The Importance of Office Fun: Affect on Employee Engagement and Productivity

Mandatory office fun. It sounds like an oxymoron. Often a manager's drawing-at-straws attempt to get reluctant staff engaged in forced team-building events. To focus on bettering group spirit and fixing rifts. Something children might consider worthwhile entertainment but not a group of professionals. 

Despite being mostly non work-related, we're programmed into believing that participating in these activities is to be considered team players.

Being forced to dress up, dress down or partake in games or sports we have no interest in might have been the standard in the pre-COVID era. But are forced social gatherings we really care about phasing out?