I’d just finished a working lunch at my desk, answering e-mails and eating a sandwhich when chaos exploded in the hallway behind me and wham!  I was nailed in the back of the head with a Nerf torpedo.  I’d installed a rear view mirror on the corner of my computer monitor just because of such attacks, but it happened so quickly, I didn’t even see it coming. The Nerf guns were left over from a promotion we’d done earlier that month and they quickly became the office outlet for stress.  After the Nerf guns, it moved to baby basketballs, then to marshmallow shooters, you were never really safe, even if you closed your office door.  I guess some could say that such conduct is unprofessional, or even obnoxious, but I wouldn’t want to work any other way. 

 In the everyday stresses of deadlines, crunching numbers, and meetings, meetings, meetings it can be hard to remember that, for most us, what we do is not life or death.  You don’t have to be serious to be professional and hard work can be fun.  It’s amazing what you can get done with people who work as hard as they play and at every opportunity blur the line in-between. 

 There are companies out there who figured this out, and ANY job is hard to come by these days, so why not aim high?  For me, I feel like I don’t have a choice, I’ve seen how great work can be and in the long run know I can do better than a library quiet cubicle farm.   So, don’t settle for anything less than a Nerf gun.  Great companies are out there, and there are a ton of them in this industry.  Keep up the search and you too could know the joy of wading through e-mails while readying yourself for possible attack.