17
Feb
A certain big event is happening in Beijing that we cannot mention due to sponsorship/trademark rules. However, if you happen to know what we are talking about (and EVERYONE in the world should know about it), then we thought you might want to create your own office fun to get into the spirit of friendly competition. Here are some fun office games that you can use to create your own event. Do them all in one day or spread them out over the week for quick breaks—whatever works best for your office!
Not all employees are in the same office these days. Whether they are working from home, or you have a team in multiple locations, here are a few games that can be played via zoom, Teams, GoTo Meeting, or your video platform of choice.
Finger Skating is an individual event. Two athletes from each team will compete in a sixty-second typing competition. To do this, find a free timed typing website (like this one). Of course, screen share to make sure everyone can watch them type to put the pressure on them! Each competitor has one minute to earn a typing score for both their speed and accuracy. Once all the teams are finished competing, rank them based on their scores. This works great for remote employees participating as well!
Collating is a doubles event if in-person or can be a singles event if you have remote employees. You will just need to mail each participant their supplies ahead of time. Each team is presented with a stack of unfolded numbered pages that have been mixed up. They must rearrange the pages in proper order and staple it. First team wins, with disqualification if pages are out of order. The judges can give penalties for a sloppy job.
Participants are given a staple remover and a piece of card stock with 25 or more (just make sure everyone has the same amount) embedded staples. Points are awarded to the participant who pulls out the most staples without damaging the card stock in the allotted time. For remote employees, this can easily be mailed ahead of time for them to participate!
These events are best suited for offices that are in-person. Or if you have a hybrid team, these events can be given to teammates that are in-person and live streamed to the remote employees to cheer them on as they compete!
Archery is an individual event with two players from each team competing. Provide a pile of rubber bands and draw a target on a whiteboard, pull one up on a smartboard or simply tape a target to the wall. Mark a line on the floor about 12 feet away from the target. Competitors have 60 seconds to grab rubber bands from the pile and shoot them at the target, one at a time. The total number of hits on the target becomes the team’s score for the event. Or, if you want to get fancy, you can have different points for each area of the target.
If you decide you want to make this more of a winter sport or a relay, you can get shoe coverings and have participants “cross-country ski” on non-carpeted flooring and then must hit the target 5 times each before skiing again or passing on to a teammate.
For this event, create a racecourse with chalk (outside-just make sure the area is ice free) or tape inside. Have a section in which they must spin the chair multiple times and use boxes (or cones if you have them) throughout the course as obstacles. You will need one office chair with wheels that swivel.
The Desk Chair Sprint is a two-person event. One teammate sits in the chair while the other maneuvers the course; then they switch. They each need to complete one lap around the racecourse, and they are timed for the two laps. For every box hit by the chair wheel, there will be 2 seconds added to the time.
If you want to raise the stakes, give participants a mug of water to hold. The team with the most water in their cup at the end gets 5 seconds taken off their time as a bonus.
Each participant must make a paper airplane. They then have to “javelin” throw their airplane. Furthest airplane wins. While this works better in person, if you want to trust the measuring skills of your employees, remote teammates can participate as well!
What would an office event like this be without awards? Everyone can be proud of their effort, but there will always be winners that come out on top. Utilize office supplies to create some unique awards for your employees (a medal out of paper clips perhaps?) or create certificates for the winners.
What other office events have you played? If you have any great ideas or video of your office competing, share them with us at josh@benjaminofficesupply.com and you may be featured!
