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Ryan Paugh graduated from Penn State in 2006 with a Bachelor's Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business. After working in corporate communications, freelance writing and reporting, he co-founded 
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I never thought it was possible, but I have a great time working late. At the end of the nine-to-five, the remaining employees are always more genuine – more human if you ask me.
Maybe it’s exhaustion that causes the ordinarily oppressive corporate walls to crumble, but we all act a little different. We’re not afraid to be ourselves. And corporate America becomes a bit less corporate.
Imagine a business that could pull this off all day long. What would it take? Probably a miracle…but as individuals, our mannerisms go a long way. Make a change in yourself and the office may become a better place.
Learn to speak human
If you speak to your fellow employees like Bill Lumbergh, you’re already off to a bad start.
“Ummm, yeah…” It’s time to reevaluate your conversation skills. Seriously, be a guy people want to talk to.
Limit the jargon to your TPS reports. If you think it makes you look like a pro to the bigwigs upstairs, you may be right. But you work with me buddy, and I live in average-joe country.
Crawl out of the cube
I know this guy who takes lunch breaks, but never leaves his desk…what a waste.
Interacting within your office is just as important as the time you spend deleting e-mails you don’t want the boss to pick up on. More even!
An environment in action ignites productivity, cubicle confinement suffocates it. Can I back that up? No. But who’s going to tell me they enjoy doing work in a felt box?
Share a good story
If you think your co-workers don’t want to hear about the raunchy teenage sex comedy you saw last weekend, you’re dead wrong. I convinced a few 30 and 40-something co-workers to go see Superbad this weekend. They were all about McLovin commentary.
Moral of the story: people love a shameless conversationalist. It didn’t matter what I talked about, just that I took the initiative to lighten the mood. And it didn’t hurt that I made them feel young again.
You can say what you want about your job. If you say it sucks, who am I to argue? But don’t sell it short without attempting to make things better. You could be the missing link that converts a stale office aura into something McLovin would even consider cool.
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I think the atmosphere changes after hours because everyone relaxes a little bit. If you’re working overtime, you know that you’re technically going above and beyond. It’s all gravy, so there’s less pressure to be uber-productive and on-task.
Often, I used to wind up working late, but after I got tired of working, I’d stick around and chat without doing any work at all. We’d just sit and talk about our frustrations, the things we were excited about, and life in general.
I had those chats with several of my co-workers, and I always enjoyed them. Point being, it’s easier to enjoy yourself when you know you could quit if you wanted to.
(Devil’s Advocate time)
You know, it all depends on your coworkers.
Some people are lucky to work with others who are exactly like them. Everyone likes the same movies, watches the same tv shows, has the same sense of humor.
But others with with a more diverse group. Some are in their 20’s, some in their 50’s. Some single, others married. Some are from a small town, some are from the big city, some are from different countries. Some are jocks, others are nerds.
So sometimes, the best way to get along is to be polite, but not too chummy. That guy sitting at his desk all day may not be a social butterfly, but at least he’s not telling potentially offensive jokes about a ‘raunchy teenage sex comedy’.
Seriously, if everyone is on the same wavelength, then that kind of environment is fine. But how offten does that really happen?
Hm. I can’t shake the feeling that Ryan is pulling our collective leg a little bit with this one. Ryan, if you’re suggesting that a more “fun” working environment is a more “productive” working environment, you’re probably right only to a point … let’s not forget all the rock-climbing walls and foosball tables that preceeded the dot-com crash in the late 1990s. I certainly agree that all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, but at some point–be honest–you’re just goofing off.
In fact, this is probably obvious, but maybe you wouldn’t have to work late so often if you weren’t so worried about “deleting e-mails you don’t want the boss to pick up on” and describing raunchy teenage sex comedies. Come on, Ryan, quit kidding around!
On the very remote chance that you’re being serious with this article, let me be the voice of at least some of your co-workers: we have spouses who miss us, dinner waiting at home, and kids with early bedtimes. We keep our heads down because we want to get through our work, so we can return to the lives we have outside the office. THAT’s where we like to have our fun, thank you very much. So if you don’t mind, quit gabbing and finish up your piece of the project that we’re waiting for, so we can all go home!
I’m going to side with Scott on this one. Just as he describes, in my group of associates, I’m the youngest by about 15 years, probably a good 20-25 off the group average, which already is enough to set me aside socially. I had one coworker my age, but he unfortunately left. So it’s fairly understandable why I don’t socialize that much, most of my coworkers have kids my age or right below, some older. They know my personality, I’m all about socializing and getting up, talking about things when I have the time, but I’m not going to stay here longer than I have to. Like Sean said, I have my fun outside my work. I’m not willing to concede that work is life, so the shorter I spend here the better. I’m also the guy who doesn’t usually leave his desk for lunch. I take about 20 minutes to eat what I need to at my desk, and I leave an hour earlier.
So basically I do what Scott suggests, I’m polite, get along really well with, and generally try to associate with my coworkers when I can, but I don’t need to make it a point to be their friends. They get to hear stories about my vacations rafting or skydiving, and they love it, but beyond the friendly stories…well that’s really all there are. Until I’m in an industry I absolutely love, and working with people “on my wavelength� I think I’ll stick with the “get to work, work hard, leave� approach, because that suits me best.
Thanks for commenting everyone.
@Chuck: I think you’re right about after-hours being more relaxing because there’s less pressure. “It’s easier to enjoy yourself when you know you could quit if you wanted to.” That pretty much sums it up.
@Scott M. (aka the Devil’s Advocate): I think your points are valid, but I work in an environment as diverse as you and the best way to bridge the gaps has been to embrace our differences. Don’t get too wrapped up the my “raunchy teenage sex comedy” reference. I didn’t take things too far. I don’t think I have to stress the importance of knowing your limits. The point was, I took a chance and shared something with my co-workers that I didn’t think they would really care about…turns out they did.
