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Scientists have often found a link between productivity and happiness. So it makes sense to encourage employees to keep a touch of fun while working in the office. Whether it is for team building, bonding, or merely a bit of mental stimulation between shifts, there’s absolutely no shortage of ideas for fun games in the office.
We have decided to compile a list of the best fun games to play office. There are also short descriptions of why we think each game might be a good one for you to play with your partners at work.
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Fun Office Games For Bonding
These fun Friday games at the office are perfect for helping new colleagues or even old colleagues get to know each other better. Further, they are fun, light-hearted, and your employees will come away feeling like they have learned something new regarding their co-workers.
1. Cards Against Work
Required Number of Players: 4-8
Time Limit: No Time Limit
If you’re looking for a Fun Friday activity that’s out of the box, we’ve got just the game for you.
Presenting our latest card game, Cards Against Work.
From malevolent micromanaging to petty parking issues, the popular fill-in-the-blank format you’ve played (or heard of) now brings all the entertaining things about your workplace together. Mildly offensive, mostly fun.
We had to actually constitute a rule that if it was “too real”, people shouldn’t play the card. Would recommend you buy a pack for work to play with your colleagues and a pack for playing with the colleagues you like. – Aishwarya Hariharan, Atomicwork
All work and no play makes your org culture pretty dull. Glad to have super fun peers at inFeedo who didn’t mind starting a meeting with cards against work. – Sameera Khan, Director of People, inFeedo.
How to Play
- Players are called employees. Each employee picks up ten white cards every round.
- Every round, one employee becomes the manager. Like a corporate participation certificate.
- The manager picks up a purple question card.
- Every employee tries to win the manager’s heart with the funniest answer to the question or prompt.
- Manager picks funniest answer and employee wins a point. Others feel dejected.
- Ok mama, now manager change.
- Repeat until break is over, or work dread takes over.
2. Guess That Baby
In Guess that Baby, all players bring a picture of themselves as a baby. The goal is simple – colleagues must browse through all the baby pictures and identify who each photo belongs to.
Guess that baby encourages fun, positive conversations and opens up opportunities for co-workers to learn new things about each other’s childhoods.
Besides, you can play this fun office game remotely. All you have to do is jump onto a video chat with each other.
3. Heads Up
Although heads-up is often described as a party game, folks have found that it is a great ice breaker office game to play between colleagues.
You have to place a phone on your head, and a word shows up, and whether you are trying to name celebrities or identify animals, you will soon have your colleagues excitedly pointing or putting silly accents in an attempt to communicate the word sitting on your head.
Also, you can play this fun office game remotely via a video link. But the game works far better when everyone’s in the room.
4. Psych
Psych is another fun office game for bluffing, communication, and social togetherness. You have to download the app and give all players the special passcode to your game.
After that, all players will be shown a question on their phone, which they all must think of an answer for. This can even make up some sort of crazy law that the rest of the group never knew existed or simply answered something about someone else in the group.
The best thing about Psych is that while making wild answers and voting on your favorites, you are actually discovering a lot about your co-workers.
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5. Two Truths and a Lie
In Two Truths and a Lie, each person picks two truths about themselves and then makes up a lie. The primary objective of this game is to guess which statement is the lie, for each player, and that creates a lot of fun.
Besides encouraging you to get creative with the statements you choose, it also helps you find out interesting facts about your colleagues.
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6. Charades
Step 1: A player from one team is chosen by the other team and given a movie name.
Step 2: The player enacts the movie name and tries to convey it to his teammates without talking or pointing out any objects.
Step 3: If the team guesses the movie name correctly, then they win a point. If not, then the rival team gains a point.
Step 4: Continue steps (1-3) The team with the maximum points wins the game.
7. Spot the Difference
Share a pair of almost identical pictures with your team and have them spot the differences within a set time. The person who spots the most differences or who spots them the fastest wins.
