The Office Playground Blog

How Scary is Your Office?

It’s the time of year where ghosts, witches and goblins are making plans for their favorite day of the year, Halloween. Have you let them visit your desk yet?

Halloween isn’t just for children dressed as spooky (or sometimes adorable) creatures, going door-to-door asking for candy; you can have just as much fun at work! This year, bring the spirit of Halloween to the office. Here are some ideas for making your workplace "spooktacular"!

• Decorate your desk or cubicle walls with a row full of smiling pumpkins
• Host a number of spooky Halloween contests: Scariest Costume, Jack-o-Lantern Carving, Pumpkin Seed Spitting, and Best Decorated Desk
• Hide fake giant spiders in your co-workers’ desk drawers
• Ask each of your co-workers "Trick or Treat?" Give those who say "treat" a piece of candy; pull a fun office prank on everyone else
• Host a Halloween Fright Wind-Up race
• Bring a large bowl of Halloween candy to share or bake a batch of Halloween cookies

Adding a little Halloween spirit to your workplace can make your day a little more exciting and everyone a little happier. Try out some of our ideas and let us know how it goes!

Image courtesy of Elvia Dametto.

Boss's Day Gift Ideas

Friday, October 16 is National Boss Day. It's an opportunity for employees to show appreciation for their hardworking boss. It's also an opportunity for an employee to make a good impression with a thoughtful gift. You can present a classy gift or a useful item or a whimsical toy that adds a little fun to your boss's day.

If you're in need of ideas for a gift, start with a pre-purchase observation; look at what types of items adorn the boss's desk and office. For sophisticated gifts, check out our Executive Toys category or Kinetic Motion and Levitating items. Take note of how much space is available for your gift. If your boss's desk is crowded, consider something that hangs on a wall such an amusing clock, a funny sign, a dartboard, or a basketball game.

Novelty items that draw positive attention to an office include the Magic Fishbowl, Executive Desk Gong, Exotic Sands, or Zen Garden. A gift from our Desktop Gardening category will please any plant lover.

Golf enthusiasts will enjoy the Executive Office Putter, the Chip Shotz Golfer game and Executive Sandbox-Golf Sand Trap. Surprise your boss with comical Office Supplies such as funny note pads, a Dog Stapler or a Chocolate Calculator.

Make this National Boss Day a memorable one.

Business Decisions

Bad business decisions are something every company tries to avoid, but they happen. Some legendary ones include the makers of M & M's decision to not allow their candy to appear in the movie ET. Reese's Pieces were used instead and the sales exploded. Jerry Yang decided to walk away from Microsoft and missed out on receiving $44.6 billion of Bill Gates' money. Many book editors rejected the Harry Potter book series and Decca Records had the opportunity to sign the Beatles and didn't.

An example of important decision making can be shown through choosing stock investments. The Chicago Sun-Times wanted to illustrate the often chance nature of picking stocks, so they had a monkey sit on newspaper stock pages and make marks on five stocks. As of January 2007, the stock-picking monkey had beaten the market four years running.

If you don't have the resources to hire a monkey, perhaps a fortune-telling item such as the Wall Street Guru Ball, the Mystical Orb, or the time honored Magic 8 Ball may help. The Dartboard Decision Maker is a fun and active alternative.

Next time you're faced with a landmark decision, give the Affirmation Ball a shake; its response might be "Brilliant Idea!" However, the Sarcastic Ball might warn "Not a Chance!" and the Wall Street Guru might suggest "Ride it Out". The Dartboard Decision Maker offers many options. Give it a spin and toss the dart, which might land on "Take a Vacation," "Stay Late," "Call a Meeting," "Hire" or "Retire". A fortune telling ball or decision maker may not offer the appropriate advice, but it's sure to generate some lighthearted stress relief.

Gumby vs. Mr. Bill

Who would win a battle between Gumby and Mr. Bill? Both are animated clay figures that made their debut to the public on popular TV shows, both have made their way into feature length films, and both are immortalized as bendable figurines. We decided to collect the facts to predict the winner of this potentially famous battle.

