Happy Hour- An Employee Recreation Program

We have a monthly employee recreation event called ‘Happy Hour’ which is conducted on Fridays by the Cultural Committee. Though our company provides other employee recreation activities, this particular event is a unique one. ‘Happy Hour’ is an activity where games are conducted and the winners are awarded instant prizes. The event starts at 4:30pm and is held at the cafeteria. Most of the employees come to the cafe by 4pm to have their usual tea/coffee/hot chocolate/milk along with biscuits/fruits. This is all free you know :). But during Happy Hours, apart from the biscuits/fruits, we also get some additional snacks like Pazham Puri (Banana fry) or Uzhanu Vada (a round donut) with chutney. Mmmmm....it’s really tasty and more filling. So you can now see why most of the employees are happy at that moment.

As soon as the snacks are consumed, a Cultural Committee member or a non member selected by the Cultural Committee welcomes everyone through the mic and grabs everyone’s attention. He or She greets the crowd and starts a conversation until everyone is settled down. During this time some may leave the cafe, while those interested to know what game is gonna be played that day, would remain stuck to their seats, giving their best smiles, waiting for any moment they get so they can laugh their heart out and cheer up themselves.

Once everyone is settled, the host is introduced accompanied by one or two Cultural Committee members/helpers. The host then announces the name of the game and its rules. The games played are sometimes popular games and at times innovative. The rules are simple but tricky so that it encourages maximum participation from the employees and at the same time it creates so many thrills and fun that not only the participants, but also the audience get to enjoy it and have a great time watching it.

Few examples of the games that have been played are Musical Chair, Passing the message, Throwing the ball into the box, English to Malayalam translator, and so on. I was a host for the game ‘English to Malayalam translator’. I shall explain about this game in my next blog post. Check it out.