Today is National Fun At Work Day in the United States. Is it just me or is it a sad commentary on the modern workplace that we need a special day to give us permission to have fun at work? Today, I look at why fun is an essential part of any workplace. And I’ve got 25 ways you can have fun at work today.

Last week, I heard a talk by Jennifer Moss, author of The Burnout Epidemic. One of the things I took away from that talk is that lack of community is a predictor of burnout in the workplace. We can no longer treat the fun and social aspect of work as a nice to have. Amid “The Great Resignation” we’re currently seeing, it’s more essential than ever.

Let’s make every day Fun At Work Day!

Why fun at work is essential

In my reflection on my career in financial services, I observed that one of the things that hasn’t changed in my career is that people still want to have fun at work. Something I have observed over the years, though, is there is less laughter and fun in the workplace now than when I started out.

It’s time to change that!

I typically approach most things in life with humour. I’ve always said the day I can’t laugh and have fun at work, is the day it will be time for me to say good-bye.

Don’t get me wrong—there are times when cracking jokes isn’t appropriate, but a little fun makes even the most stressful of days better.

And there’s research that backs up the value of laughter at work. This article from Harvard Business Review points to studies confirming the business value of fun in the workplace. A little workplace camaraderie is credited with relieving stress and boredom, boosting engagement and well-being, and inspiring creativity and collaboration. Add productivity improvement to the list and you have to wonder why every company isn’t making fun at work a priority.

With all those benefits in mind, let’s look at some ways to have fun at work today and every day.

25 ways to have fun at work today

Some of these ideas take a bit of organization, but many of them are easy to pull together and don’t cost any money!

If you have some willing volunteers, put together a group tasked with bringing fun to the workplace. I’ve been on my team’s Fun Squad for years, and we’ve tried most of these activities.

And, with many of us working from home or in different office locations, most of these can be easily adapted to a virtual environment. So there’s no excuse!

A little friendly competition

Most groups love to engage in some friendly competition. The more competitive your group, the more fun you’ll have. Try these ideas:

• Organize a games tournament. Make a quick trip to the dollar store and pick up toys like indoor golf, mini-sticks, ring toss, or beer pong. Split up into teams and keep score. Instead of a one-time thing, make it a regular event with a trophy and bragging rights at stake for the grand prize winner at the end of the year.
• Turn your tournament into a workplace Olympics. Assign teams to countries. Encourage them to decorate their workspace, dress up in costume, and bring food related to their assigned country.
• Run a trivia tournament. We recently did a Canada vs. U.S.A. trivia challenge at work. It was a lot of fun and our first attempt at a cross-border fun activity.
• Set a timed challenge to build something like castles or houses out of Lego, gingerbread, marshmallows or anything else you can lay your hands on.

Picture that

Sharing photos is a fun and easy way to get people laughing. Applications like Slack, Yammer and Teams make it easy to create a discussion thread.

• Pick a theme and get people to post silly memes related to the theme.  
• Run a baby picture guessing contest.
• Get people to share pictures of their pets, kids, favourite vacation destination, or hobby. The possibilities are endless and it will spark some interesting conversation.

Encourage impromptu gatherings

Put puzzles and games in common areas throughout the office for people to play with whenever they need a break.   

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Plan silly dress-up days

A lot of people love to dress up so why save it for Halloween?

• Plan theme dress-up days like holiday sweaters, silly pyjamas, crazy socks, or sports jerseys. And don’t forget about Halloween—a team costume competition is guaranteed to bring a few giggles!
• If your managers are good sports, plan a dress up your manager contest. We did this years ago and it provided some of the best laughs.

Get people talking

In a bigger company, it’s great to get people talking with others they don’t normally interact with. There are a few ways to do that.

• Organize virtual coffee chats, or use the breakout room feature in your meetings application, to pair people up for “speed dating”. Give them a list of questions to get the conversation going.
• Plan some small group conversations on topics like hobbies, travel destinations, or Netflix shows. Encourage people to sign up for topics that interest them.  
• Start a book club or movie club.

Team meeting icebreakers

Start your regular team meetings with a fun activity before getting down to business.

• Get someone to tell a joke, sing a song or demonstrate their unique talent.
• Give out some silly awards. This is the office equivalent of your high school’s “most likely to” awards. Here are some ideas to get you thinking.
• Recruit a volunteer for show and tell.

Or, plan a regular meeting just for fun stuff. Our team has done this during the pandemic. Our monthly “carnivals” are an awesome stress reliever, and a highlight of the month for those of us who attend regularly.

Wellness and stress relievers

Life is stressful and people usually appreciate wellness activities like:

• Chair yoga
• Virtual workouts
• Mindfulness or meditation sessions

Other fun team-building activities

If time and budget allow, here are some more ideas for bigger team-building activities.

• Order in food for a team lunch. If you’re working remotely, send everyone UberEats or Skip The Dishes e-gift cards so they can order their own lunch.
• Book a painting class.
• Volunteer together for a common cause like a food sort challenge, or charity fun run.
• Try an escape room.
• Bring in a guest speaker or ask a staff member to do a talk on a topic that’s important to them.

Don’t force participation

The possibilities for fun are endless. Despite your best efforts and good intentions, some people will choose not to participate. I’ve heard people say they’re too busy to have fun which is a shame because life is too short not to make time for fun and laughter. It’s worth running these activities for whoever chooses to participate. Best case scenario—they’ll tell their friends and FOMO will encourage more people to join in next time.

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Have you tried any of these activities? Do you have other ideas for fun work activities? Tell me your thoughts below.