Are We Having Fun Yet?
(Page 5 of 7)
Mar.-Apr. 2008
by Matt Labash, from the Weekly Standard
I make my way into HBCS’s call center, where telephone operators sit in a drably lit matrix of cubicles, trying to cadge money from sick people and their families in eight-hour shifts, expected by management to hit quotas as one automated call after another rolls in. It looks like a hard, monotonous job.
RELATED CONTENT
There’s a dark side to the recent trend in corporate repsonsiblity: It is giving conscientious inve...
Your Logo Here March 12, 2003 Issue By Rob Walker, Slate The “Sponsorship” exhibit, which opened a...
Albert Einstein has become a pop culture icon. But Einstein the man, warts and all, is more interes...
These anti-globalization activists are reaching for change......
Multinational corporations are urging people to buy “local,” meaning from huge multinational corpor...
Several human resources types collect around me and drape a visitor’s badge around my neck. They proudly show off the place. They wear shorts and flip-flops and other casual wear, as it’s something of a beach day for them. Since there’s no beach or ocean nearby, however, funtivities will commence under the theme Playfair Under the Sea. In the hospitality tent on a narrow spit of grass behind the building, there is a lot of maritime décor: seashell fans, buckets of sand, plastic crabs, and starfish.
Inside are wan touches to cheer up the place: a glittery star hanging from the corkboard ceiling above the head of a top performer’s cubicle here, a beach ball or a fish mobile there. On the call floor, Brian Wasilewski, vice president of operations, is crisply dressed, his plaid shorts and brown beach shirt looking as though they’ve been starched. He stresses that while HBCS hired the Fun Department to fun-up their company picnic, the company tries to keep it fun year-round.
During National Healthcare Compliance Week, for instance, the company played Compliance Jeopardy, Wasilewski says. “Basically, we sent out a list of compliance-related questions at the beginning of the week, and anyone who scored a certain amount or higher got to play in the Compliance Jeopardy game.”
Winners went into the training room and played Compliance Jeopardy just like the real game show. Answers had to be in the form of questions. There were Daily Doubles. Gift certificates were awarded. And all the categories revolved around things like privacy information and patient claims. Says one human resources VP: “We try.”
As the funtivities kick off, the Funsters form a dancing gauntlet around the back door, wearing swim caps and snorkels and other water-related funnery. They say cheery things like “Nice hat, girlfriend!” and “Welcome to the fun!” while employees, blinking into the blinding sunlight, smile nervously as a DJ booms “Takin’ Care of Business” by Bachman-Turner Overdrive.
There are “play stations” all over the grounds: an oversized inflated basketball hoop, a ring-toss pit, a Yahtzee game with giant fuzzy dice, a “deep-sea fishing” station, which consists of two baby pools with children’s fishing poles to fish out magnetic rubber duckies that can be redeemed for finger puppets and wind-up toys.
One of the most popular funtivities involves a managers’ face-off, where the bosses must grab a partner and toss water balloons back and forth to each other, wearing pirate patches on one eye to distort depth perception. They must also utter “Argghhhh” before each throw just to further humiliate themselves, cueing the hoi polloi that everyone has “permission to play.”
Page:
<< Previous 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 | 5 |
6 |
7 |
Next >>