Bree is an organizational consultant and change expert. Thanks to her transformative work, our individual corporate culture has been largely shaped by her efforts, having worked with global brands as large as Google, Microsoft, Hilton, Calvin Klein, and Pfizer. Her mission is to change the experience for employees. Her mission is to transform work into a place of joy, away from the “necessary evil” that it often is. Groff recently published a book titled “Today Was Fun: A Book About Work (Seriously),” which encapsulates her evolving perspective on work and life.
Yet, Groff’s lens on work took a deep turn after the sudden death of her mother from terminal cancer in the summer of 2022. The loss, intensified by the reality of her father’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis, caused Groff to take emergency leave and tend to her parents’ needs. Her experience in this journey has stoked her fire to make the belief that work should be play, work and play, reality.
She thinks that traditional ways of working tend to overlook the importance of fun. This leads to places where fun is forgotten. Groff is an advocate for workdays being incubators of happiness. They must not be treated solely as a steppingstone to something better.
“Work should be a source of joy, because it’s fundamentally good and it should be only one of many joys,” Groff stated. Her perspective empowers staff and practitioners to seek out new ways of doing their day-to-day work that should inspire leaders and organizations.
This picture unfolds in Would You Kill the Fat Man, the provocative new novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author and entrepreneur Elizabethtown College President Groff. She advocates for holistic, arts-based practices that increase collaboration and participation. For example, she advocates for daily or weekly check-in meetings in which everyone on a team shares their mood from 1 to 5. This small gesture encourages a culture of care and empathy between coworkers.
Consider what will need to be in place beforehand. If you’re anxious and deprived of sleep, you’re not going to enjoy yourself,” she said. Groff emphasizes the need for leaders to cultivate an atmosphere where employees feel comfortable discussing stress and how their coworkers can assist them.
Her idea of “thin-slicing” joy is meant to help people locate the small specks of joy within their workday, even in the darkest days. “What are the kinds of days I want to have?” she asks, prompting reflection on how one can integrate joy into their professional life.
She takes on the traditional idea of professionalism as an elitist and often oppressive relic. She argues that workers are repeatedly forced to act in ways that are counter to their health and safety. “You don’t need a fancy, well-reasoned argument for leaving a role … Every day you spend in a role that isn’t working for you is one of your precious and finite days on this planet,” she asserts.
She emphasizes the importance for businesses to recognize their workers’ lives outside of their jobs. “It’s so obvious for leaders to tout that message that ‘we’re changing the world’, but it puts any employee in the position of asking themselves, ‘Wait, do I want to change the world, or do I want to go home and cook dinner?’” Groff urges organizations to understand the different motivations behind their workforce.
Her recommendations go far beyond theory. They are rooted in the actual experiences and observations from her career. And through her collaborations with clients, she has experienced firsthand how a positive work culture improves productivity. It more than doubles employee satisfaction.
Creating work definitely is all about proving yourself. It’s about building something people love, working with your fellow builders, and taking the fight to the enemy. If that’s all serious, then how do we preserve all of that? She argues passionately.
In “Today Was Fun,” Groff brings her excitement about escaping from home to life. Her goal is to enact an Enjoyment Revolution that values fun in the workplace, as well as efficiency. Her vision is clear: work should not only fulfill economic needs but contribute positively to individuals’ lives.