NEW YORK—Unofficial holidays can be quite the divider. While some people love an excuse to celebrate National Wear Your Shirt Inside Out Day (the first Tuesday of August), others might find it a bit annoying to have to dodge flying objects on National Paper Airplane Day (May 26), for example. But with next week comes an unofficial holiday that we might all be able to get behind: National Fun at Work Day.

Celebrated on Jan. 28, National Fun at Work Day encourages us all to inject a little fun into our day-to-day lives. According to National Day Calendar, “Dave Hemseth and Leslie Yerkes, co-authors of 301 Ways to Have Fun at Work said, ‘Organizations that integrate fun into work have lower levels of absenteeism, greater job satisfaction, increased productivity, and less downtime.’”

A report from Monster.com echoes this sentiment. In fact, according to an excerpt from The Levity Effect by Adrian Gostick and Scott Christopher, published on Monster, “An increasing body of research demonstrates that when leaders lighten up and create a fun workplace, there is a significant increase in the level of employee trust, creativity and communication—leading to lower turnover, higher morale and a stronger bottom line.” In general, it just feels nice to make other people feel nice, too.

While most people would probably agree that forced fun is almost never actually fun, there are plenty of ways to at least make next Tuesday a little more exciting, and make everyone a little happier about heading into work.
Last year, the team at Northwest EyeCare in Upper Arlington, Ohio celebrated National Fun at Work Day by decorating the office in a luau theme, complete with a taco bar. Implementing a theme can go a long way in brightening up the office—and almost nothing makes people happier than free food. 


Image via Northwest EyeCare on Instagram.

































Having fun at work doesn’t have to mean sitting around eating tacos, though—optician Lori Bielinski, BrillenEyes Frame Rep and partner to indie opticals, shared in the #NationalFunAtWorkDay hashtag that she found fun in cleaning and organizing trays in her hotel room ahead of a busy week.

Image via lori.bielinski on Instagram.

































Beyond Vision OT, in Fuquay Varina, North Carolina, showed that vision and occupational therapy can be fun too, both for patients and therapists.


Image via beyondvision_ot on Instagram.




























 


Megan Eldridge, MOT, OTR/L, who offers handwriting and vision therapy at Scribble 2 Script in Scottsdale, Arizona, also showed how vision therapy can be a fun day at work for everyone involved.


Image via scribble2script on Instagram.
















 


At EyeShop Optical in Lewis Center, Ohio, owner Cynthia Sayers, OD, emphasizes how much having fun has improved life at her practice. She told Vision Monday, “I understand health care needs to be a serious business to a point, but combining professionalism with fun has brought EyeShop great success. No one should be that stressed coming to an eye appointment.” 


Image via EyeShop Optical on Instagram


















 


Shalu Pal, OD, owner of Dr. Shalu Pal & Associates in Yorkville, Toronto, agrees. She takes to Instagram often to share the good vibes at her practice. She told Vision Monday, “Our page represents our happy office culture. We all love what we do and have fun helping people by making their lives better through vision. Making our patients happy is why we all work together. When I started the office, I wanted to create a place where I loved coming to work every day… We bring our patients into this environment and make sure they feel welcome and enjoy their time with us.” 


Image via Shalu Pal, OD.
















 


Employees in other industries also shared their Fun at Work Day ideas on Instagram, and plenty of them can work in offices and practices everywhere. A scavenger hunt, like the one the team at Craft Warehouse had, is a super easy and inexpensive way to have some fun—plus, it might just bring out everyone’s competitive side, and can be done in between other important daily tasks. 


Image via Craftwarehouse on Instagram.













 
The possibilities for Have Fun at Work Day are almost endless: from an office-wide baking competition to a board game station to an after work happy hour or bar trivia session, it doesn’t have to be hard to make having fun work for you and your office. So, go ahead and enjoy this Tuesday—and the one after that, too.