Work Made Fun Gets Done!: Easy Ways to Boost Energy, Morale, and Results

by Bob Nelson, Felix Mario Tamayo

Bob Nelson, author of the multimillion-copy bestseller 1001 Ways to Reward Employees, and human performance expert Mario Tamayo offer hundreds of practical, creative tips for helping employees—and their managers—make work more fun.According to the employees that work for firms listed in Fortune's “100 Best Companies to Work for in America,” the most defining characteristic of these organizationsis they are all “fun” places to work. Fun is the secret sauce every business needs to better engage and motivate its employees today. Work Made Fun Gets Done! gives readers simple, practical ideas for instantly bringing fun into their work and workplace. Based on examples from scores of companies like Zoom, Pinterest, Bank of America, Zappos, Honda, Microsoft, and many more, this book provides clear examples of exactly what managers and employees alike can do to lighten the tone in the work environment and allow employees to have more fun at work. From AAA's “Dump a Dog” program where workers can pass their least-wanted project on to their manager and Houzz's complimentary office slippers to CARFAX's themed-wardrobe Zoom meetings and Google's company-approved Nerf-gun battles and paper airplane contests, you'll find dozens of ideas you can immediately adapt and implement in your own workplace. Work and fun have typically been considered polar opposites, but this book proves they can be integrated in ways that produce more motivated workers—and exceptional results.

238 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 11, 2021

Reviews

[Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bob Nelson and Mario Tamayo’s new book is something like a decidedly post-modernist guide for dummies, albeit more charitably titled the simple but effective banner of: Work Made Fun Gets Done!: Easy Ways to Boost Energy, Morale, and Results. Nelson and Tamayo expertly outline their distinctive methodologies and strategy for making even the most standard and routine of corporate procedural actions engaging and maybe even that word rare to workplace discourse: exciting. The duo can’t be denied their charisma, both in their simple effectiveness at communicating things in a way that is enjoyably wide-ranged, and at the same time irreverently humorous. As far as Nelson and Tamayo seem to be concerned, with respect to a professional work ethic - that is, the actions of doing the work effectively are symbiotically tied to not taking the pettier stuff, particularly the voices inside your own head, all that seriously. “Work is what you do for your paycheck, and fun is what you do on the weekend,” the authors have written. “Most of us must work to earn money to live, and sometimes enjoying the work we do seems like a luxury we can’t afford. Or can we?” They go on to state, “For individuals, time at work goes by faster as they become more excited about their work, who they work with, and what they are achieving, which all affect the pride they have in their work, themselves, and the company…So why don’t more people have fun at work? Is it our puritan work ethic that makes us feel guilty if we are having fun? Is it our fear of being judged, ridiculed, or chastised by others—especially our boss? Do we inherently feel that doing fun things is “wasting time” when we could be, and are being paid to be, productive? Maybe we each harbor a little of all those concerns.”

With their philosophy laid out in such clear, statistics-backed terms, one can’t help but feel a little stupid when it comes to their own, respective reverence to the so-called ‘status quo’. After all, hasn’t anyone who has made it in both their personal and professional lives at best bucked, and at worst interlocuted, the so-called ‘status quo’? Who even decided the ‘status quo’? In the phrasing of Nelson and Tamayo, some respect-worthy but undeniably old dinosaur at the beginning of the turn of the century? Given the ever-changing sociocultural climates that are rattling the country from top to bottom, there’s no denying it’s time to rebalance the equation when it comes to workplace dispatches. And not just the literal kind. An attitude makeover is in order, the concept of the ‘boss from Hell’ is starting to become not just prehistoric, but a symbol of considerable abuse of power. A wrong that has been societally tolerated for far too long. It’s Nelson and Tamayo’s irreverence, coupled with their humor, coupled with their extensive knowledge of what they preach that makes their new book - and their overall, advertised philosophies - so intriguing. In an era when the leadership advice guide has started to pale under the shadows of its well-intentioned predecessors, it’s nice to hear a contemporary-minded, culturally-relevant voice speaking from a place of earned and learned authority. These days, it’s not about your actual qualifications as much as it is about your ability to communicate to your chosen audience. Nelson and Tamayo succeed because they don’t choose a specific audience, plus they’re communicating in the most wide-ranging way possible.

[Jay Izso · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want more productivity, efficiency, creativity and greater employee loyalty than this is your book. "Work Made Fun Gets Done!" is a best seller for a reason and that is because Dr. Bob Nelson and Mario Tamayo have backed up their claim with solid research. What is more this book is a tool kit to add more fun to the workplace. If you are still stuck in the mindset of "you are suppose to go to work...not fun" well then you might be part of the problem why people are "ghosting" their jobs or leaving for a new job. At the end of the day everyone wants to work in a place they enjoy and can have some fun. The science does not lie...truly Work Made Fun Gets Done! Must have for every business.

[Erianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I attended a webinar of Bob’s and was able to receive a free copy of this book as a result, so I appreciate that!

I think there are some great ideas in here for showing appreciation and recognition to your team, however some of the suggestions are really out there if you work in a very formal corporate work environment (like I do).

I’m going to struggle to apply some of these at my current company, but I would love to have free rein at a company where all of these ideas are possible.

I did catch some chapters that duplicated the same suggestion, company, and example, so I did have a lot of Deja vu reading. Streamlining the examples to just one section of the book would have been great.

[Sunny · Rating 5 out of 5]

i love this book! so clear simple and engaging. as it should be but so rarely is. here is someone who not only know the stats and research, but LIVES them. you can tell when you are reading authors we who embody their work, as they read as experts on these concepts for themselves first. it's all in a very clean, clear, down to earth style, really ike a reference book! you can pick it up anytime, anywhere, and benefit from a bite size insight.

[Ira Ozer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having fun at work is important for people to feel comfortable, build relationships, collaborate and get into the state of flow. Dr. Bob Nelson and Mario Tamayo have done a great job of explaining why this works and how many companies add humor to their workplaces and achieve stellar results.

[Nathan DeLorey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This wonderful book is perfectly timed! Who couldn't use more fun at work right now? The authors do a masterful job delivering on what they describe as "practical and creative ways to make work fun!" I am looking forward to seeing how we use this book to make her company more FUN!

[Paul Taylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you are looking for a wide range of ideas from many different US companies, then this might be a good resource for you. For my situation, I found it difficult to apply any of these ideas. Still, I agree with the author's overall point.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I want to bring this FUNdamental energy into 2023, so it was my first book of the year. There are a lot of good, easy tips which are definitely geared toward corporate America.