Having fun at work is not a diversion from productivity. In fact, it’s an essential ingredient to staying loose, open, creative and solution-oriented. Fun makes for easy lifting. You can have strong ideas, great products, and a brilliant team – but fun (once again) is the grease on the chain that keeps the whole bike rolling. Often viewed as frivolous frosting in the world of business, fun is actually a wildly effective means to attract, unite, and propel people toward achieving common goals. What worked at early street fairs, and later at the Fests, is an integral part of our work culture at Life is Good today.
As a result, we make sure that large, signature events help everyone feel informed and connected to our mission and each other. Our biggest are the semi-annual, company-wide Jake Jams, which always include a strong mix of comedy, live music from our all-employee house band, and open book updates from leadership. Skits have taken the form of game shows, mock fashion runway shows, karaoke sing-a-longs, and more. One memorable Jam pitted our VP of Finance against our in-house attorney – neither position generally known for hilarity – in a boxing-themed Comedy Smackdown involving outlandish promoters, ringside trainers, cross-dressing ring girls and a frenzied voting “panel” made up of everyone in the room. Other gatherings include summer picnics with Fest-like games and live music, and winter snow tubing expeditions at a local mountain outside Boston. We try to spread that same childlike fun on the road as well, whether it’s chucking discs into the crowd at speaking engagements, tossing footballs in the aisles at trade shows, or weaving physical games into our visits with business partners.
More important than these special occasions is the everyday fun we can all bring to each other at work. It starts with your own energy: realizing that a simple quick story, ball throw, or one-liner can defuse stress, reconnect teammates, and refresh our collective “get to” mindset. Maintaining a childlike appetite for fun every day is healthy, enjoyable, and good for business.
Believe it or not, Life is Good days are not all filled with Frisbees and ice cream. Like any business, we work hard to manage our P&Ls while fulfilling our mission, and that can be intense. Through the highs and lows, we strive to be true to our brand name, lifting each other with bursts of fun when they’re needed most. It’s a shared, conscious and healthy way to blur the line between work and play.
Meet some of the faces that help us every day spread the power of optimism.
First Name: Michael
Job Title: Account Manager, Best-in-Class Partnerships
Department: Best-in-Class/Licensing Team
Why did you want to work at Life is good? Well, why wouldn’t I want to work at a company that encourages t-shirts and flip flops as a central part of the dress code (pantalones are also preferred)? Kidding, after growing up surrounded by the brand for 14 or so years, it quickly became clear that I wanted to be a part of all that Life is Good is working to accomplish.
What has been your favorite moment about working at Life is Good? One word: Festival. Life is Good really knows how to throw down with a mean music festival. Bring me back to any one of them and that’s likely where some of my favorite Life is Good moments are found.
One fun fact about working at Life is Good that people might not know about. Believe it or not, we’re a bit of a small and scrappy bunch. Only about 150 employees.
How do you “get to” grow the good in your specific job? I’m very fortunate to work in licensing, and part of the reason for that is because I get to work with a bunch of 3rd party organizations, team with them, and together, grow the good, spread the power of optimism and work to raise a bunch of money for kids in need.
What is your all time favorite tee shirt graphic? A while back we had a segment of our product line that we referred to as Good Karma.Within the line, Jake was represented slightly differently, and internally, we playfully referred to him as crunchy Jake. Those were some of my favorite tees.
First Name: Ellen Lemper Greeves
Job Title: Playmaker Coach and Creative Manager
Department: The Life is Good Kids Foundation
Why did you want to work at Life is good? Because I do truly believe that we focus on will grow – and I wanted to work in a place that focused on the good – a place where Compassion, Love, Openness, Fun, Courage, etc. are not considered the “soft stuff” but the real stuff that can actually change the world. Imagine a world where kids (and adults) are 10% more compassionate, 10% more courageous, 10% more open or creative. Imagine the solutions we would innovate, the wars that would be averted, the community we would create! I also need to work in a place that puts equal value on what we do and how we do it. It’s not enough to put a great product or message out into the world. The process of doing it has to also feel right. And while things certainly aren’t always easy – and while we have challenges like every other company has challenges – I think there is an authentic intention to practice what we preach and value the superpowers we grow in ourselves and each other because we can’t spread what we don’t have.
What has been your favorite moment about working at Life is Good? There’s no single moment. There are a lot of little moments that add up to something awesome. Like taking the time to have lunch with different folks in the Tavern. Like hearing the most contagious laugh you’ll ever hear or having one of our resident four legged friends pop in for a pet. Like responding to tragedy with gratitude and love in the Nothing is Stronger than Love campaign following the Boston Marathon Bombing. The little things are indeed the big things.
One fun fact about working at Life is Good that people might not know about. The two essential ingredients of every all staff meetings are frisbees and food.
How do you “get to” grow the good in your specific job? At the Life is Good Kids Foundation, I get to work at the “foundation” of spreading optimism to kids. For the seeds of optimism to grow, the soil has got to be rich. I get to help childcare professionals build and sustain learning and healing environments where optimism can take root. I get to provide personal and professional development experiences in which childcare professionals can discover and grow the good in themselves and the kids they work with. It’s such a joy and honor to get to care for the people who care for kids. And it’s such a joy and honor to get to grow the good in and with my own team as we focus on our own superpowers and skills we bring to everything that we do.
What is your all time favorite tee shirt graphic? That’s a super hard question! I’ve always loved the simplicity of our great messages like: The music’s not in the guitar. Be Here Now. Breathe. Grateful. Love fiercely. Peaceful state. And of course, ommm girl. Hey, I’m a yogi <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/72x72/1f642.png" alt="