Workplace morale can suffer when employees are pushed too hard.

The following story is about a manager whose team was stuck working brutal 12-hour shifts every day,

Trying to lighten the mood, he paused production and held games and experiments.

But his fun activities to boost employee morale caught the attention of upper management.

Read the full story below to find out more…

“I don’t care what you have to do to improve morale, just do it.”

This was in a commercial printing company.

It happened after a couple of months of really ridiculous mandatory overtime.

We were working 12-hour shifts, 7 days a week.

This man started a simple game with his colleagues.

So one day, when it was slow, I shut down production in the entire building.

I gave everyone instructions to make the best paper airplane they could.

They could use any piece of paper they could find in the shop.

I stood at the end of the shop and judged whose plane flew the farthest.

I gave the winner the rest of the day off with pay.

They did another experiment in the parking lot.

A couple of months later, I discovered the Diet Pepsi and Mentos phenomenon.

We tried that in the parking lot.

We did it for about half an hour while on the clock.

But the COO did not agree with these activities.

Sometime later, I was talking to the COO.

He had given me the directive about increasing morale.

I brought this up during the conversation. He said, “You did what?”

He then said, “Any more incentives that cost the company money will have to go through me now.”

OK.

Let’s find out what others have to say about this.

This user shares their personal thoughts.

Here’s another honest opinion.

This person makes a valid point.

Short and straightforward.

Finally, this one has something important to say.

Apparently, fun at work is great… until accounting finds out about it.

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.