Photo challenge
Laughter is the best medicine, goes the saying. And it’s true that laughter has many health benefits – each burst of laughter boosting our intake of oxygen-rich air, stimulating key organs and increasing the endorphins released by our brain. This can have the happy knock-on effect of boosting our mood, distracting us from pain and softening some the damaging effects of stress.
The value of laughter is especially vital when working remotely. Online working has its efficiencies, but as we all know, it can at times also be dull or lonely. Having a laugh with colleagues adds punctuation to the working day and helps draw a team together.
Kate Harder, Lecturer in Applied Animal Health in Marine Ecology explains the importance of laughter in her team. “We have three different social media things running,” she says. ‘One is a photo challenge where Laura Harvey, one of our APM’s, chooses a daily topic. This has been running since day one of this lockdown and she has not skipped a day! Being a school full of animal lovers and scientists, we get some fantastic photographs often with great stories attached. We also get a good giggle from some photos and comments.”
The sunflower challenge
A recent Sunflower Challenge (celebrating spring!) and Share the Good Stuff activity were set up as events allowing staff to choose to be involved as time allowed, and avoild anyone feeling overloaded.
“Share the Good Stuff is about adding positive things to our newsfeeds as social media is a bit Doomsday for many at the moment,” says Kate. “Work stories are welcome, but other posts remind us to step away from the screen and enjoy some non-work-related activities! We also have a couple of optional weekly morning tea and coffee breaks for those missing staff room morning chats, plus an end-of-the-week Social Club with your choice of beverage and the chance to share weekend plans.”
Meanwhile in the Finance team, staff have enjoyed a laugh with Pub Quiz events and adding a background guessing game’ to a Teams meeting. “Everyone basically chose a scene from somewhere not too obvious in the world (many were from their home countries), then everyone tried to guess where it was,” says Dale Packer, Financial Systems and Reporting Manager.
The Good stuff page
Over in People and Culture, the team are giving Re-connect Roulette a whirl. With this initiative a calendar invite is sent each week to four P&S team members, leaving it up to each individual to join in or give it a pass. It’s an opportunity to take a little time out and re-connect with others, starting with a few ice-breaker questions to kick-start the chat.
Diane Lorigan, Health and Safety Advisor, says the recent session she attend was really great. “It was a chance to meet a new colleague who joined Unitec during lockdown as well as getting to know another team member a bit better. Her little toddler kept joining in with us which was very cute. The icebreaker questions were a good backstop and we had a laugh about them as well as some of the crazy online shows we’ve watched during lockdown. I laugh a lot and am a big advocate for how important it is to incorporate some humour into our working life.”
Contact the Wellbeing and Sustainability Team: connect@unitec.ac.nz for a Pub Quiz or Re-connect Roulette resources to share with your team.