No More Whimsy?
Recently I was having conversations at work (about a variety of issues) and one did stay with me - where is the whimsy?
I know many people will see this and immediately groan - it’s a work environment, hardly a place to be “different” or fun-loving. But I’m not saying that means being unprofessional, or not adhering to HR’s code of conduct. I’m talking about the simple joys, in having a fun pen on your desk or a cute stack of post-it notes.
Some people like the standard stuff. You know where you are, it does the job, and that’s that. There’s nothing wrong with that. I think that my experience so far is that having something even vaguely different is a shock to how the work environment operates. How to treat this unknown pen or style of work. It may seem like nothing, but you spend a minimum of eight hours a day, forty hours a week, in this environment, constantly surrounded by subliminal messages about how you should act and conduct yourself. This comes from office culture, veteran colleagues, even clients or customers depending on your job.
I see people everyday. And I wonder if my whimsy, the things that I take joy in everyday, will disappear. I don’t want it to, I am of course committed to my job and what I do, but this doesn’t mean sacrificing the smallest of things that do not even impact the quality of my work. Actually, I’d go so far as to say it improves my work, because the more fulfilled I am, the harder I work.
Work isn’t easy in any sense. Small moments are what keep you going, motivation to meet targets. Whimsy, I argue, is an essential component of this, and therefore should be defended most ferociously.
I don’t want to lose my whimsy. It makes me who I am, in any environment I find myself. In a corporate world that increasingly prides itself on catering to inclusivity, whimsy should be front and centre of it all.
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