The Office Playground Blog

Bad Chips and Dip

It's ok to admit that you don't like all of your co-workers. There always seems to be certain people who are geniuses at irritating you. Would you like to learn a surefire way to get them to leave you alone? Serve them bad dip. Here's how it works:

The Preparation
Start with some basic ingredients used for making a tasty dip: sour cream, salsa, plain yogurt, guacamole or cream cheese will do. Next, add some not-so-tasty ingredients like pickle juice, suicidal hot sauce, cod liver oil, grape jelly, etc. At this point, most recipes instruct you to season to taste. Well, you sure as heck aren't going to taste this stuff. So, go heavy on the bad ingredients to be sure the dip tastes really, really horrible.

The Placement
Neatly display the bad dip in your work area along with some chips. The chips don't have to be bad, but using stale chips would be a nice touch. Now, you wait for annoying co-workers to approach.

The Payoff
Those little mooches will soon come around looking for the free food. They always do. They'll slither up, sniffing and eyeballing your snacks. They will ask you for some. With a big smile you nod your head. Don't feel guilty. After all, you didn't offer it to your co-workers. They sought you out. Cherish the precious payoff when they take that huge reckless bite of bad dip.

The Act
As the targeted co-worker begins to chew their first bite, they will recoil from the horrible flavors attacking their taste buds. When they say, "AGH! THAT'S AWFUL," you burst into tears, grab the dip and yell, "That's my grandma's recipe!" Then, run to your car and go home for the day.

The Rewards

1. Your obnoxious co-workers will never come around again.
2. You get a free half-day off work.
   (Maybe you should watch some cooking shows.)
3. You'll never need to make food for the office again.
4. Everyone will be extra nice to you for a while.

Make some bad dip and watch your lame co-workers eat it. It'll make you laugh.

Bad dip making is just one more tool in your corporate survival toolbox.

Sincerely,

Bill Ross
The Office Toy Guy
OfficeToyGuy@OfficePlayground.com

www.OfficePlayground.com
We help you play on company time.

Image courtesy of Megan Soh.

Have a Bad Hair Day on the Job

If you are like most people working in an office, you don't have a lot of control over things. You do what you're hired to do, you follow procedure, and you don't talk back. Day after day, you just sit there and take it. With so many rules to follow, you can't help feeling out of control.

Don't fret! There is one final frontier employees can conquer in the war for independence at work. The key to it all is hair. That's right, your hair. You can control every last strand of hair on your head and your boss can't do a dang thing about it.

Bad Hair Day Tips for Women
Bee Hive - Come to work with a bee hive hairdo and a serious face.
Mohawk - Don't settle for one of those half-hawks that require a lot of gel to get it up into a peak. You need to shave the sides down to the bone if you really want to feel free. This style works best if you have a very serious job and total jerk for a boss.
Color - Pick whatever works for you in your heart. Maybe match your hair color to your yellow house or your bangs to your green Mazda Miata.

Bad Hair Day Tips for Men
Pork Chop Side Burns - Shave your initials into the sides for added independence.
Handle Bar Mustache - Be sure to keep it extremely well waxed. This one is even more effective if you hitch a ride to work on the handle bars of your buddy's bike.
Massive Beard - Simply stop shaving. The beauty of sporting a colossal beard is that it's really no work at all.

Bad Hair Day Tips for Teams
Management is always encouraging teamwork. Here is where you can really shine. Imagine how empowering it is to include your co-workers in hair control.

Wind Blown - Convince meeting attendees to sweep their hair up to one side as if a strong breeze is blowing (kind of like the wind from your blow hard boss who is presenting).
Half & Half - You shave the left side of your head and your friend shaves the right side. Walk around the office side by side so it looks like one full head of hair.

If you don't have the courage to shave your head, you can always test your ideas on a Magnetic Face Drawing Board.

Fight the power with hair!

Sincerely,
Bill Ross
The Office Toy Guy

www.OfficePlayground.com
We help you play on company time.

Image courtesy of Bridget Christian.

