“Our people don’t need to have fun!”

Someone recently said this to me while we were discussing the issue of poor morale at his company. It was easy for me to determine where the low morale stemmed from that prompted him to contact me! The owner had lost enthusiasm for his company and this attitude trickled down to every department in his company. It was no surprise when I interviewed his employees that there was a common theme of feeling not listened to and unappreciated. This is not always the case; low morale cannot always be tracked back to poor management, but it can always be tracked to a pervasive sense of apathy in a company that can come from a variety of sources that are often easily fixable problems. There are many inexpensive ways to make both your employees and your customers feel valued, appreciated, and yes, even HAPPY! Thinking that “work” is not supposed to be “fun” and that’s why it’s called “work” is an outdated and costly attitude to possess and project.

The bottom line is, people are your greatest asset and as Mary Kay Ashe once said, “There’s only two things people want more than sex and money, and that’s recognition and praise!”. You can pay people fairly and get average performance or you can take an interest in them and their work and see a generous increase in morale, productivity and profits. It is crucial that a company values its employees and SHOWS them through their actions that they are listened to and important. Everyone, even the “uptightys” need to have fun, it’s the lack of fun that creates poor morale and all types of negative repercussions such as, high turnover and boredom which translate into poor customer service and lost revenue. Having fun is not only a reward in and of itself, it brings many financial and health benefits as well.FUN IS A RENEWABLE RESOURCE! Stay tuned for interesting research on the humor/health/wealth connection! Or go out and play and discover it for yourself!