How To Make Work More Interesting

Matthew Gates 7m 1,714 #workplace

The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.

Work Does Not Have To Be Boring!

If you have ever worked a day in your life, you have probably encountered boredom, mundaneness, and just a lack of any excitement in what you are doing. It used to be that you enjoyed your job and you certainly are not complaining about the paycheck! Unfortunately, five days a week is too long, the weekends are not long enough, and everything is just a repetitive personal Groundhog Day.

Any workplace has the potential of being more exciting if people are willing to step up and allow it to happen, especially if they demand it together. A good company, a good boss, and good management will welcome suggestions for making the workplace more interesting with open arms. Suggestions to the company could be made or your team of co-workers could just make it happen once it is approved. Even if it is not approved, there is still plenty that can be done that will not break any rules at work.

Some of these ideas are sure to spruce up your workplace!

Raffles – This will require that a roll of raffle tickets are bought, but can be used by everyone. Someone everyday could bring something in — and it does require that someone has something everyone wants, but items could easily range from taking a trip to the dollar store and buying a coffee mug, candy, drinks, or just any household item. The raffle could be ran once a day to once a week and requires everyone put in a dollar for the raffle.

The proceeds of the raffle can go towards an office lunch at the end of the week and person or the person who sold the item can keep the money.

March Madness, Superbowl Madness, or Sports Madness – This could range to serious or light gambling in the office. The entire staff is betting on what the score will be at certain periods in the game and eventually, the winner of the game. The winner gets to keep all the money. The Madness could be extended to college games or other games throughout the year.

In order to prevent anyone from losing serious money or preventing any gambling problems, a cap should be set in place, if necessary.

Snack or Drink Exchange – It is always interesting to see what other people are snacking on or drinking throughout the day. What if they could bring in something for everyone to share? If everyone did it everyday, and did not tell anyone what they were bringing in, it might be a fun and interesting experience, plus it could lead to new tastes and introduction of snacks you never knew existed. Snacks could be homemade and healthy such as a fruit salad, fruits, or even peanuts or pretzels.

If everyone committed to doing it everyday – one person per day, it would make everything fair and the responsibility would not just be on one person.

Lunch Exchange – While not exactly how it sounds in which everyone brings in their lunch and exchanges it, rather, everyone brings in their lunch, and shares it with others. For example, someone could make homemade pasta, even if it is leftovers from the night before, and share it with the office. This is also a great way to ensure everyone in the office has something to eat!

If you are feeling charitable, you could bring in a container of Peanut Butter and Jelly or Jam, which will last a while. This will ensure that no one will ever go hungry, and in the case that you ever forget your lunch, you will have something to snack on.  Those people who forgot their lunch will appreciate the fact that you brought in peanut butter and jelly they can rely on to hold them over.  If you want to really be the most thoughtful person at work, you can go to the supermarket and get loaf of bread for $.99 cents to under $2.

Lunch Hour Together – This is usually not always done and people take lunch at different hours, but having lunch time together – whether sitting at a lunch table in the office together or going out to eat together, this encourages you to get to know your co-workers. After all, you spend almost as much time with them, if not more time, than you do with your family, so they are technically like your other family. You ought to get to know them more.

Lunch Hour Gamers Club – Whether a computer game or a board game, why not socialize and play your favorite games during lunch hour? Of course, you and everyone at the office could agree to bring in whatever games you wanted. Card games, board games, memory games, or charades. It could be a fun lunch hour that motivates and relaxes everyone at the same time. It will help build a great team who is comfortable working together because they are comfortable playing together.

The Biggest Loser Contest – If you work in an office, chances are, you have probably gained some weight. Don’t worry, if you think you are alone, you probably are not. There are others who are in the same boat and are thinking about how the office has made them gain weight. The motivation would have to most likely be monetary or a week paid vacation, but the one who loses the most weight in X amount of months will win the competition. Extra money or vacation as an incentive is enough for anyone to want to lose weight. There could be an entry fee of about $100 for each employee and the winner wins the whole pot. Not only will this create a sense of competition in the office, but it is healthy competition and will motive everyone in the office to lose weight.

After Lunch Walk Club – For those employees who have gained a few and could stand to lose a few extra pounds, which is probably mostly everyone in the office, the suggestion of an after lunch half hour group walk could definitely be a common activity. Depending on where the company is located, there could be different paths and areas to take a walk. This will give people a chance to talk to each other, get to know each other, and lose weight together. Not only will it help people to lose weight, but going for a walk does help alleviate stress and get ideas out of everyone’s head that could prove productive for any company.

The Happy Hour Club – You may think going for a few drinks with your boss or your co-workers is not a good idea, but in fact, it could be a great idea to get to know everyone, unwind, and realize that outside of work, the woman at the front desk is not just a secretary, you are not just the programmer, the guy in the side office is not just a salesperson, and the networking guy knows more about life than just wires, computers, and the Internet. Just remember: You are not going to the bar to get drunk. You are going there to wind down, have a few drinks, and socialize. You should still be able to drive home from work after an hour or so without someone telling you that you have had too many. This is also not the place for you to confess your sins or the place where you talk about co-workers behind their backs to other co-workers, or about the company itself.

Lottery – The chance to put in a few dollars and win a few million is everyone’s dream – both inside the office and outside of the office. To start a lottery bowl and have everyone put a few bucks in in the pot equally each week with the potential for the entire office to win millions definitely sounds like a great idea because it is a great idea. How awesome would it be for everyone to share the same dream and win it together? Then you can all quit your day jobs and start your own business together!

Just kidding! Well, you can if you want, because well… with millions of dollars, you can do just anything you want. The motivation, the anticipation, the loss of money – you get to feel it with the entire office. You get to hope and dream and pray that you win. It definitely gives everyone in the office something to look forward to during the week when those numbers are called. Just be sure that there is some kind of contract signed between everyone and that the person who actually takes the money to the store for the lottery is honest and trustworthy.

Radio Contests – If you are an office that keeps the radio on throughout the day, there are several radio stations that offer free lunch for the entire office just by signing up on their website. They may choose randomly or you must listen carefully for your office to be called in the drawing. Having everyone listen in and the chance of a free lunch is definitely a great motivational factor that can get everyone excited in the office.

There are so many ideas to make the office more fun and interesting, get everyone more acquainted with each other, establish long-lasting friendships, and develop a wonderful atmosphere in the office so that work does not always feel like work, but rather a place where you are helping family make money, and especially helping the company to be more productive.

The office does not have to be a place that you just show up for 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week just to make a paycheck and go home. The people you work with are living human beings with personalities and who have their own lives, stresses, and problems, and are probably looking for just as excitement as you are in your life. Be the one who makes the change happen and instead of just working with strangers all week, start considering them your family. You will all work together so much better if you all start thinking that way.

What does your office to make things more interesting and fun?

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