6 Ways to Have Fun At work

Companies and work teams that laugh together, perform together. Making your workplace a fun place pays off in happier workers, and happier workers are generally more productive workers. It’s really a simple formula:

Fun workplace = happier workers = more productive workers

Humans are social animals, and we love to eat together. Food is a team-builder, so bring on the calories! Here are just a few ways to use food to build your people into a high-performance team:

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1. Celebrate each employee’s birthday with balloons and crepe paper streamers at the birthday person’s desk and a cake in the break room. Once the company gets too big to celebrate each individual’s birthday, you can give each person a card on their actual day and host a monthly birthday party for all.

2. Serve lunch for your team when they achieve a pre-determined goal. If you do a potluck lunch, it won’t cost you a penny. However, if the goal is significant, you probably should cough up the money for a simple meal to serve to the successful team.

3. Present Summer Fun Days, when managers serve ice cream and popsicles to the workers from a rolling cart in the middle of the afternoon. 

4. Create a peer recognition program, in which workers recognize a colleague doing something right or exceptional, and use Kudos candy bars as the award. Present the candy bars at staff meetings amid much applause.

5. Buy books of coupons for local eateries and use them as “On the Spot” awards to give to team members who do a good deed, either for the customer or for the team.

6. Organize Freaky Friday celebrations on the last Friday of each month and serve drinks and simple party 

We spend 40 or more hours at work each week – why not make it a happy place to be? Bring out the food and you will create a happier team!

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​Kristin Robertson, CEO of Brio Leadership, is dedicated to increasing the number of employees who are excited to go to work on Monday mornings.  Services include executive coaching, leadership development classes and company culture consulting.  Don’t forget to get a copy of Kristin Robertson’s new book, Your Company Culture Ecosystem, available on Amazon.
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