Of Fun and Work: Most of us are led to concepts like Coworking by a belief that work not only can be more fun, but should be.

Though I've written many articles about the advantages of bringing toys and other fun things to the work place, I've come to the conclusion that we can't really make work more fun. Rather, we have to find the fun that is inherent in the work we do. Here's a case in point:

In "Flow: Living at the Peak of Your Abilities" (Nightingale Conant), Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi writes about a sixty-year-old factory worker named Joe who lived on Chicagos South Side. This mans job entailed building railroad cars in a huge hangar. The conditions in the hangar were harsh, unprotected as it was from Chicagos extremes of weather. Joe, who had only a fourth grade education, was also on the low rung of the factory.

Yet, as Csikszentmihalyi describes, Joe was one of the happiest people he had ever met. At work Joe was exactly where he wanted to be. He had no desire to be a foreman because he only wanted to fix the machinery. And fix the machinery he did. All of it. Better than anyone. In fact, the word around the plant was that if Joe retired, they might as well close up shop because he kept everything going.

But Joes passion for fixing things did not end at work. At home he had built a rock garden with an underground watering system. The garden also included a lighting system designed to produce rainbows. Thus, Joe and his wife could sit on their porch in the evenings surrounded by rainbows. Joe had made of his life one seamless expression of a particular passion; in this case, a passion for building and fixing things. He possessed the gift of being able to completely absorb himself in his interests. In his living and in his working, Csikszentmihalyi concludes, Joe was a man who knew how to play.

© Bernie DeKoven

Via (Conscious Choice)