Matthew Gates http://notetoservices.com 2m 510 #snackchallenge
The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.
Challenge of the Week: Bring a Snack For Everyone At Work
Snack time, especially at work, is always the best time. It seems that most people at work hardly ever snack, though there are those few who love their snacks. They might bring in a candy bar, a bag of chips, pretzels, or healthier snacks, such as granola bars, home-made popcorn, leftovers from dinner’s dessert from the night before, or some fruit. As their co-worker, you might know exactly what they are eating when you hear those crunches, a bag rumbling, or whatever. Regardless of what you think, whether they annoy you because they do it, or whether they could stand to not eat a few snacks, they eat their snacks everyday.
It is hardly expected that a co-worker will bring in anything to work and share it, but the benefits of sharing can be great, from feeding someone who might just have forgotten a snack that day, to clearing a foggy mind, to simply doing something nice and unexpected for the team of people that you work with. Bringing in a few snacks, whether they are considered junk food or health food shows good charity on your part and might make for a social event.
Having a peanut butter and jelly sandwich snack day might be a great idea or bringing in a few bags of random snacks such as potato chips, Doritos, and pretzels might be great for another day, along with donuts or bagels, on another day, or even a gallon of ice cream. If you are more of a health fan, like myself, consider bringing in a fruit basket, which can definitely only be a wonderful thing, as the variety of fruit will ensure the likelihood that everyone will have some. Sharing any snack with anyone will brighten your co-workers day.
Sharing snacks and even having it available throughout the day breaks up the workday, offering a few minutes here and there for everyone to grab some food and enjoy, and is also one of the seven alternatives to sleep. If your workplace already offers plenty of snacks for everyone and your team already does something like this, than you are well ahead of the game.
Doing something that is slightly different, yet still appropriate for the workplace makes a big difference in the day. The same old boring day, with the same expectations, leads to a generic expectation of the workplace, but bringing in snacks, sharing them amongst our co-workers, changes the everyday norm, the expected, and the variety keeps everyone guessing what you might be bringing in tomorrow. Kudos to you and your team if you each could bring in something different each day to share with each other.
Your challenge this week is to make the workplace a bit more interesting by bringing in or encouraging others to bring in a different snack each day. Make it a routine and see if you can get a different co-worker to do it everyday, not just for this week, but for many weeks to come.
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