@Sean: “Didn’t you get the memo?” It’s okay to kid around! I’m not going to pretend to my readers that I’m a trophy millennial worker. I do get occasional e-mails from college friends that don’t meet the company motto and if you want to know more about the “raunchy teenage sex comedy” I saw, reference my response to Scott above. Bottom line though, sorry if you got offended. Just don’t take things so seriously. That’s not what my writing is all about.
I also wanted to suggest that you don’t sell yourself short on the fun you can have around the office. I understand you want to get home to your families, kids, etc., but why limit yourself? You can attempt FUN all day long. Believe me, I have a life too, I’d rather be at home that in the office. But let’s face it, we gotta spend a lot of time there. Why not find ways to make it enjoyable. You can gab and still get your work done ya know?
@Nathan: Like I said above, you can stick to the “get to work, work hard, leave approach” no problem. But I want to experience some enjoyment out of work, while I’m doing it. Not just the fulfilling feeling we get when we finally go home.
There’s more to work than just work, I’m just trying to get people to explore it.
One other point, and no, I’m not sure when I turned into such a sour old man. Anyway. In the late 90s, I worked for a Boston-area Web design and development firm. The culture there was similar to what Ryan’s describing: lots of late hours, and people tended to get very open and chummy after about 6 PM, possibly as a result of sheer adrenaline and exhaustion. After a late night working, instead of saying our goodbyes and going home like intelligent adults, we’d all go out somewhere together, and still make it back to the office for 8 AM the next morning. In retrospect, I suppose we were leaning on each other, trying to console ourselves because we were all working so hard. But before long, our social and work networks became irreversibly intertwined. Next thing you know, people in our workgroup started dating, and eventually, even getting married. It was like none of us had a life outside that group, or any time to develop a life outside that group. I don’t know. Looking back, there’s just something creepy and unhealthy about the whole thing.
I know what you mean about the relaxed environment after 5pm, but it’s not for everybody. I’m at a point in my life where staying at the office after 5pm is a hardship on my family. When I didn’t have kids, it was fun to hang around and work late. But now, even if my wife is not complaining, I am asking myself, “why am I still here” if what I am doing is something I could do from home later. 15 minutes of chit chat turns into a missed train and I’m getting home as my wife has heroically fed the kids and is about to put them to bed.
That work/play all the time culture of companies like Google and Yahoo is no longer my idea of a dream job.
I’m single, in my 20s, and don’t have kids, but I prefer not to stay after 6:30pm because I have hobbies.
@Sean: Thanks for sharing that experience, because it’s definitely an example of how not having a life outside of work can become a sticky situation. I really hope I never find myself in that position.
@Dave & Tie: I’m sorry, my goal was never to say that working after 5 p.m. is my cup of tea. I have a life and hobbies too. What I meant to express is that I wish the hours before 5 p.m. could be more relaxed. I work better when I know there’s no pressure to play the corporate role. After 5 p.m. people are more prone to acting like themselves. Why not be yourself all day? You can still be productive, more even.
@Ryan: Have you ever come to work early? We have a somewhat flexible schedule, so we have a couple 7-4 individuals, but most being 8-5 or 9-6. I’m generally here by 7:45 or so, but I’ve had a few occasions where I’ve been in at 6:45-7. Honestly, that hour of work before anyone else comes in, and the 2 hours before our dialing meeting is amazingly productive. It is unbelievable. No calls from clients, no status checks, the boss isn’t in, it’s great. The feeling is a little different than the post 5-6pm feeling, because you can’t really quit whenever you want, but there is still the feeling like “I’m doing extra, so I’ll go at a relaxed and thorough pace because the day doesn’t really start until later.?
I think that’s the feeling you’re going after, and I have to say that I never would have guessed that was the case coming in early until I tried it out. Luckily for me that means I can also leave a little earlier, but I realize at some jobs that wouldn’t be the case.
Just a couple of quick thoughts from Valpak Mark. Ryan, you are all over this. Age has absolutely nothing to do with success at the workplace. I’m 53 and really believe this!
Last summer four or five of us got together to play some baskeball at our corporate attorney’s house. Don is 53, Todd is 50 and Adam is 26. We play some two on two for an hour, drank a couple of beers and still got home at a decent time. Granted, Adam and Don didn’t have any kids, mine are grown and Todd’s was a high school senior.
The point of this is that this interaction not only made the workplace more fun . . .it was also productive in getting this accomplished.
If you are a sports fan, it can be magic for conversation. I have met very few people who keep their nose to the grind stone 8 hours a day. Taking 30 minutes at the end of the day can be magic. Working smart is much better than working hard. And, you can get a whole lot more done if you know how to interact and who to interact with.
Mark, great point. A little intergenerational game of hoops is a great way to connect. I joined a league with my boss this year and it was a blast.
Also, working smart is so much more important then working hard. There needs to be a balance between the two, but joking around or talking sports with the other guys for 15 minutes can be more beneficial to your career advancement then producing the best power point presentation.
I’m not saying people should slack off, but they should not strive for perfection either. It’s overrated.
@Nathan: I have tried the early work think, it’s not my favorite because I’m not a morning person, but it definitely has it’s perks. The feeling I am going after isn’t that we should work early or work late to achieve this level of comfort. It’s that we should be able to feel this way all day long and still get work done.
@Mark: Thanks for your story. Unfortunately, as hard as I try, I haven’t been able to develop these sort of relationships at work. I do have a few people at the gym I talk college sports with though. It’s a great way to make the our working relationship a little less uptight. Hence, more productive.