A recent article in Utne Reader (Are We Having Fun Yet?) chronicles the growth of the consultancy industry growing up around… fun! Books with such titles as 301 Ways to Have Fun at Work and 301 More Ways to Have Fun at Work, extol the virtues of silliness and campy that promise to make employees happy and, oh yeah, productive too. Pizza parties, bean bags, chair races, mustache growing competitions, Frisbee memos—consultants are now ready to turn up at your company and deliver kitsch, FUN, and happiness. The promise here is that happy employees—made happy because they are having so much darn fun—make for more productive employees. Isn’t that sweet!

Learn the Fun-damentals of building a Fun-tastic company!!! Fuck You!…

Where are the staples so I can start shooting them into my forehead?

Is this shit for real, or did the writer wander into an episode of The Office? Face it, Fun is a fucking ruse. It is a substitute for autonomy and independence in how employees make decisions and conduct their work. The Fundustry reflects just how intensely corporate doesn’t get it. Give the people some fun, right, and they are dead easy to push around and keep down. Just the latest smokescreen that prevents (lame) employees and (lamer) employers from dealing with the fact that they are both locked down in so much fear (and self loathing) that all they can do is cry.

Now that’s funny.

The Butcher