Hear me out. I know the jokes I make are bad, especially the ones that I blurt out mid-sprint planning, but, they've made me much better at my job.
Let me start this off by saying that it is very easy for an engineer/developer/coder/(insert chosen job title here) to get wrapped up in the idea that our job revolves entirely around writing code, but it doesn't. I get it, it's a very large part of it and, it's the reason a lot of us do this job. I like writing code too. However, another part of our job is the interpersonal side of things.
I don't know about you but on a daily basis I speak with lots of people when I'm in work (probably more now I am remote than I did when I was in the office). All of those conversations are important. Maybe, they are not all business related, but they're important.
Lately I've been making a conscious effort to tell bad jokes on standup. I have taken the liberty of changing the days of the week to: ["Minecraft Monday", "Tetris Tuesday", "Wipeout Wednesday", "Tony Hawk Thursday", "Fortnite Friday"], and you know what? It goes down a treat and helps so much.
Your team got some bad news on something? Saying things like "Damn, what a way to ruin Tetris Tuesday!" always gets a giggle, or at least a few smirks.
I post memes and/or GIFs on our pull requests. A colleague had something ready for release so rather than the standard "Looks good to merge" you send one of these bad boys:
Now, I look forward to looking over pull requests so that I can post funny GIFs - so I'm more productive.
My sentiment is just this: have a little fun in work, because fun is contagious. It helps to lift morale, bring people closer as a team, and to make the day go a bit quicker. Plus, it makes you so much more approachable and if you enjoy your work you'll do it quicker but also to a higher quality.
TLDR: Make bad jokes, post GIFs and memes, because that makes work a little bit more enjoyable for everyone. A fun workplace is usually a productive workplace too!
Top comments (1)
This is just me