Give structured fun a chance

I’ve scheduled and run a lot of “structured fun” things. Among Us sessions, book clubs, “Know Your Team!” slide decks, Pictionary, escape rooms, whatever.

I also like to set up recurring Slack threads for things like “Wednesday Ventsday: What do you want to vent about this week?” and “Braggy Friday: Come shamelessly brag about something!“

Most of the time, at least one person complains ahead of time. They say they aren’t a fan of mandatory fun events like whatever I just scheduled. Because it isn’t organic. It’s awkward and forced, they say.

More often than not, those people end up saying “actually that was pretty cool” afterwards, or posting religiously in the weekly threads.

The “mandatory fun sucks” trope is old and tired. I know complaining about mandatory fun is in style right now, but keep an open mind.

And yeah, some of them really are awkward and forced. But using that to boycott them all is like saying you hate Chinese food because you had gross meal once.

Try it before you decide. And even if you do end up hating it, other people probably didn’t.