Staff morale has been a little low at work lately. This resulted in the MD giving us a book to read called ‘FISH!’ by Stephen C. Lundin, Harry Paul and John Christensen, and telling us that we must all ‘play’ more. The book was extremely motivating and inspiring. I enjoyed it immensely. And, after some in-depth discussions within the company, we all began to feel a lot more positive. After all, who wouldn’t want a happier work environment that’s fun? You certainly don’t need to tell me twice to ‘play’ more. I’ll do that gladly.

A week later, we were given cake to celebrate a birthday. On that particular day, there weren’t many people at the office, so there was a small chunk of cake remaining at the end of the day. And, it was still there to tempt us the following morning.

“Yay! We can have some more cake today,” I told my colleague, Sally, with glee.

She was equally chuffed about this, since she was having a particularly bad week and, of course, cake makes everything better.

However, it soon became apparent that our cake eating prospects weren’t looking too good. We’d thought we were going to be on skeleton staff that day, but our workforce numbers were growing by the hour – and the cake portions were shrinking alarmingly! Sally was quite dismayed by this fact and even stopped at my office to comment on it. Perhaps, we’d have to be polite and forego the cake after all.

Yet, as I sat in my office, I couldn’t help hearing that delicious, soft, creamy, Bundt cake infused with orange syrup calling to me from the kitchen – and it was not to be ignored. So, after a futile attempt at resistance, I eventually went to Sally’s office and asked her the inevitable question.

“So, are we going to eat that cake on the sly?” I whispered, naughtily. “We can’t let it go to waste.”

“Yes, and there really isn’t enough to share. There’s only a small piece left. Just enough for two nice slices,” she responded.

We rationalised for a few minutes and were quickly swayed.

“Okay, let’s do it!” I said with a glint in my eye.

Sally laughed with delight. “I’ll be lookout,” she volunteered.

We went down the hall to the kitchen and I quietly pried open the cake cover. Just as I was reaching under it to grab the plate, we heard a door open and there was a moment of panic as we assumed that someone was coming. I quickly replaced the cake cover before we awkwardly pretended to be doing something entirely innocent. Sally opened a cupboard to grab a dish, but then changed her mind and bolted over to the fridge. I fumbled for a moment and then took her place at the cupboard she’d abandoned. Yes, we were two grown women acting like naughty school kids caught in the act!

Several seconds passed as we listened carefully for approaching footsteps, but none came. The coast was clear again.

“You do realise, I’m throwing you under the bus if we get caught,” Sally whispered, in mock seriousness.

I laughed at her and then decided it was now or never. “I’m going to run to my office with this cake and then dish it up there,” I told her, as I quickly gathered two plates, a knife, cake lift and cake forks before swiftly removing the cake from the tin. Sally seemed momentarily bemused, as I whirled around the kitchen collecting crockery and utensils. Then, I gave her a mischievous grin and made a dash down the hall.

Now, the problem when I do any monkey business is that Murphy is definitely not my friend! Hence, I was halfway to my office when the temp suddenly entered the hall in front of me and caught me red-handed with the impossible-to-hide cake in my hand. I instantly stepped aside and tried to hide my collection of implements between my body and the wall, while flashing her a big (hopefully not-too-guilty) smile as she walked past.

“Damn! I must look like a greedy pig running down the hall with this cake,” I thought. “But, perhaps she didn’t notice. And, if she did, hopefully she won’t think twice about it. Besides, she’s getting married next month and she’s on a diet. I’m sure she doesn’t want any cake.”

With my conscience appeased by my logical reasoning, I escaped into my office, sliced the cake and dished it up. Then, I raced over to Sally’s office to deposit her cake in a concealed location and returned to my office to gobble up any remaining evidence. Yum!

Sally soon appeared at my office door in a fit of giggles over how I got busted by the temp and I couldn’t help laughing too. Truthfully, my dash down the hall had been rather exhilarating, if not a little ill-timed. However, it was not long before Sally stopped laughing, as she noticed all the cake was gone.

“Where’s the cake?” she asked, somewhat concerned.

“I ate it all,” I responded, playfully. I could see she was wondering if I had demolished the entire wedge of cake all by myself, so after letting her panic for a moment, I said, “Don’t worry, your piece is hiding in your office.”

Sally returned to her office visibly relieved and I could hear her chucking to herself as she ate her cake.

“This is definitely going to make fat,” she told me afterwards.

“But, it’s so worth it,” I replied.

“Oh, yes! It’s so worth it.”

After the bad week she’d had, it felt like a win to know that we’d just had some fun. And when she later came to me and said, “Thank you for the cake thing today. That’s the most fun I’ve ever had in this office,” I realised that maybe applying the ‘FISH!’ principles really could make a positive difference to our work environment.

“Well, that ‘FISH!’ book did say that we need to play more,” I told her. “So, we just played.”

Honestly, I’m tired of taking things too seriously. While there’s a place and time to be serious, sometimes you just need to be a little silly – even at work. If nothing else, it will put a smile on your face and, if laughter truly is the best medicine, then I reckon it’s worth it.

© 2016 Audrey Whyte   All Rights Reserved