The Art of Making Work Fun

And the Secrets for Creating Camaraderie in the Workplace

I’ve worked in Silicon Valley at high-tech companies for over 20 years now. Some people think this is quite an accomplishment because I have a B.A. degree in Drama. Perhaps it is, but it’s not like I’m coding or creating new products all the time (though my name is on one patent!). I’m a marketing writer.

The thing about having a degree in Theatre is that often people don’t consider it a “serious” discipline, because as one UC Irvine engineering undergrad once said to me on campus, “Oh, you have fun all day.” At first, I thought about trying to defend my course load and saying writing essays about Shakespeare’s use of animal metaphors in his plays was not fun. But then me thought I’d be protesting too much, recalling how I’d just spent a few hours rehearsing a very physical scene from “The Taming of the Shrew” with a gorgeous actress-in-training named Audrey. I just sheepishly admitted, “Yeah. I have fun all day.”

So in Silicon Valley as an outlier among lots of colleagues with M.B.A.s, Computer Sci, and Engineering degrees, I’ve always sold myself to Bay Area employers on my uniqueness, creativity, and ability to write copy that is non-technical and friendly (not “user friendly”– God, how I hate those two words together!). I write so that anyone can understand a company’s products and services without feeling stupid, which usually means avoiding mind-numbing acronyms (MNAs), industry jargon, and the latest clichés.