David, at Signal vs. Noise, posts on "The False Fight Between Fun and Business." The basic idea is tha fun and serious business do not have to be mutually exclusive. The comments to the post are worth looking over if for no other reason than to watch some people get bent over taking the post too literally. The comments basically, with rare exceptions, just go to extremes, showing a lot of people who apparently wouldn't know fun if it fell on their heads. And what's up with seeing a Hawaiian shirt as bad? I wear mine every so often to work. You've got to have your fun, not to mention add a bit of brightness now and then.
There is an underlying lesson, and it is one of balance. You better be serious about your work, but please have your fun as well. One commenter seemed to define fun in terms of work as not dreading to go to work. I think I would raise the bar on that. The overall idea of the post is to have fun with work, that fun goes along with work. If your work is creative, stimulating, interesting, challenging, then fun goes along with it. If it is not, it is either time to get your jollies outside of work (hey, I understand some people may not afford to just up and leave a job, so make up for it outside of work) or find another job.
There is a lesson for libraries. No, the lesson is not to make the library into some techno playground because you think it will get the patrons in. Librarianship is a fun profession when done well. If librarians are actively engaged, the work can be fun. If librarians are just so much deadwood, they should do the rest of us a favor and get out. As David writes, "go out of your way to introduce and nourish fun and its friends passion and motivation." This can only make us better librarians, and your patrons will certainly notice. Sure, have your casual wear day or your karaoke night (this rarely), but mainly put some fun into the overall work experience.
A hat tip to Anecdote, and I am listening to Prince's "Raspberry Beret" on Accuradio.
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