Your Guide to the New Halloween 2.0 at Work

Has anyone else noticed that Halloween is rapidly turning into Christmas in terms of celebrating the "season"? I drove my kids around last night to look at Halloween lights on houses. Remember when people only put out pumpkins and a few decorations? These days, we’re seeing full blown lights on the house and haunted scenes in the yard. Folks set up life-sized skeletons, mummies, monsters and graveyards. We went by one house that displayed a lifelike werewolf on the roof and a Psycho shower scene behind their front window. Talk about getting into the spirit. I can't decide if these people are cool or crazy, but either way, next year I'M IN.

Do you notice the growing amount of shelf space reserved for Halloween paraphernalia in the stores? Sure, there has always been candy and costumes. But today, the shelves are packed with all sorts of Halloween props and shenanigans. The entire month of October is dedicated to the last day of the month. Just like the entire month of December is geared towards Christmas day. Halloween is on a serious tear right now and I say bring it on.

This rapid adoption of Halloween spirit as the major contender to Christmas spirit started me thinking about what it means to people working in an office. Here are my predictions of what Halloween will be like in the coming years for the corporate world. I call these predictions Halloween 2.0 at work:

Halloween 1.0 - Plastic spiders on a chair
Halloween 2.0 - Real spiders in a drawer

Halloween 1.0 - Wear a costume on Halloween day
Halloween 2.0 - Wear costumes all throughout October

Halloween 1.0 - Dress up as a witch
Halloween 2.0 - Practice real witchcraft at your desk

Halloween 1.0 - Cute little happy Halloween cards from co-workers
Halloween 2.0 - Big Halloween bonus checks from management
                         (just kidding, that won't happen)

Halloween 1.0 - Collecting treats from your co-worker’s desk
Halloween 2.0 - Smashing pumpkins over your co-worker’s head

I hope this guide helps you be on the cutting edge of this booming holiday for years to come. What will Halloween 3.0 entail? Real chainsaws? Who's the boss now?!

Happy Halloween!

Spooky Wishes,
Bill Ross
The Office Toy Guy

www.OfficePlayground.com
We help you play on company time.

Image courtesy of Suzie T.

Staying Healthy in the Workplace

The cold and flu season is on its way and getting sick is one thing that's not on your to-do-list. With the prevalence of a certain animal flu, the risk is high and when companies cut employees, resources are limited. You and your company can't afford a sick leave (again) this year. Follow these tips for staying healthy and clean in the workplace:

• Wash your hands often: Keep your hands clean and avoid touching your face (especially your nose, mouth and eyes) to help keep germs away.
• Keep your office toys clean: The stress balls at your desk might become dirty; many can be washed with mild soap and water or wiped with a disinfecting cloth.
• Mind your coughs: If you are coming down with something, avoid spreading it to others; cover your mouth with the inside of your elbow when you cough.
• Limit your sharing: It might be fun to share a fun stress toy with a co-worker, but you could be sharing more than you intended. Encourage your colleagues to get their own desk toys.
• Take a break: Staying healthy is more than just avoiding diseases. Keep your thoughts fresh and your creativity alive with a brief pause for some stress relief.

Image courtesy of Tara Hunt.

Stealing Food at Work

The purpose of this blog post is not to endorse stealing your co-worker's lunch. We are simply offering advice on how to be successful at it.

Times are tough and your company is cutting back; it's up to you to create your own perks. Stealing your co-worker's lunch is wrong, but you're not likely going to go to jail if you get caught.

Speed – You can't linger around in the kitchen. Get in and get out. The ideal kitchen or break room has two doors. You should enter through one, snatch a free snack, and exit through the other.

Greed – Don't kill the goose that laid the golden egg. Don't steal food every day or from the same person over and over. We understand that certain people have better food than others, but exercise restraint.

Mix it up – If you work in a large company, spread out your efforts across all kitchens, break rooms, conference rooms, reception desks (free fruit or candy), etc. By spreading out, it'll be hard to identify the totality of your work.

