Do pet owners really look like their pets? Have employees post pictures of their pets on the company bulletin board or Intranet site , with each pet numbered. If you choose, you can also include a random list of the pet owners participating in the game. The objective is to correctly match each pet owner with their pet. Not only can this game lead to new conversations at work, it may also lead to weekend pet play dates and new friendships among pet parents!
Relieve the stress with a bit of physical activity. Why not keep your eye on the ball by stealing away to a meeting room for a ping pong match in the boardroom or tighten up your short game between conference calls? Science shows that just a few minutes of physical activity during work can reduce back pain, and increase mental alertness and concentration.
Besides, rainbow colored golf balls can really brighten up a room. The windmills and waterfalls, though? That might be going just a little bit too far. Find a friend and burn off some frustration with a fast-paced game of blitz chess. Use the standard rules of chess, but with no waiting. Make your moves fast — this is a game of speed over strategy. The beauty of it all — someone will capture the king faster than it takes to burn through a bag of chips and an energy drink. In this simplest of games, employees are given a sheet of paper filled with trivia questions.
They have two minutes to complete as many questions as possible. The most correct answers submitted by an employee wins fabulous prizes. And who knows, they might even learn something. Assign an individual to give an impromptu five-minute pitch on anything. It can be work-related, humorous, whatever. Employees gather in a meeting room to hear the pitch and score the presentation on persuasive skill, confidence, body language, and delivery of engaging content.
The highest scoring speeches can be rewarded with prizes monthly or quarterly. This is a timeless classic. Waste basketball, or trash can basketball, is so popular that you can buy backboards that attach to your waste bin. Playing is easy. Set up a wastebasket against a wall. In some cases, this sets the stage for serious mental health problems.
Indeed, one study shows younger people who routinely face heavy workloads and extreme time pressure on the job are more likely to experience major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. High levels of stress at work —— and outside of it —— can affect physical health, too. Repeated activation of the fight-or-flight response can disrupt bodily systems and increase susceptibility to disease.
Chronic stress can also affect health by interfering with healthy behaviors, such as exercise, balanced eating, and sleep. Work stress can also harm companies or organizations. Burnout reduces job productivity and boosts absenteeism and job turnover, and also leads to conflict between coworkers, causing stress to spread within a workplace. All of us can benefit by learning skills to manage fear and anxiety on the job. Several skills taught in cognitive behavioral therapy may help, including these:.
As a service to our readers, Harvard Health Publishing provides access to our library of archived content. Please note the date of last review or update on all articles. No content on this site, regardless of date, should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician. Stress at work or in any other context for that matter can tax our body, mind and overall well-being in many ways.
I truly believe that meditation and mindfulness can radically reduce stress and anxiety. I am passionate about this topic and I have dedicated a lot of time on the subject of meditation during commute. After all, most people who commute to and from work, spend a considerable amount of prime time on public transport. Time that can be used to improve the quality of our life, not only professionally.
For me, meditating on the London Underground on my way to work and back has been a life changing habit. All the very best Davide. Your heartfelt thanks for this excellent article. Thanks for visiting. Don't miss your FREE gift. Assemble the group together and hand out a piece of paper to each member. Have everyone write their names on top of their paper and then add these discussion questions.
All the answers and information is compared and can be copied to hand out to everyone, these can then be used if needed in the future.
This exercise brings in an appreciation and understanding of others needs. Groups become aware that everyone has different needs, nobody is the same and never assume such things. Flipcharts come in fairly handy at all types of workshops or programmes.
In this instance, draw the shape of a human body onto a page of the flipchart. Now, take different colored pens and mark off where you think stress affects the body most. These areas could include the neck and shoulders, stomach, and chest. Allow everyone to do the same, this helps people see where their stress lies and how this affects their bodies. You can then discuss what helps to reduce stress, what does everyone do to bring down their stress levels. Discuss how you can bring all of these stress-reducing ideas and techniques into your life, making it habit, thus minimizing the effects of stress.
Ask the group what causes them the most stress. Some examples include work, relationships, and finances. Have participants choose about six areas of concern, then rate them from 0 to The 0 is no stress and the ten representing the most stress. During the programme, you can then come up with techniques and ways to deal with the stress issues written on the wheel chart.
Have your group write down everything that makes them angry. Then, have them right next to these anger triggers, what their reactions are. Next to this, have them write down what they should do, or what they would like to do instead. You can add in a discussion about their reactions and what they would like to do, with everyone or with a partner. Otherwise, continue and have groups visualize their anger moments and then have them replace their normal reactions with actions they would like to do instead.
Let groups practice this visualization technique for a few minutes. For example, when driving a car and somebody pulls in front of you. Some reactions would be to yell and get upset at the offending driver. Visualize and replace this reaction with another reaction, for example, laughing.
All you need for this activity is a drawing pin and a large balloon. Inform the group at the beginning of the workshop or programme, that you are going to pop the balloon, but nobody will know when this is going to happen. Once you pop the balloon unannounced, ask the group how they feel. You can then delve into a discussion on various anxiety issues, which can build up even before a person realizes they are stressed.
Another way to use balloons is to get individuals to imagine their stress and then to blow it out into a balloon. Then, have them pop their balloons or go outside and release the balloon.
This technique is a great way to help those with stress, take control back. They can also draw images onto the balloon, which represents their feelings and then do the same with the balloon as above. Once everyone has made up their buttons, they must wear them and when you talk to somebody, explain what your button represents.
This is a creative way to share with others, what bothers us on a day to day basis. Hand out some paper and pens, then ask the group to list their three worst stress areas. Tell them not to write their names on the paper and then to hand them in. Shuffle all the papers and hand them out again to the group. Let each member then read off their anonymous list and share with the group how they would deal with those issues. Tell the group to form a circle while standing, take a cup that has been filled halfway, and instruct the group to pass it around the circle.
The cup can be passed either clockwise or ant-clockwise. Once the first cup is going around, add in another one and then another one. Increase the challenge by taking some of the cups out and exchanging them with cups that have more water in them. You can also ask a few members of the group to remove themselves from the circle, which will make the circle smaller.
Eventually, the members will be trying to keep from spilling their cups while passing it around, even having two cups at a time.
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