GM591 Midterm

1. Question: Consider this story that appeared in the August 11, 1998 Wall Street Journal: Work Hard, Play Hard: Employers use fun to boost morale
All 25 partners at Certilman, Balin, Adler & Hyman, an East Meadow, N.Y., law firm, are invited to a free conference-room lunch every day. Managing partner Bernard Hyman says the lunches began as a chance to talk business but soon became anticipated social gatherings. “We tell stories, talk about the weekend,” he says, “talk about the football game, talk about our husbands, talk about our wives, talk about our children.”
During lunchtime at JW Genesis Financial Corp., Boca Raton, Fla., Vice Chairman Joel Marks lets workers view his TV-sitcom tapes, including “Seinfeld,” “Mary Tyler Moore” and “Taxi.” Terry Deal, business professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., says companies that bring play and celebration into the workplace often have higher profits. A book he co-wrote cites as an example Southwest Airlines, which encourages crews to joke with passengers.
But he says few companies incorporate play: “One thing we are finding over and over is that work just isn’t any fun anymore.”
Some observers would argue the fun work place is just another fad? What do you think? Does having fun at work lead to higher productivity? Use course concepts to formulate your response. Your Answer:
I believe that there needs to be balance between fun and work. If people do not enjoy their job it will lead to lower productivity. My last job was in retail and the store manager tried to make it as enjoyable as possible, but the longer I worked there the less fun it was. A major contributor to this was the daily e-mails from the district manager. There was rarely anything encouraging in them. Far too often we would get a little bit of recognition for getting sales in one area, but it would always be