Redirects – Once in a while, bring your own lunch and put it in the refrigerator with your name written on the bag. Your co-workers will think "the lunch thief can't be him, he brings his own." Little do they know you're just that hungry that you'll eat yours AND theirs. If the office is on to you, you can secretly eat half of your sandwich and then make a big scene, "HEY, WHO ATE MY SANDWICH!"

Image courtesy of Stacita.

Treadmill Desk

We’re all for creative and fun work environments. Check out this unique office set up that helps you get more exercise at work: the "treadmill desk". Could the treadmill desk transform the old cubicle model of conducting business?

Watch the entire treadmill desk video on the Mayo Clinic web site.

Image courtesy of cmcbrown.

How Scary is Your Office?

It’s the time of year where ghosts, witches and goblins are making plans for their favorite day of the year, Halloween. Have you let them visit your desk yet?

Halloween isn’t just for children dressed as spooky (or sometimes adorable) creatures, going door-to-door asking for candy; you can have just as much fun at work! This year, bring the spirit of Halloween to the office. Here are some ideas for making your workplace "spooktacular"!

• Decorate your desk or cubicle walls with a row full of smiling pumpkins
• Host a number of spooky Halloween contests: Scariest Costume, Jack-o-Lantern Carving, Pumpkin Seed Spitting, and Best Decorated Desk
• Hide fake giant spiders in your co-workers’ desk drawers
• Ask each of your co-workers "Trick or Treat?" Give those who say "treat" a piece of candy; pull a fun office prank on everyone else
• Host a Halloween Fright Wind-Up race
• Bring a large bowl of Halloween candy to share or bake a batch of Halloween cookies

Adding a little Halloween spirit to your workplace can make your day a little more exciting and everyone a little happier. Try out some of our ideas and let us know how it goes!

Image courtesy of Elvia Dametto.

Boss's Day Gift Ideas

Friday, October 16 is National Boss Day. It's an opportunity for employees to show appreciation for their hardworking boss. It's also an opportunity for an employee to make a good impression with a thoughtful gift. You can present a classy gift or a useful item or a whimsical toy that adds a little fun to your boss's day.

If you're in need of ideas for a gift, start with a pre-purchase observation; look at what types of items adorn the boss's desk and office. For sophisticated gifts, check out our Executive Toys category or Kinetic Motion and Levitating items. Take note of how much space is available for your gift. If your boss's desk is crowded, consider something that hangs on a wall such an amusing clock, a funny sign, a dartboard, or a basketball game.

Novelty items that draw positive attention to an office include the Magic Fishbowl, Executive Desk Gong, Exotic Sands, or Zen Garden. A gift from our Desktop Gardening category will please any plant lover.

Golf enthusiasts will enjoy the Executive Office Putter, the Chip Shotz Golfer game and Executive Sandbox-Golf Sand Trap. Surprise your boss with comical Office Supplies such as funny note pads, a Dog Stapler or a Chocolate Calculator.

Make this National Boss Day a memorable one.

National Boss Day is Friday, October 16

National Boss Day has traditionally been a day for employees to recognize and thank their supervisor or boss. It started in 1958 when Patricia Bays Haroski, then an employee at State Farm Insurance Company in Deerfield, Illinois, registered the holiday with the Chamber of Commerce of the United States. Ms. Haroski's purpose was to designate a day to show appreciation for her boss and other bosses. She also hoped to improve the relationship between employees and supervisors. She believed young employees often do not realize the challenges bosses face in running a business. Ms. Haroski chose October 16 because it was her father's birthday, and he also happened to be her boss.

During the early years of National Boss Day observance, the holiday was mocked as Hallmark Holiday. In fact, Hallmark did not offer a Boss's Day card for sale until 1979. Recognition for Boss Day has grown tremendously in popularity and Hallmark responded by increasing the size of its National Boss Day card collection by 90 percent in 2007. National Boss Day has become an international celebration in recent years and now is observed in countries such as Australia and South Africa, in addition to the United States.

Image courtesy of Luz.