Name: Gumby
Debuted: August 1956
Creator: Art Clokey
Best Friend: Pokey
Nemeses: Blockheads
Claim to Fame: Gumby starred in his own television series, The Gumby Show, that aired from 1957 to 1967 and in 1988
Best Characteristic: Flexibility
Accomplishments: cameo appearance in 1987 film The Puppetoon Movie; 1995 feature length film Gumby I (aka Gumby: The Movie); 8 DVD collections (2000s); video game Gumby vs. the Astrobots (2005); appeared in campaign ads for Library of Congress (1994-1995) and Cheerios (late 1990s)

Name: Mr. Bill
Debuted: February 28, 1976
Creator: Walter Williams
Best Friend: Spot (his dog)
Nemesis: Mr. Sluggo
Claim to Fame: Mr. Bill starred in several short sketches on the television show, Saturday Night Live from 1976 to 1980
Memorable Quotes: "Ohhhh noooooooooooooo...", "Perfectly awful!", "Stunningly bad!"
Accomplishments: 1986 live-action movie Mr. Bill's Real Life Adventures; 1998 television show Ohh No!!! Mr. Bill Presents; appeared in television ads for Pringles (1980s), an anti-drug campaign (1988), Pizza Hut (1990s), Subway (2008), and MasterCard (2008)

Based on the character's personality, history and popularity, Gumby wins the battle hands down. However, we believe it's all up to the circumstance and personal preference. Take the battle into your own hands to determine who you think is the real winner.

Silly Putty — The Great American Mistake

Many products have been created or discovered by accident and Silly Putty might be one of the most popular and best selling mistakes of all time.

During World War II there was a shortage of rubber in the United States. The government funded research into synthetic rubber compounds in an attempt to solve this shortage. Silly Putty was created in 1943 during this pursuit. The new product had useful qualities: it bounced like rubber, stretched like taffy and had adhesive qualities; it also broke into pieces and had the ability to lift pencil marks off paper. However, Silly Putty was not the sought-after substitute for rubber.

Silly Putty was called Nutty Putty when the little pink blob made of silicone polymers packaged in an egg-shaped plastic container made its debut as a toy in 1949. Its sales soared to the top of the toy chart that year. In 1961, Silly Putty went worldwide. It even reached the Moon in 1968, courtesy of the Apollo 8 astronauts who used it to secure their tools in zero-gravity.

After its success as a toy, Silly Putty was found to be useful in medical and scientific fields. It is widely used by physical therapists for rehabilitative therapy of hand injuries and as a fidget item for stress reduction. A number of other brands have emerged which alter the material's properties offering different levels of resistance, color and size of the product. Some of the names it is marketed under are Power Putty, TheraPutty, Thinking Putty and Bouncing Putty.

To date, Silly Putty has sold over 300 million eggs. Crayola, LLC (formerly the Binney & Smith company), which also owns Crayola crayons, owns the trademark name Silly Putty and currently sells 20,000 units per day.

It doesn't look like this American icon has to worry about popularity as its unique qualities continue to provide fun, exercise and stress relief to users of all ages all over the world.

Image courtesy of Eugene Peretz.

Extreme Workplaces

Eating lunch outside at the Googleplex

The Travel Channel's segment on Extreme Workplaces is mind boggling and dream inspiring. Showcased in the show and the article, "Thinking Outside the Cubicle" written by Erica Walsh, are seven businesses that go all out in providing uniquely designed workplaces and unbelievably fun perks for their employees.

Ping Pong at the Threadless Warehouse

While not all employers can provide such wonderland-type settings and expensive perks, fun doesn't have to be high priced. Small gifts given out at a meeting can make a big impression. Freebees are appreciated and the good will associated with them can help stimulate creativity that just might give birth to the next great idea for your business.

Office Playground's Meeting in a Box is a modestly priced box containing 17 fidget toys. These little toys add an element of fun to any meeting or workday. The briefcase shaped box makes it easy to carry and it will definitely be the center of attention when placed on the conference table and opened to reveal the variety of toys inside. Let the brainstorming begin!

Images of the Googleplex courtesy of Erik Hersman. Image of the Threadless Warehouse courtesy of Joe M500.

May is National Physical Fitness and Sports Month

Since 1983, May has been observed as National Physical Fitness and Sports Month. Individuals and organizations everywhere have joined in the fun to promote awareness of the value of physical activity in the pursuit of happier, healthier, more productive lives.

