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.

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.

Is the Lunch Break Going Extinct?

Today, it seems that the "lunch hour" is the biggest myth of office life. Many workplace experts suspect that even those workers who are allotted a half hour for lunch, often never leave their desks.

The move to shorter or non-existent lunches is in some cases self-imposed. Many workers remain at their desk and graze throughout the day. Those who do leave the office often dash around doing errands, especially women who must rush from work to pick up children. People are just too busy these days to take a leisurely lunch. They want to finish their work and leave at a reasonable hour so they can have some quality time with family and friends.

Giving up your lunch break could actually diminish your productivity, causing you to end up putting in more hours in the long run. The brain needs a rest in order to maintain concentration. Joe Takash, a business consultant, claims lunch breaks can "help boost creativity and profits."

People need the mid-day break. "They need to eat," demands Kathleen Hall, a stress and work-life balance expert. "Food boosts mental and physical productivity and regulates moods. Certain foods can also fight anxiety, stress and panic, which is good if you're having an especially difficult day."

Popular among younger employees, is lunch break computer games. Available online, these free games offer short, fun, stimulating diversions, but they don't provide a leisurely environment to eat lunch. Remember, the human body needs food, fresh air, exercise and relaxation to perform at its best.

Top image courtesy of Ziv Pugatch. Bottom image courtesy of Matt Seppings.

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

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!)