Working with Aliens

Do you work with aliens? How would you know if you did? Finally there's help, here's a simple guide to discovering who among your colleagues are from another planet:

Food – Aliens don't eat normal human food. Look for colleagues who you've never seen eating. Offer them a slice of pizza because nobody from this planet would refuse free pizza.

Performance – Aliens are way smarter than humans and so they are typically successful. Look for those in your company who are high up in the organizational chart. Aliens are looking to run things, not be bossed around. For example, Bill Gates (Microsoft) and Jeff Bezos (Amazon) are aliens.

Social Skills – Aliens are not very good networkers and never play the role of office clown. Look for the ones who don't talk much and have a very difficult time conducting a conversation. Aliens don't have hobbies, they don’t have "good weekends" and they don't say "TGIF".

Office Romance – Aliens don't mate with humans and thus the aliens in your office won't ever get caught up in office romance. That should eliminate many of your colleagues as potential aliens.

Limited Time – Aliens don't just grind away at the corporate rat race. They are at your business for a specific reason, maybe to run a few experiments you would rather not know the details about. If one of your co-workers just vanishes one day, instead of a new job, they may have just returned to their home planet.

Now that you know who the aliens are at your company, you can begin the process of uncovering the robots. Stay tuned...

Bill Ross
CEO
www.OfficePlayground.com

Image courtesy of Steve Jurvetson.

10 Office Faux Pas

In an economic climate where companies are tightening their belts, job security can be shaky. No one wants their name to spring to mind when an employee must be let go. Behavior in the office setting is important. It may be the deciding factor between keeping your job and joining the ranks of the unemployed. Stay clear of the following office faux pas:

1. Do not engage in gossip or badmouth colleagues.
2. Dress appropriately for your position. Clothing that is too casual, too revealing, torn or dirty will make a negative impression.
3. Mind your table manners at a business lunch or group lunch celebration.
4. Do not take food from the community refrigerator or lunchroom that is not yours.
5. Clean up after yourself. Do not leave dirty food containers or half-eaten food on your desk, the lunchroom table or in the community sink.
6. Control your emotions at work. Outbursts of tears, anger or frustration are not acceptable behavior in the office.
7. Do not make personal calls during work hours. Use cell phones for personal calls and only make them during breaks. Show consideration to co-workers by moving to a private location when talking on a cell phone.
8. Music or the radio should not be audible beyond your desk. Wear earphones and keep the volume low so that you can hear others when they speak to you.
9. Keep your shoes on. Never walk around the office barefoot.
10. Never microwave fish in the office lunchroom! Microwaving raw onions isn't a great idea either. (We speak from experience!)

Image courtesy of Wolfrage.

Get Smart! - The Benefits of Puzzles

At OfficePlayground.com, we often mention that one of the main benefits of playing with office toys at work is to help reduce stress. But, did you know that playing at work can make you smarter?

Well, your IQ probably won't increase and you still might think the capital of Oregon is Portland, but you can boost your brain power with a mini-workout each day.

According to the September 2009 issue of Redbook Magazine, "research has shown that doing puzzles—from crosswords and Sudoku to Rubik’s Cube—might help ward off diseases such as Alzheimer's and dementia." Further, the recommendation is to spend 10 minutes a day exercising your brain muscle.

We've always loved the Office Playground Puzzle Category because of classics like Rubik’s Cube and the Fifteen Puzzle. And as always, these old standbys don't disappoint. But, more recent products like the Find It games and the Hoberman Brain Twist give a fun flair to puzzling.

Visit our puzzles category to pick out your next piece of exercise equipment so you can start to get smarter just by sitting at your desk and playing. No pain, a lot of gain. It doesn't get easier than that!

Business Decisions

Bad business decisions are something every company tries to avoid, but they happen. Some legendary ones include the makers of M & M's decision to not allow their candy to appear in the movie ET. Reese's Pieces were used instead and the sales exploded. Jerry Yang decided to walk away from Microsoft and missed out on receiving $44.6 billion of Bill Gates' money. Many book editors rejected the Harry Potter book series and Decca Records had the opportunity to sign the Beatles and didn't.

