, who told me to give it to the dev. team leader and tell him that's
what he'd get for a finished manual if he didn't get with the program.
3--We give awards to people outside the team at company or division meetings.
For example, when one product changed its name 4 times, we "did up" a milk
carton with "Have you seen this product?" Each side had one of the names. We
gave one of these milk cartons to each member of the dev. team.
And, most importantly, I don't hire sourpusses.
doreen
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