Many people spend most of their work week sitting at a desk. "We are made to move, not sit at a desk 12 hours a day," says Joan Price, author of The Anytime, Anywhere Exercise Book. "As ergonomic as your desk or chair may be, sitting produces back pains, headaches, and listlessness. You become less productive." The Surgeon General recommends at least 30 minutes of physical activity a day, but with today's hectic schedules, even 30 minutes of exercise can be difficult to squeeze into a busy day. Micro workouts are a step in the right direction. Get in a few minutes of exercise right at your desk. Three minutes of exercise ten times in a day at work and you've done your required thirty minutes of exercise. There are exercises you can do at your desk. Stretching is good for your neck and back and it can be done while sitting. (Read more about stretching at your desk.)

Zig Ziglar is an author and famous motivational speaker focused on inspiring true performance in the corporate world. He said "for every five minutes of exercise you do, you'll get back fifteen minutes of productivity". L.L. Bean recently tested this theory. They provided their workers with three five minute exercise breaks. At the end of the day when they measured productivity, they found that they had gained thirty minutes in output.

The key to exercise and physical activity is fun and convenience. At work, do fun activities during breaks such as play office golf, magnetic darts or a quick game of air hockey. At lunch time, take a walk or play catch with a Nerf ball in the parking lot. Walk up and down stairs rather than using the elevator. If you ride a bus, get off a few blocks early and walk the remaining distance. At home, take advantage of summer's long hours of daylight and warm evenings by enjoying sunset walks or bicycle rides. Working in the garden or playing games with the children can be a great way to end a day.

Office Playground offers scores of choices to help you score on the exercise scale. Add fun physical activity to your day with Indoor Sports Games, Sports Balls, Basketball Hoop games, Magnetic Dart Games, Disc Shooters and Safe Shooters. At your desk use Therapy Balls for hand and arm exercises.

Images courtesy of About.com © Anne Asher 2006-2007 licensed to About.com

Fun Is Profitable! -- Just Ask Google

Google sets the standard for a happy work environment.

In 2007 and 2008, Fortune Magazine named Google the Number 1 employer in their annual 100 Best Companies to Work for. With a market cap of 120.97B and 12,000 employees in offices throughout the world, Google’s casual dress code and “work hard, play hard” philosophy is a prime example of when people are happy they perform better. It is a company that goes out of its way to ensure staff happiness and contentment. Their staff turnover is low, while job satisfaction is high. Google's playful approach to serious business is echoed in the many variations of their logo they create to honor interesting people and events around the world.

Great ideas start with just one person sowing a seed. You can make your workspace a more enjoyable place by adding colorful items, tactile toys and whimsical office supplies. Create variety by rotating items from your drawer to the desktop. You’ll be happier and your co-workers will be inspired. Watch your idea grow and spread throughout your company.

Office Playground is a provider of a wide variety of affordable products that add fun to any office. We’ve shipped toys and games to Google offices and we can ship them to you. Staff happiness encourages success.

Moms Deserve a Dose of Fun and Stress Relief

Mothers have the toughest job on Earth and their important role has been observed throughout history. Mother's Day is centuries old. It goes back to the times of the ancient Greeks, who held festivities to honor Rhea, the mother of the gods. The early Christians celebrated a Mother's festival that evolved into the current Mothering Sunday observance in Europe.

In 1907, Anna M. Jarvis, a Philadelphia schoolteacher, began a movement to set up a national Mother's Day in honor of her mother, Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis. Mother's Day became an official observance in the United States in 1914 when President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the second Sunday in May as a national holiday in honor of mothers.

Mother's Day is celebrated in many countries around the world, with the United States, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Turkey, Australia, and Belgium celebrating it on the second Sunday of May. So, yes, moms deserve to have some fun and a healthy dose of stress relief from the lovingly hectic lives they lead.

Thank your mom for all the things she does for you with something different and entertaining from Office Playground. Shopping at our online store is quick and easy. May 10th is just around the corner. Show your mom you've learned not to wait until the last minute.

See our Mother's Day Gift Guide for help finding a great gift, or browse our wonderland of fun products. Thanks Mom!

Better Meetings with Toys

You can improve your business meetings by using office toys. Here are some ways to get more out of your next training session, company-wide meeting or weekly team reviews.

Attention span – Keep their hands busy and their minds open. Hand out office toys to keep attendees focused. Attention spans will increase if attendees have something to manipulate in their fingers. If meeting goers are busy fidgeting with a Tangle or Magic Loop, they will listen and retain more content.

