1. Treasure hunts
Start with a piece of paper and label it clue 1 and who the treasure hunt is intended for. For the clue use a word associated with a place or object you can hide your next clue under or in. For example, if you want to tape clue 2 under a chair, you can say, “you sit on this”. Then the person will look around, on and under every chair in the place until they find the next clue. Continue to hide as many clues as you want until they are lead to the final clue. Always try to leave a little treat as the treasure. Examples could be a chocolate bar or a $5 gift card to a local coffee shop.
A variation of this would be to leave a little diagram of north, east, west and south on it. Instead of giving clues on each piece of paper, you would indicate how many steps to the next clue.
2. Hot or Cold
Hide an object somewhere in the office/shop and have your coworker wander around
as you advise them if they are getting closer to the object (hot) or getting further away
(cold).
3. Origami
Get out some origami books from the library and buy some origami paper at a craft
store and try your best to follow the instructions to make objects.
4. Puzzle Books
Share a page of a crossword puzzle book, word find, etc, with a coworker and try and
figure it out together or rip out a page for someone to do on their own and see who
finishes first.
5. I spy with my little eye
Choose an object in the room and have your coworker guess what it is by
saying, “I spy with my little eye something that is...” and then the colour.
6. Rubber Bands
Shoot rubber bands at each other or shoot them across the room and see
who’s goes furthest.
7. Sketching
Any artists in the room can sketch other coworkers or quickly draw
little cartoony characters of each person, hang it up and have people
guess who is who. Even if you’re not an artist, you can still try to
draw each other for a laugh.
8. Sing
Break out in song sporadically. Show-tunes are best. Dance if you want.
9. Chairs
If your chairs have wheels on the bottom, have races across the room or
just slam into each other like bumper-cars.
10. Jokes
If you know any good jokes then by all means, tell them or bring a
joke book and go through it together.
11. Hang-man
On a piece of paper or a whiteboard, draw a vertical line then a
horizontal line at the top and one at the bottom. Choose a movie
title, name of food, music group, etc and make the corresponding
lines for each letter of the answer. Your coworker will choose
one letter at a time. If the letter is part of the answer then place it
in the correct space. If the letter is not, then begin to draw your
dangling man starting with a head, then the body, arms, legs, etc.
If your coworker can’t guess the answer by the time the full man
is drawn, then he/she loses.
12. Tic-tac-toe
Mark x’s and o’s in 3x3 space grid. All x’s or o’s in a row wins.
13. Charades
Act out the name of a movie, song, food, etc.
14. Notes
It may sound juvenile but it makes coworkers feel extra special
when you pass them little notes meant for their eyes only. This is
especially entertaining at busy call-centers when you want to take
a break from all the annoying callers.
15. Music
Bring in some music if you have speakers for your i-pod. What is
really funny is when you take turns making the cheesiest mixed
CD that you can and playing it as loud as you can get away with so
that people in other departments think you’re total dorks.
16. Show and tell
Bringing in something for your coworker to look at such as pictures
from your recent weekend get-away.
17. Messing with people’s minds
Place something of someone’s such as their water bottle in a
different spot than where they left it and don’t tell them. Or
you can hide for a little while to make them think you left
for the day.
18. Magazines
Flip through magazines together and make comments about
fashion or people’s silly sex-stories.
19. Geography
See how many of the fifty American states you can come up with,
or capital cities of each Canadian province, etc.
20. Twenty questions
Choose an object, tv show, actor, etc and have your coworker
guess who or what the answer is by asking no more than 20
questions.
21. Name that Tune
Hum a song and see if your coworker can guess what it is. Or
drum it out on a hard surface.
Photos
Take funny pictures of each other with your digital camera.
23. Stories
Tell stories about your childhood, scary stories or weird stuff
that has happened to you.
24. Table hockey
Flick small object like a button or a coin across a hard surface
as your coworker blocks it from scoring in his/her goal.
25. Basketball
Try and get as many balls of paper into the wastebasket by
throwing them from a distance. (Remember to recycle after).
26. Crafts
Bring some beads and make necklaces or teach a coworker how
to knit or cross-stitch.
27. Playing cards
A pack of playing cards is always good to have around for such
occasions of boredom. Get a card game book and try and learn new
games.
28. Watch movies
If you have a portable DVD player, bring it in.
29. Exchange recipes
Go through each other’s recipe books and copy ones that sound appealing.
30. The Alphabet game
Take turns going through each letter of the alphabet and say a person’s name, name of country, etc that starts with that letter. Whoever can go through the
whole alphabet wins.
31. Manicures and makeovers
Do each other’s nails, apply make up and style each other’s hair.
32. The Never-ending Story
Have one person start a story and each person in the room take
turns adding to it. Try to make it as outrageous as you can.
33. Plan an Event
Make plans to go out on a Friday night or plan a party. Spend the shift coming up with ideas as to what to do and what to wear.
34. Themes
Have a theme day. Dress up in fancy attire, like hippies, your favorite movie character, etc.
35. Pot luck
Have everyone bring a food item and share. Pig out the whole shift.
36. Sliding
Slide across the room in your socks. See who can slide the farthest. Or
slide items across the floor or smaller objects across a table.
37. Newsletter
If your company doesn’t have one, start one. Make it as interesting as possible. Interview employees and do write-ups on them, add a crossword, add a comic strip.
38. Photos
Take random photos of staff and post them on a bulletin board. This especially makes people feel like they are part of a team.
39. Exercise
Each take turns showing everyone some sort of stretch and have everyone follow along.
40. Awards
Make little awards out of paper for people in honor of special achievements even if it’s for the nicest smile or cutest sneeze.
41. Write Stories
Write a short story and have your coworkers edit it, then try and get it published. Or write a silly story purely for your coworkers’ entertainment.
42. Texts and emails
Send text messages to people on your cell phone or send emails on your computer.
43. Web browse
Browse together. Look up places you’d like to visit or outfits you’d like to own, etc.
44. Rock, paper, scissors
Use your hand to indicate either rock, paper or scissors. Have ten or so goes at it and see who wins. This has been known to have been done over mike phones somehow.
45. Coin toss
Best 3 out of 4, best 9 out of 10?
46. Coin roll
Have coin races by rolling coins across a flat surface.
