This is the weekly Work Life newsletter. If you are interested in more careers-related content, sign up to receive it in your inbox. Sent every Monday afternoon.
Hope your Monday is above par, especially if you are off work for a statutory holiday.
Pickleball is often recognized as one of the fastest growing sports in North America. Here in Canada, a survey commissioned by Pickleball Canada indicates 1.37 million Canadians played at least once a month in 2023. That is up from 350,000 in 2021 and about one million in 2022. Once a sport mostly for seniors, the report shows the biggest growth now is in the 18-34 age group.
All of that interest is making its way into the business world. Sports venue booking platform PodPlay reported bookings for corporate events at pickleball clubs across the U.S. spiked in June.
“We’re definitely seeing this shift post-COVID, of people craving social [work] experiences that aren’t entirely based around drinking and eating,” says Drummond Munro, co-founder of Fairgrounds, a Toronto-based public racket club that offers pickleball.
Fairgrounds just opened a new location in Toronto in mid-July. They had seven corporate events last month and have already booked more than 20 for August.
“Pickleball is just this really crazy anomaly where it has this ability to bring people together through the euphoria of sport,” he says.
Pickleball comes with a number of advantages – it takes less time, is cheaper, more inclusive, easier to learn and can be more social.
Courts at Fairgrounds can be rented for as low as $40 an hour. Many corporate events include some type of optional coaching where participants are able to learn the sport and start competing within just a few hours, regardless of skill level.
“Unless the majority of your employees can play golf, you really can’t just go pick up a club, hope to hit the ball and be able to get around an 18-hole course,” he says.
Mr. Munro doesn’t think pickleball is replacing golf, but says it’s more about creating accessible opportunity for connection.
“There’s usually some food and beverage being served, and music for people to enjoy, to create a really fun and exciting atmosphere,” he says.
Pickleball is still a long way from being as popular as golf, which has also been growing since the beginning of the pandemic. Vividata showed in the spring that there were more than 3.6 million Canadians who golfed at least once in the previous year.
Fast fact
Athletes win at work
Compared to non-athletes, athletes earn higher wages over their careers and attain more senior organizational positions, according to an October report that looked at more than 400,000 Ivy League graduates over the past half century.
It isn’t just a coincidence. Sports are a powerful way to instill confidence and resilience, argues Navio Kwok, who holds a doctorate in organizational psychology.
Career guidance
Expose yourself to failure
Olympic-level trainer Tim Irvine says that it’s important to become comfortable with failure because it makes you stronger psychologically. Find the small wins within our failure and use them to get stronger.
Quoted
Workcation downsides
“If you’re in a workplace where the workcation is popular, your employer could predictably say ‘I let you be a sightseer while you’re working so now that you’re actually on vacation, you should be able to do some work,” says economist and director at the Centre for Future Work, Jim Stanford.
Research shows that more people are combining work and travel, and their employers are okay with it – but it’s not always good for work-life balance.
On our radar
Coffee badging
In response to return-to-office mandates, employees have begun “coffee badging” or showing face at the office for a few hours and then heading back home. There have been reports that tech giant Amazon is considering implementing a minimum number of hours per day that employees must spend in the office to curb the trend.