After all we spend more than 1/3rd of our day there!! However what impresses the new gen employees are smarter ways of having fun while at work. Something they relate to, something different, something they can value.
Many employers have chosen to organise traditional/black-white days, festive celebrations, birthday celebrations, dance parties, sports, yoga/ meditation, trek/ reading clubs etc. These options have not only become old & outdated, they are also expensive in nature. Firstly the cost of organizing these events is high & secondly it needs huge space. Also the employees are required to spend time after work hours or on weekends to entertain themselves. With the “work-life-balance” phenomenon taking the centre stage, many employees opt out of these events since they do not wish to sacrifice what they call “family-time”. Besides, the clubs etc work only for a certain set of employees who are interested in them. Not many employees see value in these celebrations.
The 10 ways of having fun while at work give employees the much needed a break from their stressful jobs. Most of these involve less time, low cost & have high entertainment/ fun/ relaxation value.
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Bring Fun to the desk:
Bring over the caricature artists, cartoonists, and tattoo artists right next to your employees. They sit around & create fun environment for all. Each employee would take not more than 10 minutes, so no productive time is lost. Benefits: No time loss, not expensive, no movement involved, huge fun! -
Competitions in Bay:
Organise contests like best out of waste, logo competition, collage competition etc. Make teams within the work area & give employees a day's time to come up with their creation. Provide all the raw material & let their imagination go wild. Benefits: No movement, low cost, Employees work on it when they take breaks, employees with critical timelines can opt out, crates competitive environment & helps bonding. -
Fun/Health Weeks:
Where regular fun events might be a hindrance, organize a week full of events once in a quarter. Eg: A fun week might have a series of 5 games like Thambola, Su-do-ku, and Treasure hunt etc. & can be wound up with a movie. Alternatively, a Health week which is of high value to employees can be organized. Check up camp, session on fitness & stress, foot massage, health tips & water bottle distribution can leave your employees feeling cared for & engaged. Benefits: High employee value, less time involved, employees can pick & choose what they want to attend/ participate in. -
Happy Hours:
Once in a month, organize “Happy Hour” where all the employees come together for an hour. Reason- unlimited ice-cream, chats, snacks! The intention is to get people together for sometime & let them have fun. Benefits: Networking, Less time lost, suitable for small teams -
TGIF e-mails:
If employees do not have enough time to get up from their desk, take fun to their desk tops. Send a weekly “Thank God Its Friday” quiz/ Su-do-Ku/ Crossword to them. Benefits: No movement, no cost, no time loss. -
Games in Break-out Areas:
Place games like Scrabble, Word Power, Chess etc near the coffee tables. They don't occupy much space & can be a good break over the coffee. Benefits: No space loss, low cost, high relaxation value. -
Quick Break:
One a week, schedule 15 minutes break for the teams within their work areas. Get them together to play Dumb-cherrads, pictionary, 1 minute games etc. benefits: Low cost, No movement, quick relaxation. -
Musical Break:
Place musical instruments like a guitar in the break out areas which will be available for the employees. This would give the employee a break & entertain others. Word of caution: Ensure it is not placed in an area which can affect other employees or create nuisance value for those on calls & in meetings. -
Hobby class:
Organise hobby classes for painting, craft, Music, cartooning, calligraphy etc on Thursday/ Friday & during lunch hours. Source the talent in-house, if you are lucky you will find someone within who can teach the art, else several trainers (mostly young college students pursuing fine arts turn out to be good inexpensive trainers). Benefits: High value add, long term tool for stress management -
Workshops:
Organise photography, dancing, painting workshops to encourage employees to learn something new over 15 days. Benefits: Developing a hobby & spending fun time with colleagues. Bring people closer, relieves stress, removes barriers, and helps bonding.
It's the fast paced world and no once can wait. Not even to have fun! Its cutting edge competition out there, so bring it on fast, best & cheap. These options work best when there is a need to have quick fun time & less time & money (when did we ever have more?) are involved. Sure shot ways to having high participation & no loss of productive time.
The best part is high budget approvals and time-off approvals will no more be required!
