The office grinch may have a point — it’s not fun if it’s forced

As soon as at a resort, I spied a bunch of ladies in sparkly outfits out on their Christmas jolly. They ran to the dance ground, jumped up and down, and shouted, “enjoyable, enjoyable, enjoyable”. Not simply as soon as, however at some point of that banging tune after which the subsequent, earlier than returning to their seats. Was this an expression of pure pleasure or a protest directed at their employer?

I wish to assume it was the latter. As a result of who hasn’t felt a frisson of irritation — and even the burden of distress — attending a naff work occasion hell-bent on placing the enjoyable into operate? This Christmas, after the pandemic put the brake on workplace jollies, many staff might discover themselves experiencing compelled enjoyable for the primary time in two years.

Some, in fact, had endured digital cocktails, wreath making and even on-line discos with big-name DJs. In 2020, Decide Jules informed the FT how weird it was to play to staff of their bedrooms and kitchens: “There’s no goggle-eyed individuals in entrance of you, no viewers.”

Maybe it’s OK to withstand boss-directed jollity? Actually, it might appear to be in France, the place final month, a courtroom backed a person’s proper to say no to compelled enjoyable. It present in favour of the marketing consultant who had been dismissed after he refused to affix in socialising, which, in accordance with the ruling, concerned weekend drinks, “extreme alcoholism” and “promiscuity, bullying and incitement to numerous excesses”.

I’m no grinch. I’ve partaken of alcohol and danced, generally with different individuals. A celebration is an opportunity to let off steam, a reward for working laborious, a reminder that work is a collective enterprise and a chance to find new sides to colleagues.

However organised workplace enjoyable can swiftly stray into un-fun. As administration author Stephen Fineman as soon as wrote: “Enjoyable usually good points its ‘funness’ from its spontaneity, shock, and sometimes subversion of the extant order.” After all, not all enjoyable will be spontaneous. Typically it takes preparation — for a celebration, drinks or dinner.

Enjoyable is between consenting adults, seemingly obligatory un-fun is just not. Peter Fleming, writer of The Mythology of Work, factors out that attendance at a piece get together will not be obligatory, however the energy of being labelled a “party-pooper by the one who in the end pays your wage” could make it really feel that means.

Some persons are simply not wired for workplace events. Nancy Rothbard, professor of administration on the Wharton College of the College of Pennsylvania, says some staff are “integrators”, that means they’re proud of work seeping into their residence life and vice versa; others, “segmentors”, are usually not. Managers, she says, should permit staff to not take part and in addition supply different actions, reminiscent of a working lunch and even simply mentoring, to forge connections and “construct belief”.

So many work occasions play to extroverts’ strengths. Not too long ago, I met a self-declared introvert who took problem along with his characterisation because the workplace recluse for not eager to attend firm socials, reminiscent of karaoke. “I can’t work a room however can most likely make long-term relationships higher,” he informed me.

Work occasions can transport us again to schooldays. One good friend experiences going to a crew bowling evening that was so un-fun — she got here final out of 20, her low rating broadcast on a large board — that it made her really feel bodily unwell, reminding her of being unhealthy at PE. The identical individuals who dominated the playground are sometimes rewarded on the workplace get together.

From the skin, it may be laborious to know how an organization operates. For a lot of new recruits, who’ve spent a lot time within the final couple of years working remotely, a celebration may be the primary time they see it up shut. They could like what they see, or they could not.

If the turkey is drab and the dialog matches, the Christmas get together may set off an epiphany: that within the new yr, it’s time for a brand new job.

emma.jacobs@ft.com