Matt Labash writing on the infantilization of corporate America. An excerpt:
Dave later tells me that at AstraZeneca, the pharmaceutical company, the Fun Department has even taken over the company's seldom-used lactation room, dressed it up as a doctor's office complete with a doctor character and a gum-cracking assistant, and wrote "prescriptions to play" while treating people "for terminal seriousness." AstraZeneca, it turns out, has a culture of fun, which makes the Fun Department's job easier. During their initial meeting, the head of HR told him that they'd just recently filled a coworker's office with packing peanuts on his birthday. "They get it," says Dave. "They understand."
Helping the Fun Department deliver all this levity are the Funsters, on-call hourly-wagers, mostly college students who are fit and vital and look like Abercrombie models, and who wear zany tie-dyed shock-yellow-and-orange T-shirts with "Team Fun" inscribed on the back. I'm given a T-shirt--a medium instead of large, since the large is "boxy"--and I'm wearing it as I write. It's cutting off my circulation. But I'm told snug'n'sexy=fun.
The Funsters go through Dave's Fun Boot Camp, and memorize the Funster training manual, where they learn the ins and outs of presenting fun, and also the no-no's. "No touching," says Jayla. "We have to be very careful. One of the things we've learned is, I'll be at an event, and some of my colleagues will be in that moment, because they're trained to be Funsters. So there's the CEO ripping his shirt off and swinging it over his head. And they're like, 'Oh my God, look at that guy!' And here's me (yelling) 'HR! HR!'"
What? Has the whole world become an episode of "The Office?"
ReplyDeleteIf my CEO did something like that, we'd put him away for a nice long vacation.
Let's see, that's AstraZeneca, frolicking away in the office while the stock price continues its downward slide. You need all that plastic joy to keep from thinking about the fact that one out of ten of your co-workers is being laid off.
ReplyDeleteRather than having compulsory "fun" programs, it would be wise for employers to discover the fun that can come through kind and competent management. I confess that some of these programs strike me as the equivalent of some aging boomer using some new slang in order to show some version of coolness.
ReplyDeleteI confess I'd never thought of it that way before, Michael, but I think you're on to something. It's either the boomers being "cool" and "hip" or the re-incarnation of those dot-bomb companies whose employees got to ride to the unemployment office on their Segways.
ReplyDeleteAmen to Michael Wade's comment about "fun that can come through kind and competent management."
ReplyDeleteI wish more CEOs would read these comments. I often suspect that no idea is so wacko that it cannot be sold to at least several Fortune 500 CEOs.
ReplyDelete