by Kathleen Groll Connolly
How about a battery-powered sleeping dog to keep your tootsies warm at the office? Sumo wrestler squeezie? A real executive sandbox? This is not just office tomfoolery. Plenty of studies—including our own—show that the sense of having fun at work has an unmistakable relationship to a sense of satisfaction and engagement at work. (Read about Power of Full Engagement research.)
Naturally, with stakes as high as employee engagement, a number of vendors offer products and services that promote workplace mirth. On a radio report the other day, we heard of a company that started out in the computer hardware business but prospers today from the sale of soft foam rocket launchers, indoor helicopters and Nerf footballs. Somewhere along the way they started selling toys for geeks and eventually discovered it was a better business than their original.
In the chart below, we offer some resources that may help you have more fun at work in 2007. And if you’re the contrarian type, please read about Despair.com when you're finished with this list.
Informational Web Sites:
HumorMatters.com: The best informational site we found is by the self-described “clinical mirthologist” Steven M. Sultanoff, Ph.D. The site provides resource references and many links.
Workplace Humor Sites:
The Official Dilbert Website Visit the Dilbert Archives or "Desktop Diversions" for classic cubicle humor.
Workplace HumourQuote: “If you're politically correct buzz off you won't like this site!”
About: Humor Quote: “On this site, you’re the boss.”
Humor University Quote: “Fun Solutions for Serious Problems”
Books on Mirth at Work:
Fun Works: Creating Places Where People Love to Work by Leslie Yerkes
301 Ways to Have Fun at WorkDave Hemath and Leslie Yerkes
Associations:
National Association for the Humor Impaired ("She smiled weakly.")
Sources of Toys:
Featured categories on these sites include: stress busters, weapons for cubicle warfare, foam rubber toys, rubberband guns, air guns, Star Wars and Star Trek collectibles, critters, gags, bendables, action figures, bobbleheads, kinetics. Four well-stocked sites include:
KlearGear
Office Playground
Surprise.com
Archie McPhee’s: “The Cubes”
Wishing you a few smiles on the job!
