For those of you that are still cubicle monkeys or loan drones (like myself) what do you and/or your coworkers do to make the place more tolerable?
At my work we do a number of things:
-On breaks we put together huge jigsaw puzzles (up to 2,000 pieces ones)
-We have "Purple Shirt Thursday," which is a tradition I started because as a minimalist I have few shirts and always wear one on Thursday. Someone noticed this and said: "Is it purple shirt Thursday?" I said: "Yes!" Then others started doing it. Now every Thursday most people wear a purple shirt (or tie or pants).
-Cookie Monday: A colleague decided that once a season everyone should bring in cookies, preferably homemade. This is held on a Monday to bright the gloomiest of workdays. This has morphed into Pie Monday and Muffin Monday too. On the first Cookie Monday the originator of the ate 14 full size cookies!
-Goofy Shirt Happy Hour: A colleague came up with this idea and I organized it. We're going to have happy hour wearing our most outlandish shirts. For instance, a colleague has a bobblehead shirt where his head is the bobblehead. Another coworker has a heavy metal T-shirt where a devilish goat is playing guitar in hell. They will wear these shirts.
-Rubber band wars: We sling rubber bands at people, down hallways, and over cubicle walls
-Impromptu dancing: We listen to music while we work on a weekly group project. One coworker does the moon walk, another does the freaky-deek, I do the two-step, etc. It is total silly stuff.
-Thanksgiving: We have a potluck meal with our "work family."
-Coffee runs: Every day we'll walk to a nearby cafe so people can get coffee. This becomes a consistent way to learn about what people did the previous weekend or what they plan to do the upcoming weekend.
-Taste Tests: We bring in all sorts of foods (cricket energy bars, ice cremes, pumpkin rolls, exotic fruits, etc.) for taste tests
What do you all do? Any ideas you have? Any ideas you like?