Herb Kelleher: I think people should have fun at work

I stumbled on this interview with Herb Kelleher, former CEO of Southwest Airlines and it is all kinds of awesome.

From the interview:

Well, I think people should have fun at work. It should be an enjoyable part of their life. They should gain psychic satisfaction from it.

I think most of us enjoy fun, and why not at work as well as at play? And so we’ve always encouraged people to be themselves, not to be robotic, not to be automatons. We don’t expect you to surrender your natural personality when you join Southwest Airlines. We want you to have some fun, we want you to have psychic satisfaction from your job. It’s not just about money, it’s also how you feel about what you’re doing.

We want people to be recognized, participated, diligent and creative. And you can’t ask people to be someone other than themselves and have that kind of creativity and dedication and participation. So, we liberate people at work.

Go see the whole thing.