Attendance – If employees know that toys are given out at a meeting, they will show up and will stay to the end. Give toys to employees who arrive on time. If they arrive late, they don't get a toy. Late arrivers will be very disappointed. On the flip side, give an office toy to folks who stay for the entire meeting. It'll be a fun reward for staying.

Participation – Encourage people to give feedback and get involved in the meeting by giving office toys to audience members who ask good questions or who are the first to answer. The entire room will be on the edge of their seats, absorbing everything you say.

Bowl of Office Toys – Place a bunch of small inexpensive toys in a bowl or basket in the middle of the table or near the door. Choose office toys that are all the same style or a variety. Be sure to pick "quiet" office toys so they aren't a distraction during the meeting. Foam Stress Balls, Thredz-Flex Ziggy Variegated, Bendeez Confetti are all good examples. Folks should return the office toys to the basket after the meeting to be used next time.

Handouts/Rewards – Keep a variety of office toys on hand to give out during the meeting. Popular office toys such as Newton's Cradle 5" Silver or Mini Deluxe Zen Garden are great rewards for reaching certain business objectives, making a quota or staying within budget. Fun office toys, such as Happy Face Stress Ball or Laughing Stress Ball are great handouts for folks who participate and for positive attitudes. Extremely affordable items such as Stretchy Body Bits and Funny Monster Clips are ideal for folks who arrive on time or answer/ask questions.

Props and Games - Use office toys as props to support your lessons. Themed office toys help reinforce key ideas and points. Trainees will be reminded of important messages long after the meeting has ended. For example, use an Affirmation Ball to reinforce positive customer service behavior or a Beach in a Box to remind your sales staff of the trip for folks who reach annual goals. Create teambuilding exercises by playing games with office toys. Participants are sure to bond over a Boss Toss competition, Downtown Shootout or Basket Case Hoop Game.

Let's face it, business meetings aren't on the top of everyone's list of favorite things to do. But, they are a necessary part of the operation. Take it from us, business people love to play with office toys and will respond favorably if you incorporate them into your next meeting. So, go ahead and give it a try!

Relieve Work Related Stress with Office Toys!

Work is often accompanied by a fair amount of stress. We still have a job to do, so it is important to manage some of this workplace stress and remain focused on our tasks.

Office toys can help you cope and keep you calm. The products available at www.OfficePlayground.com are intended to make you feel good. Silly stress balls, such as Sir-Squeeze A Lot and Monkey Groan Ball make you laugh. Mr. Bill, Magic 8 Ball and Slinky are cool vintage stress relievers that remind you of happy childhood memories. Raking the sand of a Zen Garden or listening to the click-clack of a Newton's Cradle can send you into a mini-meditation. Icky stress relief balls like the Blob Brain or Gurgling Gutz will give you a good gross out. While Tangle Relax Therapy and IsoFlex are therapeutic toys designed to help you release tension. So, don't forget to take a break from all the chaos around you to refocus your mind and do something that makes you smile.

Why is smiling so important? Because a smile can go a long way towards making you optimistic. A smile relieves stress, helps you stay positive, causes other people to smile and makes you feel better. When you start smiling on the outside, pretty soon you will start smiling on the inside.

You don't have to spend a lot to put a smile on your face. Stress toys pack a big punch for a small price. Our office toys have a positive effect on people because they are fun distractions full of stress relieving power.

The folks here at Office Playground, Inc. aren't scientists or psychologists; we just know what makes us happy. We are people like you with every day challenges and pressures. But, we still want to have fun and keep a positive attitude and we believe that a little bit of play can go a long way in helping you make it through the workday.

Office Playground, Inc. was founded in 1999. Since then, we have been focused on bringing you fun new desk toys and stress relievers at affordable prices. We value your business and our Customer Service team is waiting to answer any of your questions. As we head into our 10th year of business, our goal is to get to know you better so we can continue to bring you the best office toys the market has to offer. (TAKE A QUICK SURVEY!)

The Sounds of Office Playground, Inc.

We are adding audio clips to some of our nosier office toys. This clip is one of our favorites:

The Laughing Stress Ball

  To hear the Laughing Stress Ball's sound click the play button below:
 

  Click here for more products with audio clips.

Gotta Love the Monkey!

