Recess at Work Ideas for Your Workplace
Thursday, June 16, 2022 is Recess at Work Day, a day to remind people of the importance of taking a fun break at work in order to celebrate and/or be more productive and creative. A few things you can do to celebrate:
- Grab your team and walk around the block;
- Create a mini golf putter course in your office;
- Hold a paper airplane flying contest;
- Create an impromptu awards ceremony and offer up awards for offbeat categories such as “Best Sense of Humor,” “Most Likely to OD on Caffeine;”
- Hold a 10-minute office fun dance party;
- Since part of the goal of traditional recess was to get people moving, have someone lead the team in some stretching exercises;
- Set up an ice cream bar (after all that stretching you’ll deserve a reward);
- Create a funny scavenger resource hunt where people have 15 minutes to find colleagues who match offbeat attributes (Find two people who can wiggle their ears; one person who can imitate a celebrity, two people who can sing the Gilligan’s Island theme song etc.)
- Hold a spirited game of Simon Says;
- Have a Silly String fight;
- Hold a hula hoop contest;
- Play some theater improv games;
- Have everyone try their hand at scarf juggling;
- Race toy cars around the office;
- Hold a round of “stupid human tricks.”
And perhaps most importantly of all, use the day to reflect on why adding more fun to your workplace matters and plan simple things you and your team can do every day to re-energize your batteries every day.
Michael Kerr is an international business speaker who speaks on workplace culture and humor in the workplace. He is the author of The Humor Advantage: Why Some Businesses Are Laughing All the Way to the Bank and the creator of the Culture Leadership Online Academy.
