As someone who likes to keep a pulse on employee trends, it has saddened me to see the rise in workplace burnout. A 2022 survey reported that 78.7 percent of employees and leaders reported feeling stressed. I can only imagine that the number has increased over the last two years as requests for returning to the office have increased.
It’s our responsibility as leaders to figure out ways to decrease these stress levels for the health of our employees and companies. One way I’ve seen work is to introduce the concept of playtime at work. This idea may seem silly at first, but it can ease workplace tensions and bring about higher levels of engagement, loyalty, and performance.
Do adults really need the equivalent of recess? According to science, yes.
In 2020, a study on the power of work-related play discovered that when employees play during their breaks, they are easily able to “detach.” Then, when they return to their jobs, they outperform coworkers who didn’t play.
The National Institute for Play also says that play fosters a collaborative team environment, inspires creativity and fresh ideas, reduces stress and burnout, lowers turnover, and boosts employee satisfaction and productivity.
This begs the question: How do we encourage play within an office culture? To begin, we can start by reorganizing and refreshing our office spaces.
The Magic of Play-Inspired Physical Workplace Layouts
Is your current office space boxy, boring, or dull? Even with open-concept working environments, the flow tends to be fairly standard and devoted to work. To change this style of office, you don’t need a remodel. You can start by reimagining the space.
Consider adding easily accessible and available touchdown spaces to invite collaboration. In my office, we added a couple of couches next to a wall fireplace complete with pillows and blankets. Small groups can meet here for meetings or employees can take a break from working at their desk. We’ve noticed that employees are much more likely to interact with each other when they’re in a shared common space.
To take it another step, you can invite more play by adding an outdoor space that includes commercial playground equipment and green space landscaping. Picnic tables can be inviting, but a play space that invites employees to embrace their childlike nature will certainly bring out their playful side.
Additionally, as Playground Equipment notes, playgrounds and mini-parks show workers they can occasionally bring their children to work. They also provide a convenient and safe location for offsite meetings that are engaging and far from ordinary.
Another option for making play intuitive is to set up a full-fledged game room within the workplace. Betson notes that many elite companies like Google and Airbnb have been on the leading edge of offering team members gaming space.
That said, with any space your office chooses to include, you and others in leadership positions must participate in the play/space to ensure employees know it’s okay for them to participate as well. If no one from the C-suite joins in the fun, employees with promotion aspirations will be less likely to take advantage of what’s offered. On the other hand, when the CEO hangs out in the corporate community playground space, workers are more apt to as well.
Giving Workers the Resources and Knowledge to Play
If figuring out how to prompt play at work is challenging, you could start the journey with a kickoff training. Explain to your teams that you’re bringing more design elements (e.g., a playground, a gaming room) into the workplace. But add that you’re hosting a professional development training to give them the tools to adopt more creative processes.
For instance, you may want to consider bringing in workplace play consultants to train your teams on how to fuel their meetings with play. Consultant firms often are as unique as the play they prescribe: Playficient tailors trainings toward organizations seeking playful cultures, whereas Play at Work suggests employers urge play through onsite musical instrument instruction.
At a previous company, I was part of a team exploring ways to introduce more play into our office culture. The experience turned out to be transformative. The consulting firm we hired led us through exercises that began with simple ice-breakers and evolved into engaging, playful activities designed to get us thinking more creatively.
I remember one session where we were all given simple percussion instruments, like tambourines and maracas, and encouraged to “play” while we brainstormed. The rhythm loosened everyone up, and laughter filled the room. By the end, what would’ve been an ordinary meeting became a high-energy, collaborative workshop, where we bonded as a team in a completely new way.
Afterward, our meetings didn’t feel the same — there was a palpable openness and willingness to think outside the box that wasn’t there before. That single training session shifted our culture.
What’s the most important takeaway? Simply that work without play can become a loop of mindless tasks pretty quickly. By redesigning the workplace to make play happen seamlessly and organically, businesses can improve engagement, performance, and retention.
Most people spend more time at their job than they do with their families. In exchange, they deserve some downtime. And when they get to laugh and play, they’ll be able to bring more excitement, value, and innovative thinking to their work.
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