Some weeks it’s easy to wish every day was Friday. Unfortunately, Fridays only happen once a week. However, it’s helpful to look forward to an end of the week fun Friday activity to decompress and foster teamwork.  Fun Friday activities are a great way for team members to spend time together interacting and unwinding, particularly when working in remote settings. An effective way for corporate team leaders to acknowledge a job well done is with a fun Friday activity or virtual happy hour. Here are some examples of fun Friday activities that your entire team will enjoy.

While a fun Friday activity definitely helps team members unwind and have fun together after a long week, there are various other reasons fun Friday activities are rewarding for an organization. 

• Creates an enjoyable work environment. Fun Friday activities allow team members to interact with each other in a different capacity separate from work requirements. When team members engage in an enjoyable fun Friday activity, it is motivating,  because people who enjoy their work are eager to see an organization succeed. 
• Builds morale.  Participating in a fun Friday activity with colleagues helps to create a positive, energized work environment and encourages team members to appreciate one another. Watching a movie together, plotting through a virtual murder mystery or playing bingo creates comradery and develops friendships among team members.
• Fosters trust.  Fun Friday activities help team members learn how to collaborate effectively together.  Working together on a fun Friday activity or even socializing at a virtual happy hour helps team members build trust in each other. A trusting relationship helps people to feel more comfortable sharing ideas and creatively solving problems. 
• Brings teams together.  Fun Friday activities connect employees from various teams who otherwise might not get a chance to interact.  Cross team interactions during a fun Friday activity can be helpful in future corroborations. 

Fun Friday activities are beneficial to team members and organizations in a multitude of ways, helping corporate leaders create cohesive, highly-functioning teams while having fun and letting loose.

There are a myriad of fun Friday activities that are easily adaptable to virtual settings. Fun Friday activities can run the gamut from a virtual happy hour to a live concert, to solving a virtual murder mystery.  Below are some examples of popular fun Friday activities to get any team psyched for Friday and yet, excited to come back to work on Monday. 

• Virtual Happy Hour: A fun Friday activity sure to appeal to the whole crew is a virtual happy hour. A virtual happy hour is simply an online social interaction, generally hosted on a virtual platform such as Zoom. Coworkers chat and virtually share beverages and snacks. A virtual happy hour is an opportunity for team members to meet face to face and talk about non-work-related topics and get to know one another. Virtual happy hours often include fun Friday activities such as charades, simple games, and icebreakers. However, they can also involve a more structured fun Friday activity such as participating in a virtual murder mystery theatrical production. 
• Online Bingo: Who doesn’t love a game of bingo? Bingo is an excellent fun Friday activity to keep a team engaged and entertained. A virtual happy hour bingo can be customized to an organization’s specifications. Bingo is an easy, familiar game to play during a virtual happy hour as part of a fun Friday activity. Providing winners creative prizes adds to the fun and is sure to liven up a virtual happy hour.
• Live Concerts: Listening to music with colleagues is a great fun Friday activity to unwind and celebrate the upcoming weekend. Live entertainment online is relaxing and entertaining as part of a virtual happy hour.  Team members link to a live stream or video call and watch a performance together. Similar to solving a virtual murder mystery, a live performance is a great way for team members to bond with a shared experience. If a paid performance is not in a business’s budget, a fun Friday activity is to recruit talented team members to perform or do an improv. 
• Remote Movie Nights: An easy and rewarding fun Friday activity is for team members to watch a film together. Watching a movie together gives team members a shared experience, something to discuss and reflect on at a later time. To make this particular fun Friday activity more engaging, team members can interact and comment on the movie in real time. There are inspiring, entertaining movies perfect for a fun Friday activity appropriate for an entire team. 
• Virtual Murder Mystery:  A memorable fun Friday activity is for a team to participate together in solving a virtual murder mystery. During this fun Friday activity, team members work together in a virtual setting to investigate and solve a virtual murder mystery. Team members develop theories about the crime and work together using logic and deduction to solve the virtual murder mystery.  The experience offers team members a shared experience as they collect evidence and interrogate suspects together. Participating in a fun Friday activity such as a virtual murder mystery is entertaining, challenging, and unique. The positive energy generated by the experience of solving a virtual murder mystery continues long after the fun Friday activity has ended.

Bringing a fun Friday activity to a corporate team is a great way to keep team members energized and motivated every day of the week.  A great place to start planning an outstanding fun Friday activity is with a true-life virtual murder mystery produced by Live in Theater. While the talented actors and producers of Live in Theater cannot make every single day a Friday, they can ensure an amazing virtual murder mystery theater experience your team will be talking about for days! Contact Live in Theater for more information.