Katie Almazan
Put on your fun hat, because on January 28th it’s National Have Fun at Work Day. You know what that means? It’s time to wake up your workplace with some activities that will elicit smiles and cultivate camaraderie in the office.
With endless emails and tasks, we sometimes forget that play can be just as important as meeting deadlines. A new study from BrightHR and leading psychologist Professor Sir Cary Cooper revealed employees that have fun in the workplace take less sick leave, work harder, and are more productive. Now that we’ve got you convinced, here are 5 ways you can jazz up your job, pump up productivity and perhaps begin to incorporate fun into each day. Cheers to a good time working hard and playing hard.
- Eat Poop, You Cat: The game of telephone Pictionary where each person writes down a phrase and then passes it to the left. The person must then draw a picture based off the phrase, then fold the paper over so the phrase is hidden. Once it’s passed to the left, the next person must write a phrase based off the drawing. You continue to pass the paper until you get yours back. A great game that gets people laughing together!
- Video Competition: Have a competition for which you make a small team and their goal is to find the funniest YouTube video. You can even create silly constraints around the videos, like they should feature at least two animals in them, or they should be in a language other than English. Give each team 30 min to find their top pick and submit. Get everyone in a room, watch the submissions, and then vote! Prize goes to the winning team!
- Pop The Balloons: Divide into two teams – or get each team to nominate one member – and have the participant pop as many balloons as possible in one minute while wearing oven mitts. Contestants cannot step on, sit on, bite, poke, or use anything other than their hands to pop the balloon.
- Name the Staff Member: Divide your staff into teams and put everyone’s name into a hat. Each side take turns as they draw a name and use words to describe that particular employee. You can make this game harder as you continue to play, narrowing it down to one word as a description.
- The Amazing Race Through Town: A great way to boost staff engagement and morale. Break your staff into pairs and send them off into the surrounding area from point to point, providing clues to get to each destination. The first to complete the race wins. To make it more fun, you can make the final destination a popular luncheon spot!
If your office is closed like ours, take to celebrating on the 29th and share how you have incorporated fun in your office. Hashtag #DowntownSac so we can follow along!