Are Your Employees Bored or is Your Playground Boring?

Seeing and Demystifying Work Life Beyond Your Office Walls

When I was in grade school, a major source of weekday delight was recess. When the weather cooperated, rich, quality time on the playground was more than just a breath of fresh air. Something about playing outside, where the sun could reach out and touch me, was magical.

I miss opportunities to explore on the school playground as I did as a kid. I wish I could go back in time and write my name on the asphalt in colored chalk. I long to hopscotch my way to childhood bliss again and explore with no destination in mind.

Back then, I played without thinking about the what, so what, and now what. That’s what made it fun and adventurous. There was no agenda, checklist, or strategy to follow. It was what it was, and myself and my classmates enjoyed every minute of it.

Waving at friends in other classes brought me as much joy as playing with my own classmates.

Fast forward to adulthood where playgrounds aren’t generally included in the typical employee benefits package.

Workplace breakrooms don’t offer the same delightful amenities.

No matter how plush the carpet is or how many Keurig machines are strategically placed throughout the office, if the aroma of curiosity, creativity, and playtime isn’t allowed, boredom is inevitable.

Now that telework is as common as the common cold, many employees must seek off-site opportunities to spend time with work friends. This altered state of social connection and interaction contributes to boring workdays.

To the powerful beings that hold the keys to employee satisfaction, are your employees bored or is your organizational playground boring?

Here’s an even deeper thought that may be worth pondering. What if your employees are bored because the playground is boring?

I know that’s a lot to think about, so we’ll pause here for lunch.

With a little bit of creativity and intentionality, I believe the workplace can become a playground where employees can play, create, inquire, and exchange curiosity, energy, and ideas that transform the environment and ways of thinking, being, and doing in and outside of work.

Some of the magic at work happens when employees are granted time and freedom to play outside the lines of traditional, long-held and downright stale processes, rules, policies, and the ever annoying, ‘we’ve always done it this way.’

Many of the policies, procedures, and rules at work were created for a point in time that no longer exists. If your workplace is filled with mindsets that align with microfiche, overhead projectors, and cassette tapes, I can only imagine how fun it is to work there.

Getting locked into patterns of supervising and managing from an office with a nice view as opposed to leading from the floor, bleachers, and the balcony, limits what can be seen, heard, and felt. If it can’t be seen, heard, and felt, it can’t be understood or transformed.

Those that sit in high places must be curious enough to come out of their comfortable offices and virtual meetings to see, hear, and feel the energy, action, and inaction of their employees on a regular basis. What can be seen and heard from the floor may be different from what can be seen and heard in the bleachers and what can be seen and heard in the bleachers may be different from what can be seen and heard from the balcony. Those three perspectives may prove to be more than just vantage points.

Being too close to the mountain limits the view. Stepping back and up gives a full view of the playing field and opens the door to insights and understanding about what we see.

As Dr. Phil McGraw says so eloquently, “You can’t change what you don’t acknowledge.”

Here’s an opportunity for an honest analysis by the human beings with the power to create and shape the employee experience.

Are you providing interesting challenges, and a space and place for rich experiences — narrow and thin — deep and wide?

Are you challenging your employees to challenge themselves? Are you giving them space to play in the margins and explore what’s on the other side of ordinary? If not, why not?

More importantly, are you challenging yourself to explore what’s happening in and around you? Are you playing in the margins or just playing it safe?

Are your teams working in a tightly packed container that they can never open? If so, how about introducing some new rules and new toys and ideas for them to play with?

Have you tried giving your employees a real issue to transform? Better yet, allow them to select the issue that’s most troublesome and let them bend it until it breaks and figure out how to transform it.

Where does freedom of expression and creativity show up in your workplace? If it exists, how big is that space and is everyone given equal access to play in that space on a regular basis?

Are you teaching your employees to brainstorm about linear and non-linear aspects of their jobs and to see and understand what’s not obvious?

How often do leaders complain that employee engagement is low, yet there’s nothing interesting or exciting for employees to engage in?

I see companies and organizational playgrounds as margins where the typical boundaries are stretched in order for employees to develop new and healthy patterns that improve employee satisfaction and engagement.

That type of stretching is acceptable in the containers that I live, work, and play in and that’s why I enjoy living, working, and playing in them. I must admit that I’m wired that way, so I could never work anywhere that doesn’t have a lively playground.

I’d rather work alone in a cardboard box than in a well-manicured office building filled with obstinate, disengaged, bored, and unoriginal robots.

In order to bench boredom, someone in the organization has to be courageous enough to break the windows that lead to the playground. I’m curious if anyone is curious enough to lead the way.

While you’re reflecting on the what, so what, and now what of workplace boredom, I’ll be celebrating life in color on the playground.

P.S. Some of the terms I’ve referred to are components of Human Systems Dynamics theory, models and methods.