Having Fun at Work

CVIL "About Faces" Day

Submitted by Kim Carwile, RTR, CV, MBA, CVIL Technical Manager

In the CVIL, we are developing staff display boards that highlight each staff member, their duties, responsibilities, councils, projects, etc. These display cases will be hung in the main hallways of both the EP and Cath Labs.

Instead of using standard pictures, we wanted to inject some uniqueness and character; so we thought about caricatures. We had an artist from "About Faces" come in and draw black and white caricatures of the staff. Each staff member had their caricatures drawn, portraying them doing things that are personal to them; hobbies, activities, etc.

The artist was great and made the process very exciting and fun. The staff gathered, watched each others sessions, talked about what they should have the artist draw them doing and laughed harder at and with each other than I have ever heard them do. Afterwards, we even had the doctors compete with each other trying to guess who each caricature represented.

The staff really enjoyed having it done. It was a lot of fun, unique, required only minimal planning and was very reasonably priced. It also allowed people to learn things about each other that they didn't previously know and created a bonding opportunity.

Financial Clearance Unit Fun Week 

Submitted by Lavonne Coe, Manager Access Services

Four days of creative and fun-filled activities to promote teamwork, camaraderie, and an overall good working environment. The Financial Clearance Fun Week was held on November 13th through November 16th.

Financial Clearance Spirit Week Poster

Financial Clearance Unit Spirit Week Powerpoint

Trivia Game

Submitted by Jennifer Taylor, MT (ASCP) Technical/Operations Supervisor, Weinberg Laboratory, Department of Pathology

This is in regards to the Trivia Game. Each Monday, a new set of trivia questions are written on a large board in the Pathology lab. There are directions posted as well as answer sheets with the questions already written on them so all the techs had to do is write their answers on these forms and drop them into the sealed box. I pull the answers from the following week and tally up the correct responses. I keep an Excel spreadsheet of the information.

I started doing the trivia to boost morale. I want my techs to want to come to work. We play games or dress up, in example, funny hat day or wear your favorite team's jersey day.

The result: As a result of this, the following happened. Weinberg is divided into Surgical Pathology and Pathology. I started getting answers from the Surgical Pathology side. I made sure the the board stated that anyone could participate. Both sides try to determine the answers and laugh, etc. The outcome is that both labs now work as a team and mingle. This is the first year, Dec. 18, 2007 that both departments are having a mardi gras winter festival as a whole. I was asked personally if my department would like to join the Surgical Path's party. I got an approval from administration and the party is tomorrow.

The great thing is that there are times when each lab needs something from the other and in the past, neither side knew one another. I have been here 6 months and I can say that most of the two labs now know one another pretty well.

No one came up with the idea, just me. I started googling ideas and came up with trivia.

Tips for Activities/Games

Games can be great fun and promote healthy cooperation and competition. They're also a great way to refuel and energize from the daily grind. Use games such as word-finds, fill-in-the-blanks, and quizzes:

• A trivia quiz can be specific to your industry or business or can be general. Consider seasonal topics for games. A fun quiz topic is "little known facts" about employees and mangers.
• When distributing the game, give a deadline. Then do a drawing of people's names who answered correctly and on time; the winner receives a small prize.
• Ask for several employees to volunteer to help find games or trivia to send out. If you have an employee-fun committee, put them in charge.