3 Ways You Can Play at Work

I’m not going to lie; I LOVE not having to commute to an office.  
 
Since the beginning of the pandemic my productivity has gone up a lot, and that isn’t just busy-ness, that is solid value-add; I can support even more client’s and their career aspirations when I’m not on the road (and searching for parking) 2+ hours a day.  
 
This was a big AH-HA for many professionals during this unprecedented circumstance.
 
However, there is an ugly back-spin to this virtual world, and it comes at the expense of your well-being.
 
You are given less opportunity to be playful at work.
 
No joking around in the coffee room, no being pleasantly surprised when your boss decides to participate in “ugly sweater day” (and then really commits to wearing the most tragic of sweaters for the whole day, even in client meetings). 
 
Even when your organization offers these opportunities for play while working remotely, you may not be interacting with your boss that day via video conference, and hearing about their ugly sweater on a Teams chat is not the same as seeing your boss walking around the office in outrageously clashing colors.
 
You just don’t have the same access to play at work that you did while in the office AND, play is really important for your career:

• It allows you to see yourself and others in a very human light, building more compassion and “social glue” between you and others helping everyone to work better together.
• Laughter releases chemicals in your brain that reduce stress and fight fatigue.
• You build more trust and respect with others when you share important moments at work, and play creates those moments more reliably than almost any other circumstance at work.
• Play is a strong signal that you are not alone at work, boosting feelings of belonging to this team and your organization.

 
Feeling isolated at work?  When was the last time you played?

You can create play for yourself by taking breaks and looking for light-heartedness in other ways; I've never watched more quick video clips of stand-up comedy throughout the day then I have during the pandemic as a way to get a genuine laugh during my work day.
 
But what is really needed to blast feeling isolated or depleted is shared fun with your team-mates.
 
Here are some options to consider bringing to your virtual workplace:

• One organization I hold in high esteem has opted to do a specific weekly meeting “camera-off” so participants can take the meeting while walking outside, or at least sitting on their deck or patio; listening to the buzz about having this as an option shows how welcome this shift is and adds a more relaxed atmosphere to the meeting.
• Promote things like Star Wars Day (May 4th) and Daquiri Day (May 1st, or the day the pub patios open up where you are – there is a poem that applies here:  “Hurray, hurray, the first of May, today is Daiquiri Day!” and then invite everyone to socially distance from their local for an out-of-the house social gathering at the same time, if not all in the same place).  Silly?  Yes, that is the whole point.
• Run simple things, like the ugly sweater contest with options for more visibility, like changing profile pictures (internally) to include the item, or shifting it to multiple days of virtual festivities, like an “I’d rather be here… video conference back-ground week (placing a picture of the location of where you’d rather be then stuck at home), so more people get to be exposed to each other in the fun.

 
Having more fun at work is an important (though often over-looked) way to more deeply connect to what you do and who you do it with …and now that we have seen more of each other’s pets, families, interior décor and lounge-wear then we ever thought we would, maybe it’s OK to spend more time being a little silly on-line together too.

Feeling isolated at work?  
​I can help.

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