All Work and No Play Making Us Dull?

I can only speak from my experience. One company I was working for had several 'play' activities, daily video gaming on one of the company servers, lego robot building competitions, work stopped at 12:00 every day while everyone went and played. Everyone from the president on down knew never to schedule lunch meeting. Whenever employees returned to the office from business travel they had to be brought up to date on the 'game' status. Made for a great community to work in, very little frustration in the office because everyone was open and willing to talk about what was bothering them. Everyone had a great attitude and great things were acomplished.

I have also worked for companes who were very regimented, 'here to work' not paly, strict corperate structure. Everyone was uptight, frusterated and didn't trust anyone else around them. Everyone played the political thing, miserable environment and very little got acomplished.

So is play productive; you bet, it should be the rule, not the exception.

Well i work for a Japanese company and it cannot get more duller than that, rules to the power of 10

i find thet yr response is rare from my research on some large structured J companies.....though i cannot relate specifics, i heard thet mitubishe had redone some wonderouse things, with employeeès and work hours and universal harmonics....ie the work time of an executive , may also include farm work or child care, welding,

injuries were basically eliminated,because different muscles and co-ordinations occurèd, attitudes changed

our definition of work....has harmed us,

it is supposed to be a blessing.

our employers should be employeeès.not a top-bottem but a fluent circle....thet i learned from an owner, who said he was his favorite employee.

I have worked for 2 Japanese companies and what strikes me most is bureaucratic machine, japanese trive on paperwork while in Holland it is seen as a neccesary evil.

Everthing must be done according the rules while in my dutch company before the rules were sometimes bend to get the job done