译文:
10个创造快乐工作的新颖方法
（原文开头：现在每个雇主都在想方设法让员工们保持愉悦的心情。高工资和补贴并不是每次都有效的。真正的问题在于让每位员工都参与其中，并使办公室成为一个“充满趣味的地方”。） 毕竟我们会在那里（办公室）消耗三分之一的生命。在忙于工作时，那些能够让大家获得快乐的颇为聪明的方法给新一代普通员工们留下了深刻的印象；这是与他们有关的，不同于寻常的，值得重视的事情。
许多雇主已经选择对传统的或者是沉闷的日程进行一番规划，通过缤纷的节日庆典，生日祝贺，舞会，体育比赛，瑜伽/沉思术，远足或阅读俱乐部等等。
这些选择不仅仅已经开始变得老套和过时，而且实质上他们都需要昂贵的费用。首先，筹划上述活动的成本较高；其次，他们需要占用巨大的空间。同时，员工们被要求在下班时间或者是在周末娱乐自我。随着人们越来越注重“平衡生活与工作”的观念，许多员工因为不愿意牺牲他们称之为的“家庭时间”，而退出这些活动。此外，这些俱乐部仅仅对那类喜爱他们活动的人起作用。许多人都不能看到这些庆祝活动的价值。
10个“忙里偷乐”的方法让员工们从紧绷的工作中获得他们非常需要的轻松一刻。这些方法中的绝大多数占用时间少，成本低并具有高娱乐性，兴趣性和休闲性价值。
让办公桌变得有趣：
把讽刺画家、漫画家和图腾艺术家带到你同事的身边。有他们坐在周围可以为所有人创造有趣开心的气氛。每个员工占用的时间不会超过10分钟，因此，没有流失任何有生产价值的时间。优点：没有时间流逝，花费不高，不涉及地点移动，很有娱乐性！
办公区内竞争小游戏：
组织类似于最佳废弃物品处理竞赛，图标设计竞赛，拼贴竞赛等等。给每个队伍一天的时间，在工作区域内完成他们的创作，并为他们提供所有的原材料，让其发挥充分的想象力。优点：没有地点移动，成本低，员工们会在休息时间致力于他们的作品，有严格时间安排的员工可以选择不参加，创造友好竞争环境，帮助发展信赖和亲切关系。（注：原文crates…environment可能是错误的，在本翻译中将其改为creates…envrionment）
娱乐周/健康周:
在那些频繁的娱乐活动会对工作造成阻碍的地方，可以组织每季度一次的全周娱乐活动。例如：一个娱乐周可以包含5项系列游戏，类似于宾果游戏（Thambola/Housie/Bingle都是这类游戏的名称，是一种靠碰运气取胜的游战，它是世界上最流行的一种廉价赌博形式。）数独游戏(九宫格游戏)，寻宝游戏等等，最后可以用电影来结束一周的活动。此外，可以开展对员工们有很高价值的健康周活动。健康检查站、压力与健康讲座、足部按摩以及水瓶分配等活动会让你的员工们感到被关心和关注。优点：对员工价值高，占用时间少，员工们可以选择自己想要参加的活动。
欢乐时刻：
每月一次，持续一个小时，组织所有员工聚集在一起参加 “欢乐时刻”。让无穷尽的冰淇淋，谈天说地和零食变得合情合理。这个活动的目的在于让员工们在某个时刻聚集在一起，并感到快乐。优点：有助人际交流，占用少量时间，适合于人数偏少的队伍参加。
发送“感谢上帝，今天是星期五”邮件：
如果员工们没有足够的时间离开办公桌，老板们可以把欢乐带到他们的电脑中去。每周发送一次“感谢上帝，今天是星期五”数独纵横组字小游戏给员工。有点：没有地点移动，没有成本，没有时间流失。
在休息区的游戏：
在咖啡桌附近组织类似于拼字游戏,字谜游戏，象棋等活动。这些并不会占用很多空间,同时可以成为在和咖啡时很好的休息活动。优点：不占地方，成本低，高休闲娱乐价值。
短时休息：
每周一次，在工作区内向团队提供15分钟的休息。把大家聚集到一起玩看手势猜字谜游戏（注：原文可能出现错误，应为dumb-charades），看图猜谜，1分钟小游戏等等。优点：不涉及地点移动，快速放松。
音乐休息：
在休息区放置一些员工们可使用的像是吉他这类的乐器。让员工们自己得到休息同时也娱乐到其他工作人乐。提醒：确保这类乐器没有被放置在会影响员工工作的地方，或打绕到正在通话中或会议中的人们。
兴趣课程：
在周四/周五或者午餐时间提供绘画，手工制作，音乐，动画，书法等发面的兴趣课程。在内部寻找有特长的人，如果你足够幸运你会在公司内找到可以教艺术的人，以及其他方面的几位教师（致力于纯艺术的大学生们可以成为价廉的教师）。优点：对员工们来说价值高，是长期压力管理的方法。
讲习班：
组织摄影，舞蹈，绘画讲习班鼓励员工们在15天内学习一些新的技能。优点：培养员工们的兴趣爱好，让他们与同事度过愉快的时间；拉近人与人之间的距离，缓解压力，消除阻碍，帮助发展信赖和亲切关系。
最好是高预算和休假不再需要被批准通知就能够进行。