Monkeys are really popular at Office Playground, Inc. When assessing whether or not to add a new product to our portfolio, it gets bonus points if it happens to be monkey-related. Our customers love to buy our monkeys and here are the top five selling monkey office toys:

We often wonder why folks love monkeys so much. Are monkeys cute? Do people like them because they act like humans? But not all monkeys are worthy of our affections. Some monkeys are naughty and not so nice at all. Like the monkey in Tampa Bay throwing feces at people -- (read article).

It's possible that we may never know why our monkey products are so popular. (Maybe it is because our monkeys won't throw their feces at you.) We don't even know if monkeys or just monkey office toys are popular. Whatever the reason, people can't resist a monkey.

If there is a monkey who would like to fill us in on the mystery or if someone out there personally knows a monkey, perhaps you’d like to comment.

What is a Stress Ball?

At the very least, a stress ball is something you squeeze to relieve stress. But, Office Playground, Inc. digs deeper into the definition of a stress ball.

Some stress balls are not a ball at all. In the Promotional Products Industry (where companies put logos on merchandise), stress balls typically refer to any squishy shape that is made out of polyurethane foam. Examples of this industry standard stress ball include: Brains, Light Bulbs, Dollar Signs and Animals. At Office Playground, Inc., we categorize these polyurethane foam shapes as “Foam Stress Toys”. Although they are squishy and fun to squeeze, we don’t call them stress balls because they are not shaped like a round ball.

While a majority of stress balls are designed to be squished, a stress ball doesn’t necessarily have to be squishy to be fun and stress relieving. Consider the following Office Playground, Inc. products: Suction Ball, Rubber Band Ball or Koosh Ball.  These office toys are not easily squished, but playing with them offers a great deal of stress relief and relaxation. Therefore, we classify this type of item as a stress ball.

Although many of our polyurethane shapes are not called stress balls because they are not round, other non-round items are given the stress ball label. Take, for example, the balls listed here: Footballs, Gyro Exerciser or Horror Ball – Shark.  We could’ve put these office toys in the Stress Relievers category instead. However, after exhaustive analysis (not really), we decided they are round enough to be considered a stress ball.

At this point, you are probably asking yourself if we are crazy enough to call a non-round, non-polyurethane office toy a stress ball... and the answer is YES! The folks here at Office Playground, Inc. often refer to non-balls as stress balls. Examples of this include the Ball of Population, Spaghetti Ball and Animal Noodle Ball. The biggest driver for labeling such items this way is because that’s what the manufacturers are calling them. Plus, it’d be a bit problematic if the names were Population, Spaghetti and Animal Noodle. Adding the ball at the end makes the names simply roll off your tongue.

To sum it all up for you, a stress ball is an item that is round (or close enough to round) that offers tremendous stress relief benefits. For those of you still reading, we hope this sheds some light on the topic of how Office Playground, Inc. categorizes their stress balls. We know this has surely been on your mind (not really)! Be sure to visit our Stress Balls category to see them all for yourself. Have a fun and stress free day!.

Ten Reasons Why Office Toys Make Great Gifts

• 1) Affordable - Many of our office toys are reasonably priced under $10.
• 2) Enjoyable - Playing with office toys is a fun lighthearted distraction from the daily grind.
• 3) Impressive - A memorable office toy will remind the recipient how terrific you are for giving it to them.
• 4) Humorous - Office toys provide much needed comic relief around the workplace and at home.
• 5) Stress Relieving - It is very soothing to release tension with a tactile office toy.
• 6) Practical - Many office toys are quite handy to have on your desk and serve a useful purpose.
• 7) Colorful - You can brighten up any workspace at home or the office with cheerful and lively office toys.
• 8) Cute - Lots of people love appealing things and we have many adorable and charming office toys.
• 9) Informal - The casual nature of office toys makes them simple and easy gifts for business associates.
• 10) Popular - Office toys are well-liked and folks love to spruce up their desks with these hip and cool items.

Office toys are the ideal gifts for all kinds of people and you'll find a large selection of office toys at www.OfficePlayground.com. For nearly 10 years, Office Playground has been committed to providing you with the best office toys available. We are trustworthy, competent, friendly and passionate.

If you're interested in getting some really awesome gifts at extremely affordable prices and receiving them quickly, please explore our web site or contact us for suggestions or with any questions. We're standing by to help.