This article tries to say that fake-fun at offices should be banned, but what it actually says is that what modern companies do for fun isn't their idea of fun (their idea of fun seems to involve smoking and drinking and sexually harrassing co-workers).
Believe it or not, Googlers love the ball pits and the massages, and Twitter peeps are very appreciative of the HR people whose job it is to make sure everyone's happy (contrary to the E's report, it more often involves firing people who suck than handing out cold towels).
Drinking is very good, and not all office romance is sexual harassment, although it's true the article's examples are . . . unfortunate. I think the article's message is a sound one: Googlers talk about how much they love the ball pits, but I don't know anyone who's gone in more than once. However, we all enjoy the team bar in the hallway. There is something to the idea that "fake fun" is not as fun as "real fun" -- the kind people opt to enjoy when left to their own devices.
I do agree that fake fun is still better than no fun at all. But I think, as someone who works at one of these places that tries to make everything fun, that I enjoy the types of fun I have with coworkers that aren't engineered more than the types of fun that are.
As a non-drinker and non-smoker I can't speak to the fun of those things anywhere, far less at work. Sexual harrassment would be super-entertaining but probably less so for my co-workers.
> involve smoking and drinking and sexually harrassing co-workers
I read it as trusting your employees to behave like adults ... like not to get drunk, and to let them engage in harmless flirting or even dating. A wink is not sexual harassment, a joke about sex (even if a little brutal) is not sexual harassment.
Also, people have their own habits / vices ... if you've got smokers in your company, provide a place were they can smoke. I mean, you've got money for masseuses, can't you find 10 spare square meters with air conditioning?
What's wrong with that?
Instead of having a "fun department", just let people be who they are.
> a joke about sex (even if a little brutal) is not sexual harassment.
That's an issue of quantity and quality, not of the thing per se. Enough jokes about sex aimed at the same person and it could easily be sexual harassment.
Believe it or not, Googlers love the ball pits and the massages, and Twitter peeps are very appreciative of the HR people whose job it is to make sure everyone's happy (contrary to the E's report, it more often involves firing people who suck than handing out cold towels).