Fun Office Games for Team Building
The following games are listed with the idea of helping your employees learn to work as a better team. But don’t worry, these are super fun games to play in the office:
1. Human Snakes
In Human Snakes, you need to split your group into teams of equal size. In addition, you can have as many teams as you like, and you can have teams of any size, but we suggest between 4 to 6 per team.
Each team stands in a queue, with their hands on the person’s shoulders in front of them. Further, every single person in the queue must be blindfolded except for the last person.
After that, you must ask each team to navigate through some kind of obstacle course being driven by the person at the back of the queue.
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2. Balloon Race
Similar to Human Snakes, you will need to split your group into teams, who will stand in a line.
You will have to place a balloon between each person, which they must hold in place sans using their hands, with the balloons sandwiched between each players’ chest and back. And each team must attempt to either go through an obstacle course or run a race.
In fact, it is fun to run a race with all teams at once. But if you don’t have the space for this, you can easily use a stopwatch to record the scores.
3. Bridge Building
It would be best not to get your employees to build actual bridges unless they have the right insurance. However, you can get them working together to build small bridges out of items like paper, old bottles, and glue.
You can do this any way you like, but our favorite method is to place two markers a couple of feet away. The bridge must stand along from one marker to the next. And the bridge that holds the most weight without collapsing will win the prize.
4. Story Chain
This creative game begins with a team member who starts a story with a single sentence. The next person adds to the story, and this continues with each participant. It can be performed during in-person team meetings or over video calls.
Fun Virtual Office Games for Remote Employees
With a lot of organization focussing on working from home, we provide you with a list of the top fun games to play virtually. With minimal social interactions, you can bet that your team is eager to socialize and have fun:
1. Code Break
If your team is more into brain games, Code break is the virtual team-building office game for you. You can get your team to solve trivia, riddles, and puzzles with their colleagues—moreover, this is great for competitive groups who love solving complex codes together.
2. Game Show Extravaganza
Trivia challenges can get teams excited as they go head to head, answering questions from politics, pop culture, and probably more. It is a race against the clock, which makes it more exciting.
3. Team Pursuit
Team Pursuit is an excellent way for teammates to understand each other in a better way. The game involves a series of skill and mystery-ridden challenges. During the activities, employees will get a chance to enhance their communication skills otherwise discover hidden talents.
4. Online Scavenger Hunt
Create a list of common items found at home or fun tasks that can be completed within a short time. Participants need to find these items or complete the tasks and share photos as proof within a stipulated time. The one who completes the most tasks wins.
5. GIF Wars
Choose a theme related to your office or a popular topic. Employees search for the funniest or most apt GIF that fits the theme. They can share these in a group chat, and the GIF that receives the most reactions or laughs wins.
Conclusion
So, we hope that you enjoyed going through the list of fun games in the office. We have also added a few games that can be played virtually while working from home. Plum believes in maintaining the health and wealth of employees by providing group health insurance. Subsequently, games can take distractions off of your employees’ minds and make them happy. After all, happy employees are productive employees.
FAQ
Q. How can team leaders effectively incorporate these games into a busy work schedule without impacting productivity?
A. Team leaders can schedule short game sessions during breaks or as part of team meetings to ensure they do not disrupt work. Allocating a specific time each week for these activities helps maintain balance. This approach ensures team building without compromising productivity.
Q. Are there any studies or evidence supporting the impact of these games on improving employee productivity and satisfaction?
A. Research indicates that engaging in team-building activities, including games, enhances job satisfaction and productivity. Studies published in journals like the "Journal of Applied Psychology" show that such interactions improve communication and morale. Managers can reference these findings to justify incorporating games into team dynamics.
Q. What adjustments can be made to these games to accommodate large teams or remote employees who cannot physically participate in office-based activities?
A. For large teams or remote employees, games can be adapted for digital platforms using video conferencing tools. Splitting large teams into smaller groups ensures everyone participates. Choosing games that require minimal physical interaction, like quizzes or virtual scavenger hunts, keeps remote employees engaged. This flexibility allows inclusivity for all team members.
