Written by Kieran Delamont, Associate Editor, London Inc.

NOBODY IS REALLY having fun at work, right? Right? Think again, says a new survey from University of Toronto professor Scott Schieman and researcher Daniel Hill, who recently conducted a survey of 2,500 workers to try and gauge how much, if any, fun was being had when people go to work.

What they found was a bit surprising ― that for all the talk about low workplace morale, burnout and stress, people are still finding ways to have fun at work. Seven in 10 workers say they are often or sometimes having fun at work, and only eight per cent said work was never fun for them. And it appears to be relatively consistent across the board, even accounting for differences in what type of job people had.

“Workers in clerical and low-skilled jobs reported the least fun at work, but a majority of workers in those groups still reported having fun at least some of the time,” Schieman and Hill wrote.

In attempting to understand fun at work, they said one prominent theme stood out: the people. For all the griping about workloads and returning to the office and the like, the survey suggested that for the most part, people like their coworkers, enjoy hanging out with them, and that doing so makes their day a bit more enjoyable.

Workplace “fun” is evolving, too. Gone are the old staples ― pizza parties, secret Santas and after-work drinks are all out. Games, mid-day activities, workplace fun runs or remote cooking classes, to name a few, are in. But ultimately, Schieman and Hill suggested, it’s really up to you to find your own fun, even if you work in a not-so-fun industry.

To illustrate, they quote a 43-year-old pest control professional, who told their survey, “There are times when I kind of have fun, but they’re few and far between. A lot of what I do is repetitive, going from home to home. Sometimes I’ll get a house that is infested, and that makes it fun and interesting.”

Hey, whatever floats your fun boat…

REMOTE WORK

How eco-friendly is remote working?

Want to work from home? New data suggests the climate could be your best excuse

THROUGHOUT THE NEW era of remote work, it’s been consistently suggested (usually by remote workers) that the arrangement is probably better for the environment and for CO2 emissions. But that was mostly a feeling, a hunch that with less driving to and from the office, emissions would be lower.

Well, now there’s some data to back it up. By looking at the travel and work patterns of federal employees in the National Capital Region (NCR) ― most of whom have some in-office days and some remote days ― researchers from Carleton University were able to produce an estimate of the emissions reductions associated with remote and hybrid work arrangements.

The data came down pretty decisively in favour of remote work. “Emissions associated with remote work are 25 per cent and 64 per cent lower than in-person work in the NCR and Quebec, respectively,” the researchers found. In absolute terms, they wrote, full-time remote work could reduce carbon emissions by up to 1.6 tonnes per person.

You can guess who liked this report the most ― federal employees who have been scrapping with their employer over RTO for the past year or two. “I’m glad to hear that there’s research saying what seems like the intuitive answer that if you’re taking thousands of people off the roads every day, then that’s probably gonna reduce emissions,” said Nathan Prier, president of the Canadian Association of Professional Employees, one of the big civil servant unions. “We think we’re going to win remote work; we’re certainly going to fight hard for it.” 

Terri Griffith, a professor with the Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University, called it yet another piece of evidence in favour of hybrid work.

"The data around emissions, the data around productivity, the data around job satisfaction, on the whole, leads to hybrid is the way to go,” she told CBC. "The government to mandate people coming in [to the office] is basically saying, 'We're going to increase emissions.’ And I think that goes counter to a lot of governmental statements about working towards a more climate-friendly environment.”

CULTURE

Employees behaving badly

Over a third of workers (and about half of Gen Zers) admit to posting about their job or employer negatively on social media

LOOK TO THE coworker on your left. Now to the coworker on your right. Statistically speaking, one of you is going to trash talk their job on social media this week ― and if one of them is Gen Z, they might be the safe bet.

According to Owl Labs’ recent hybrid work study, more than one third (34 per cent) of employees said they post negatively about their jobs or employers on social media ― a number that jumps to nearly half (48 per cent) if you’re talking about Gen Z, who have virtually no qualms about anything work related, much less a bit of online negativity.

Fifteen per cent of workers will make TikToks about their job, 19 per cent will post on other social media, and 13 per cent will post anonymously on pages like Glassdoor. “The cultural narrative around work is changing,” Owl Labs wrote in their report. “Workers have begun to question the concept of ‘the way it’s always been’ and haven’t been afraid to share these sentiments.”

TikTok has become the new water cooler, observed Hailey Mensik. “Workers have had a lot to gripe about over the past few years,” she wrote. “Many returned to offices under orders they disagreed with. Some faced layoffs. And they’re sharing their stories and commiserating together on social media more than ever.”

It’s not that this is a new problem. HR departments have always been a bit wary of employees posting online, and many companies have long had policies of one sort or another to address it. But these days, it’s getting trickier to enforce; some jurisdictions have even passed laws prohibiting employers from accessing employees’ private social media accounts. And then there’s the question of whether you can actually get Gen Z to care ― even if you do enforce those policies.

Nowadays, the ball seems to be in the posters’ court: she who posts has the power. HR experts say it’s just the new reality ― employers need to know that their dirty laundry is, more than likely, going to make it online.

“If employers want loyalty, they need to earn it, not expect it,” HR consultant Bryan Driscoll told Newsweek. “This shift should be a wakeup call to employers. They can't keep pushing the same old toxic environments and expect Gen Z to stay silent. Employers who refuse to change will find themselves with a serious retention problem and a tarnished brand reputation.” 

TECHNOLOGY

Daze of distruption

Corporate cybercrime incidents are on the decline in Canada, but recovery costs are way more expensive than you think

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