An example of important decision making can be shown through choosing stock investments. The Chicago Sun-Times wanted to illustrate the often chance nature of picking stocks, so they had a monkey sit on newspaper stock pages and make marks on five stocks. As of January 2007, the stock-picking monkey had beaten the market four years running.

If you don't have the resources to hire a monkey, perhaps a fortune-telling item such as the Wall Street Guru Ball, the Mystical Orb, or the time honored Magic 8 Ball may help. The Dartboard Decision Maker is a fun and active alternative.

Next time you're faced with a landmark decision, give the Affirmation Ball a shake; its response might be "Brilliant Idea!" However, the Sarcastic Ball might warn "Not a Chance!" and the Wall Street Guru might suggest "Ride it Out". The Dartboard Decision Maker offers many options. Give it a spin and toss the dart, which might land on "Take a Vacation," "Stay Late," "Call a Meeting," "Hire" or "Retire". A fortune telling ball or decision maker may not offer the appropriate advice, but it's sure to generate some lighthearted stress relief.

The Dog Days of Summer

It's the Dog Days of Summer, the time of the year when you give thanks for working in an air conditioned office. The term "Dog Days" comes from ancient times, based on the brightest star in the night sky, Sirius, also known as the Dog Star. The name Sirius is derived from the Greek word Seirius, meaning searing or scorching. Because of it's brightness and its dawn rising during the peak of summer, the ancient Greeks, Romans and Egyptians all blamed the hot sultry weather on the Dog Star.

Modern Dog Days of Summer rituals include sacrificing hot dogs on the barbeque, eating watermelon and spitting the seeds; licking ice cream cones; splashing in swimming pools; lounging on beaches; and panting like a dog in front of a fan. Summer is winding down and despite the weather many people hate to see it end.

There's no shortage of references to "Dog Days" in popular culture. If you're stuck inside hiding from the heat, check out some Dog Day entertainment:

• Dog Day Afternoon, a 1975 film
• Music by the band Dog Day
• Dog Days, a 1975 album and song by the Atlanta Rhythm Section
• "Dog Day Sunrise", a song by the band Head of David
• Dog Days of Summer, a 2008 film
• "Dog Days are Over", a 2008 song by Florence and the Machine

Image courtesy of Susan E. Adams.

Gumby vs. Mr. Bill

Who would win a battle between Gumby and Mr. Bill? Both are animated clay figures that made their debut to the public on popular TV shows, both have made their way into feature length films, and both are immortalized as bendable figurines. We decided to collect the facts to predict the winner of this potentially famous battle.

Name: Gumby
Debuted: August 1956
Creator: Art Clokey
Best Friend: Pokey
Nemeses: Blockheads
Claim to Fame: Gumby starred in his own television series, The Gumby Show, that aired from 1957 to 1967 and in 1988
Best Characteristic: Flexibility
Accomplishments: cameo appearance in 1987 film The Puppetoon Movie; 1995 feature length film Gumby I (aka Gumby: The Movie); 8 DVD collections (2000s); video game Gumby vs. the Astrobots (2005); appeared in campaign ads for Library of Congress (1994-1995) and Cheerios (late 1990s)

Name: Mr. Bill
Debuted: February 28, 1976
Creator: Walter Williams
Best Friend: Spot (his dog)
Nemesis: Mr. Sluggo
Claim to Fame: Mr. Bill starred in several short sketches on the television show, Saturday Night Live from 1976 to 1980
Memorable Quotes: "Ohhhh noooooooooooooo...", "Perfectly awful!", "Stunningly bad!"
Accomplishments: 1986 live-action movie Mr. Bill's Real Life Adventures; 1998 television show Ohh No!!! Mr. Bill Presents; appeared in television ads for Pringles (1980s), an anti-drug campaign (1988), Pizza Hut (1990s), Subway (2008), and MasterCard (2008)

Based on the character's personality, history and popularity, Gumby wins the battle hands down. However, we believe it's all up to the circumstance and personal preference. Take the battle into your own hands to determine who you think is the real winner.