The office, many people would have you try to believe, is a serious place where serious people do serious things to bring in serious revenues — and earn serious rewards. Just look at the uptight traditional ideas about what’s acceptable office wear to get a hint at this notion. But new research suggests that if you’re careful about it, mingling a little of a particular childhood trait into your office habits might actually be a good thing. Playfulness, it seems, can earn you respect from your colleagues and bosses.
The research, newly published in Nature, defines playfulness as being a complex, “multifaceted trait” which melds being social with lightheartedness, intellectual creativity, and being whimsical. It’s quite easy to imagine someone behaving like this in the home, or at a non-work social activity, and the researchers point out that there’s plenty of studies into the value of play in these settings — but not necessarily about its value in the workplace.
What might playfulness in a work setting look like? It’s pretty easy to imagine that a playful office character might be one who uses puns, and maybe gentle pranks from time to time…but it doesn’t have to be so directly humor-related — playfulness could include silliness or irreverence at opportune and non-disruptive moments, like suggesting a silly answer to a question in a group environment. Playful people are “often spontaneous and intrinsically motivated,” (i.e. they may be true to their own ideals, even in a strict team setting) the report notes, and being playful in the office is a “highly observable” phenomenon.
The study concludes that the key thing being playful in an office setting does is signal that a particular person is being authentic. And this authenticity really can shape the relationships that a playful worker has with their colleagues and superiors. In fact a worker can earn “unique social power when perceived as authentic,” the report notes, placing that person in a pivotal role in building relationships among team members. The effect may be even more pronounced in a highly competitive team climate, with authenticity leading to “more social support, less social undermining, and higher leadership judgments from their peers.” In other words, a playful person seen as being true to their own character earns better support from their colleagues, which will carry through into day-to-day duties, there’s less chance for the kind of in-fighting between workers which can impact efficiency, and being authentic may make your peers see you as more of a leader-type.
You may have gotten this far and thought all this is so much psycho-babble. But there’s actually plenty to learn from this study for your own organization.
As long as being playful doesn’t stray into being disruptive, the fact that this trait is linked to authenticity is important. Many reports link authenticity with better workplace results, since it’s good to be around authentic people — particularly in leadership roles.
The report also notes that there may be a trend among workers to suppress their “natural instincts to play” due to “increasing competitive pressures in the contemporary business world.” And with so many headlines covering layoff after layoff, the pressure AI is exerting on the job market, the rise of more strict management thinking, and many other factors this makes sense.
But the researchers suggest “employees should not be afraid to express their playful nature in the workplace, as it can facilitate positive social effects, especially in a highly competitive work climate.” Similarly, since some people are not naturally playful, and authenticity is about being genuine, then the report encourages companies to “make room and allow for play and playfulness at work,” which may boost innovation, team dynamics and allow workers unique qualities to “shine through at the workplace.”
Kit Eaton
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