Celebrate Fun at Work Day

This year, National Have Fun at Work Day 2023 was the same week as our boss's (Ted) birthday. Because we genuinely love our boss, and our team always celebrates office fun day, we wanted to plan a week-long affair to remember. A few of us at work typically plan all the parties and events, and when we discovered how close his birthday was to employee fun day, we brainstormed hundreds of National Fun at Work Day ideas. 

Ted is a relatively easygoing boss. He doesn't let anyone get away with not doing their job, but he doesn't micromanage and is never rude. He has the respect of everyone in our office, and it took only a short time for everyone on staff to start contributing to the employee fun day/Ted's birthday party fund. 

Before we knew it, we had $8,000 to spend on the entire party, and what we didn't spend, we would purchase a gift card for Ted to use wherever he wanted. Jenny from HR contributed the most, as Ted had ensured she received extended maternity leave with pay when she had a baby last year. Ted was just a great guy to work with and be around, and we couldn't wait to show him how much we genuinely enjoyed working for the company because of him. 

Our party planning team decided to work with SwagMagic, as we had purchased swag and branded gear from them in the past, and everything was high-quality and delivered quickly. SwagMagic helped us build a curated store and swag locker, and we developed an incredible collection of items we were confident our employees and Ted would love. 

Just as we were about to press order on our swag, Ted came in and told us he was going on vacation for his birthday and wouldn't be available to celebrate fun day with all of us! His birthday party was a surprise, so he had no idea he was canceling two events. We knew this wasn't Ted's fault, but we couldn't help but feel disappointed. 

We had so many National Fun at Work Day ideas and were so unhappy that Ted wouldn't be there. This was the person who showed most of us that it was okay to have fun at work, and we couldn't imagine celebrating National Fun Day at Work 2023 without him! We thought about telling him about his birthday surprise, but we didn't want him to feel guilty and cancel an entire trip on our behalf. 

In short, we needed help with what we should do. The party planning team was working overtime, coming up with fantastic ideas for games and decor, and so many of them were just for Ted. We'd collected so much money and had a massive financial gift to give him, and we began to wonder if this was an event we could change.

After all, we still needed to order the swag, and SwagMagic is very flexible with orders anyway. We weren't sure what we should do, but we all knew we wanted to celebrate with Ted one way or another.

As our team investigated fun office games to boost morale for our employee fun day, we discussed moving the party up a week so that Ted could attend. We devised workplace fun Friday ideas like trivia games and purchased a life-size Jenga game to encourage employees to work together. 

There were plenty of fun competition ideas for work, with Jason suggesting the workplace Olympics. We would finally discover who could shred the most papers in one minute and who could get from one end of the office to the other the fastest in their desk chair. 

We knew these were all games that Ted would love, primarily regarding team building, so we agreed to move Ted's birthday and employee fun day forward one week. We had just ordered the swag and decorations and booked the live band for a fun day when Ted announced that he couldn't go on vacation without celebrating Fun at Work Day with us!

It was official, Ted was staying and pushing his vacation to later in the year. We appreciated this immensely, as it showed us how much he really enjoyed our company. Our team ended up putting $2,000 more into his party fund, and we had some rescheduling to do as far as the live band. 

We now had enough money to include the entire global remote team in our fun day, so our team started to put together 10 minute team building activities, virtual style, and researching fun activities for online meetings. We were so excited. Not only would Ted be around to celebrate employee fun day with us, but we could have his surprise birthday party on his actual birthday, the remote team included!

Our team ensured that our remote workers and digital nomads would have 10 not lame virtual team building activities to partake in, and they would definitely be able to Zoom with us during the trivia games and when we sang "Happy Birthday" to Ted!

As the fun Friday activities virtual were solidified and our swag was delivered, we began to get super excited about an entire week of celebrations. Jenny went out and purchased Ted a gift card that he could use at any store of his choosing for a whopping total of $4,000!

Our International Have Fun at Work Day gifts were wrapped and ready to go. We'd ordered mugs, workout gear, vests, pop sockets, and sweatshirts for every person on the team. We purchased Ted a curated snack box from SnackMagic that we were sure he would love, full of all his favorite snacks. His personalized sweatshirt read "I'm the Best Boss in the World" with our company name on the sleeve. 

We had a blast personalizing his gifts and couldn't wait to partake in the virtual fun activities and virtual team building activities for small groups. 

Employee Fun Day came and went, with everyone celebrating together. The virtual teams loved their branded mouse pads and office supplies, while the in-house team enjoyed t-shirts and desk decor like pens and pencil cups. 

Our fun at work day swag from SwagMagic was a hit, but the best part was that Tim had no idea of his upcoming birthday celebration. All we could do was cross our fingers that he didn't play hooky to stay home and relax all day!

Ted came into work on his birthday, and he was beyond surprised by our fun committee at work and what we planned! We had an incredible time, played many games, watched a live band and a magician, and cried when we gave him his card and gift. On top of the gift card, employees had brought in personal gifts for him, going above and beyond our social committee ideas.

It was a fantastic day and a real show of what you can accomplish when you're a great boss and have truly earned the respect of your employees. We learned how grateful we are for our professional relationships and how well we brainstorm fun committee ideas for work, and Swag and SnackMagic, who never fail to deliver an unparalleled product, time and time again!