Happy Easter! - Holiday motivation?
First of all, Happy Easter!
And because today is easter, it made me think of how the holidays affect motivation in the workplace. I don't really know the answer to this question. Do people get pumped up and work harder, or do they slack because they are at work instead of at home?
The next logical question is can you use the fact that a holiday is coming to motivate your employees? I think it would be really difficult to do because people are such diverse creatures, but I would like to know if anyone had any ideas/opinions (and I was thinking of things other than holiday pay/bonuses).
Comments
Posted by: Nicole Sharp
Posted on: April 16, 2006 01:38 PM
This doesn't necessarily work for every holiday, but when I was younger, one of the offices my dad worked in had a special tradiation for Halloween. Each division chose a theme and they would decorate their cubicles and dress up accordingly. I can remember a couple of themes his office had. One was the Addam's Family, and my dad dressed up as Uncle Fester, and also rigged his desk chair with Christmas lights and such so that it looked like an electric chair. Another year they all dressed up as different types of Grim Reapers.
They'd also have a special Gross Food Day on Halloween. The goal was to bring in the most disgusting-looking items that still tasted really good. Some of the things people brought: shrimp on the barbie (served on sliced up Barbie dolls); toilet bowl punch (blue punch served in a bowl with an actual, unused toilet seat over it); and toes and jam (cocktail sausages with almond slivers stuck in them like nails, served with dyed green apricot jam).
I think events like that were something that everyone looked forward to.
Posted by: David Hastings
Posted on: April 18, 2006 09:40 PM
That's pretty cool! I wish we could do something half as awesome as that at school. I know I would look forward to that if I worked there.
I think it would be funny if on Secretary's day, him/her and the boss switced offices for the afternoon. Things like that, which recognize and get at the spirit of the holiday, increase morale which in turn helps with getting people motivated to work.