I like to have fun. I like to curse, I like to say things that are often on the edge of appropriateness, and I like to push the envelope with humor from time to time. It’s my real, authentic self, and if you’ve never seen that side of me, well, it’s because I don’t know your level of acceptance or your ability to take a joke.
I’m a firm believer that we should be able to have fun in the workplace. That we should be able to laugh and not have to take things too seriously.
Work should be a place where you can balance both the joy of the people around you and the high-stress deliverables in the same day. Without the ability to have fun and enjoy yourself, burnout happens quickly.
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Some of the best moments of my career were never tied to a bonus check, a title change, or a promotion announcement. They were tied to the random inside jokes with coworkers, the laughter during stressful moments, the sarcastic comments during meetings, or the people who made an exhausting Tuesday somehow tolerable simply by being around them.
Those moments matter more than people realize. They become the glue that holds difficult environments together when the pressure starts stacking up.
I’ve worked in environments where everyone walked around stiff, guarded, overly polished, and terrified to say the wrong thing, and honestly, those places slowly drain the life out of you. You start editing every sentence before it leaves your mouth. You become robotic. You stop feeling comfortable enough to contribute naturally, and eventually you stop feeling like yourself altogether. Nobody does their best work when they’re emotionally clenched for eight straight hours a day.
The funny thing about authenticity is that it actually builds stronger teams when it’s healthy. When people feel safe enough to laugh, joke around, admit mistakes, or show personality, trust grows faster. Relationships become real. Conversations become easier. Collaboration stops feeling forced. You stop spending energy pretending to be some polished corporate mannequin who says words like “circle back” while quietly dying inside during Zoom calls.
Now, obviously, there are lines. You have to read the room. You have to understand timing, context, professionalism, and emotional intelligence, all of it. Having fun at work doesn’t mean being reckless or disrespectful. It means creating an environment where people feel human instead of feeling like they’re trapped inside a performance every single day. There is a massive difference between professionalism and emotional suppression, yet a lot of companies confuse the two.
One of the biggest signs that you’re in the right environment is that you can exhale around the people there. You don’t feel like you’re acting. You don’t feel like every opinion has to be filtered through politics and fear before you say it out loud.
You can joke around in meetings, laugh at yourself when things go sideways, and still execute at a high level. In fact, most high-performing teams I’ve ever seen usually laugh harder than everyone else precisely because they trust each other enough to do it.
People stay at jobs longer when they enjoy the people around them. That’s the part leadership teams miss all the time when they obsess over culture decks and mission statements. Nobody remembers slide presentations about values if the actual day-to-day environment feels tense, awkward, and lifeless. People remember how others made them feel. They remember whether they felt included, accepted, supported, and comfortable enough to be themselves without constantly second-guessing their personality.
At some point in your career, you stop chasing environments that simply look impressive on LinkedIn and start chasing environments where you genuinely enjoy waking up and interacting with the people around you.
Life is already stressful enough. Work is difficult enough. If you’re going to spend massive portions of your existence somewhere, hopefully it’s around people who allow you to laugh loudly, think freely, feel comfortable in your own skin, and occasionally say something a little unhinged without everyone clutching their pearls in horror.