Episode
Ep 124 | What the TSA can teach us about joy at work with Amy Dickens
- Podcast
- DesuckifyWork®
- Published
- Mar 24, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 3991
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Summary
Is being a TSA agent your dream job? Probably not, especially right now. But imagine being that agent and doing everything in your power to make every moment fun and joyful. You’re energetic, playful, cracking jokes and generally making a normally agonizing experience more pleasant and fun. Now imagine your boss comes over and rips you a new one for daring to have fun on the job. Suddenly your whole energy shifts. You’re crabby, on edge, defensive. Making everyone around you miserable. Which version of that agent would you want to be? This is the choice we face every day at work. How we show up for ourselves and others. Will we choose joy? Or something else. Amy Dickens is a walking, talking, smiling, dancing joy expert who helps adults reconnect to the joy we all have inside of us. The joy that life is so good at scraping away until it becomes nostalgia. Amy witnessed that TSA agent on a recent trip. It inspired her. And it made her sad to see that man’s boss stuck in the story that work must be miserable. Our conversation was an absolute joyride, her infectious energy creating a delightful back and forth around ways we can make work (and life in general) more fun. Adult summer camp. Joy parades. Using the word “shaboozy.” And a book filled with 101 Ways to Spread Joy . One of my favorite bits was when she mentioned the idea of a “Joy Gym” in passing. Suddenly it was like, why don’t we have Joy Gyms? That sounds awesome. We should have one in every office. We also talked about how a more enjoyable workplace is a more profitable and productive one. It’s one of the easiest cheat codes out there and yet most businesses are stuck in the old model of grinding people until they break down like my old Camaro did weekly back in the late 80s. We don’t have to wait for those co…