Is there such a thing as having too much fun at work?

3 months ago 19

When I was new to my current place of work, I was quietly told to watch out for a group of colleagues I would be working near to. Their crime? Laughing too loudly.

Having come from a place where laughing was forced if it ever happened at all, I thought this was the whingeing of a sad spoilsport. But, having worked next to them for a while now, I understand the warning better.

It’s not just loud, it’s blaring. I thought I would get used to it, but even now I get startled by these big blasts of noise. I don’t want to come across as a wowser, but … is there such a thing as having too much fun in the workplace?

Fun can be many different things and will take different forms in different workplaces.

Is there such a thing as having too much fun at work? Depends what you mean by fun. And that’s not an easy definition to come to. Ask a hundred different people what they consider fun and you’ll get a hundred different answers. Some may like a quiet joke with a trusted co-worker. Some may like a good all-in discussion in the lunchroom. Some may like an activity with colleagues away from the office. Some may think that their typical work tasks are themselves fun – or at least can be.

And, yes, some people may like to have a good belly laugh with a group of colleagues around their desk.

Fun can be many different things and will take different forms in different workplaces. And sometimes, what’s fun for one person is not fun at all for someone else. In that way, the concept of fun is a bit like the concept of freedom. On the surface, we all accept it’s good and desirable. But when we look a bit more closely, it’s not always quite that simple.

There can absolutely be too much of the kind of fun where one group ‘wins’ and another ‘loses’.

As Abraham Lincoln once said in one of his lesser-known speeches: “The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep’s throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as a liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty.” Something roughly similar could be said about fun. We often think of it as a sunny, all-inclusive abstraction. But fun at the expense of someone else is not that at all. It’s a zero-sum game.

And this is where the obvious, first-blush answer to the question of is there such a thing is too much fun – no, of course there isn’t – gets wobbly. There can absolutely be too much of the kind of fun where one group “wins” and another “loses”. Especially if the losing party has done little to warrant the mockery and is less powerful than those doing the laughing.

Now, it sounds like this group of loud laughers isn’t making fun of other people in the office. But I do wonder if there is still an element of selfishness about it. Obviously, you don’t need to include every person in your joke – whether you’re in an office, a pub or a restaurant. Such a rule would be ridiculously oppressive, not to mention completely impractical. But it is best to think about how your fun affects others. Is it out of place? Is now the right moment for it? Will it waste others’ time? And, yes, is it disruptive?

You asked in your question if you are just being a wowser. I think that’s a healthy thing to consider. We’ve all come across sour killjoys in our professional lives and they often have a knack for rationalising their scorn, no matter how disproportionate it is.

Could you be exaggerating the effect this laughter has on you as a way to justify your criticism of something joyful and inoffensive? Something you’re envious of? Maybe. But I get the strong sense from your longer email that you don’t resent the fun itself. In fact, you like the fact there are people at your work having a good time. You just dislike the uncontrolled nature of the noise.

This would be questionable if the laughter was a one-off. Or if it happened sporadically. There’s not much more delightful than a quip or an observation that takes you by surprise and leaves you howling with laughter. But this sounds like something quite a bit more routine. While I think it’s most likely that these colleagues are expressing genuine mirth, I’m not sure they’re spending any time thinking about how their repeated “blasts of noise”, as you call them, affect others. And that’s not really fair.

Are they having “too much fun”? Unless they’re wasting hours at a time huddled around a desk making jokes when everyone else is working – or the laughter is at the expense of people who don’t deserve their ridicule – I don’t think so. What I do think is that frivolity is rarely, if ever, a good excuse for thoughtlessness.

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