Games to play when board at work

Bonus points are awarded for artistic merit. Just as childish and potentially outrageous as the invisible line game, the idea behind this one is to not touch the office floor at all. Especially difficult to play, workers must use their wits and work together in order to keep their feet off the floor. Transportation is provided via the comfort of your office wheeled chair, and lunchtime doesn't count unless you're the guy in the picture below.

The fun lies in catching your workmates out, and the penalties you and your coworkers must come up with for anyone caught with their feet firmly on the ground. Best played with four or more players, Photoshop Tennis can yield some hilarious results. You don't strictly need Photoshop to play either -- any image editing program will do.

One player starts to draw a picture within Photoshop or equivalent , which subsequent players must add to. The picture makes its way around the office the more people, the better before making it back to the originator.

This game tests the creativity of your workmates, and it's fun trying to figure out who did what. Repeat the process till you've run out of room, then print it off and display it as your latest office project.

Team building -- right? For anyone who likes a wager, there's Telegambling. Gather your closest workmates and invite them to roll the dice on a phone call. You'll need to choose a victim who isn't in the same room as you, and whose extension you know. Everyone then must place a bet on whether the victim will pick up the phone.

The winners share the pot equally, and the losers are left empty-handed. This is a great way of raising change for the coffee machine, or foolishly gambling away your dinner money.

Slack is a super tool for team communication and offers a ton of great features. What you might not know, however, is that Slack has games as well. Take a break and challenge a coworker with an app you already use. The classic game you remember, along with an expanded version from the TV show The Big Bang Theory , are short and sweet time-wasters for Slack.

After entering the command for the game you want, you and your opponent choose a button for Rock, Paper, or Scissors. Once the answers are in, the winner will be revealed. You can play this ancient, strategic game of X's and O's with your pal in the next cubicle. Give the command to start a game on a Slack channel or privately in a direct message. Then, take turns choosing a spot for your X or O and do your best to beat your buddy.

GameMonk is a good option for Slack because you can play three different games. In Categories, you must name as many items within a topic in 60 seconds and earn a point for each correct answer. If you've been working on computers for the better part of your lives, then this is the game for you. Imagine a game based on typing speed. Hell no. The game gives you a small passage to type out a word in the shortest possible time that you can, while you race against other players online.

Go ahead and check out your typing skills here. Gold Panic is a simple maze-type puzzle game that requires you to dig a path inside a mine and push gold into a little cart where you collect it. The game is an endless source of fun and time pass. You can play the game here. If you haven't played this game already, you're missing out on one of the toughest bloody games ever created. I mean, what the hell were they thinking creating a game that is impossible to succeed at? You basically have to control the legs of a sprinter using the Q, W, O and P keys on the keyboard.

Try it out here and tell us how much you failed, because I've given up. I thought I'd add a cool trivia game to the mix. Trivia Machine is a cool trivia game where you can choose to play quizzes from different categories like music, history and movies at three different levels including elementary, scholar and genius. Check it out right here. You must attempt to pass clues to your own team, without giving away clues to the opposing team.

Code Names is a physical board game, but if you already know the rules then you can play it online here. In a game of Cards Against Humanity, somebody will draw half of a sentence from the card deck. You must then use your own personal stash of cards to complete the sentence. If your solution is voted as the funniest, you win the round. You can print a free copy of this game from the Cards Against Humanity website , as long as you promise not to use it to make money. We believe you should encourage your teams to be physically active where possible.

Not only this, but sports can encourage healthy competition, which can be good for motivating your employees to perform better at their jobs. Here are some ideas for making sports and physical activities an important part of your working environment. Organising a sports tournament between teams is a great way to encourage a little bit of healthy competition, and get the blood pumping.

Outdoor or field sports lend themselves well to tournaments — think about sports like soccer, volleyball or even extreme frisbee! Instead of organising a competition between teams, one great idea is to organise a challenge between other businesses or organisations. The reason we believe organising a challenge between other businesses works so well, is because it can really encourage that team spirit and make your teams even closer to each other than before.

Ping pong, or table tennis, is the classic indoor sport for office spaces. It only needs a small amount of space, and it provides a great workout at the same time. These can break, so make sure you have plenty spare. If you have a ping pong table, then a great game to try at work, if you want to include multiple people at once, is a big game of run-around. The game works best with around 8 people, but can be fine to play with How a game of run-around works, is everybody stands in a circle around the table, holding a bat.

The two players at opposite ends of the table will start — one will serve the ball to the other. However, upon hitting the ball, each player will begin making their way to the next side of the table, leaving the player behind them to return the next shot. Each time a player misses a shot, they sit out, until eventually only 2 people remain. You can declare these joint winners, or have a play-off to determine the champion. If you want something a little more gentle, which takes up even less space, then a foosball table is a good alternative for sport.

While it is not particularly physically active, it is suitable for players at a time, and can lend itself well to tournaments and leagues. In fact, a one-hour session of yoga probably produces enough sweat to fill a bucket. But seriously, yoga can be a great way to help your team focus their minds and bodies. Not only does it boost concentration and energy levels, but it helps you keep your employees physically healthy.

These games are exceptionally fun, and encourage your employees to really think outside the box, and get their creative juices flowing. In the story game, players sit in a big circle. Each player takes a blank piece of paper, and writes the first sentence of a story.

Once done, everybody passes their paper to the person on their left. The next person reads the previous sentences, then writes the next sentence. However, before passing this on, they fold the previous sentence over so that it cannot be seen.

This way, each player is only ever following on from the very last sentence in the story. This can make the stories disjointed, surprising, and most of all, hilarious. Once the bottom of the page is reached, the story ends. After the migration to virtual workspaces occurred, employees quickly found themselves living the Zoom life each and every day.

Virtual backgrounds became popular and were occasionally used to lighten the mood during the uncertain times earlier in the pandemic. Employees invested in their home offices , adding gear and accessories needed to support an effective work from home experience. But in many cases, it still left a void with employees, teams, and their leaders.

Establishing the necessary bonds and comradery often necessary for high-performing teams got harder. A lot harder. Burnout was a real thing, and new employees struggled to find their footing. One method that teams used to help repair some of these challenges was virtual happy hours and even virtual games which provided a way for teams to engage with each other remotely, learn more about their colleagues and have a little fun.

What are the most popular virtual games for teams? Developed as a planned team-building effort, War of the Wizards takes a group of coworkers through a board game approach to coming together for a common goal. Team members of wizard apprentices try to unite the world for peace and stop their warring wizard bosses from fighting. The minute activity is priced based on team size, and other criteria. Prior to the pandemic, escape rooms had become a common activity for small groups of family and friends.

Virtual Escape room continues with that trend for teams spread out across the world.