{"id":16844,"date":"2016-12-27T09:09:34","date_gmt":"2016-12-27T16:09:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.paperdirect.com\/blog\/?p=16844"},"modified":"2016-12-19T09:10:17","modified_gmt":"2016-12-19T16:10:17","slug":"10-ways-to-combat-the-saddest-day-of-the-year-in-the-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.paperdirect.com\/blog\/2016\/12\/10-ways-to-combat-the-saddest-day-of-the-year-in-the-office\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Ways to Combat the Saddest Day of the Year in the Office"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"How<\/p>\n

After a flurry of winter parties and new year’s toasts, it’s time to get back to work. Feeling bummed? You’re not alone. What happened to the four-day weekends, pumpkin-spice lattes and the plethora of leftover baked goods?<\/p>\n

As January gets rolling, it’s not uncommon to notice an emotional withdrawal from all that good cheer. With your waistband feeling tighter, and your wallet lighter, create a battle plan to survive the saddest day of the year in the office.<\/p>\n

It’s called Blue Monday<\/a>. (And we’re not talking about the peppy cover song<\/a>.) It’s the third Monday of January, which falls on January 16, <\/strong>2017 this time around. To keep the gloomy Gus syndrome to a minimum at the office, plan to add a few of these happiness-inducing ideas to the workday.<\/p>\n

Declare it slippers day<\/h3>\n

No flats, dress shoes, heels or sneakers are allowed in the office. At the end of the day, give out award certificates<\/a> to the weirdest, funniest, fluffiest and cutest footwear.<\/p>\n

Schedule a potluck lunch<\/h3>\n

Ask everyone to whip up their favorite recipe from the holiday season and relive it all just one more time. You can never have too much spiced cider, right?<\/p>\n

Take a company field trip<\/h3>\n

If you have a small workforce, rent a big van and head off site for a rejuvenating afternoon of team building. Work in groups to complete a scavenger hunt at a zoo or the mall.<\/p>\n

Do a lunch-break show and tell<\/h3>\n

Remember how cool it was to bring a favorite object from home to show off to your classmates in elementary school? Revive that. Everyone is dying to see your collection of Garbage Pail Kids cards from the 90s.<\/p>\n

Set up a margarita bar<\/h3>\n

In the afternoon, convert the meeting room into a self-serve sip and snack station. Bowls of tortilla chips, salsa, guacamole and several flavors of frosty margaritas are on the menu.<\/p>\n

Tell jokes all day<\/h3>\n

Do you have an office intercom system? Grab a cheesy children’s joke book and every hour tell a wacky knock knock or Q&A joke. Your staff can’t help but laugh — or sigh — but at least they aren’t sad.<\/p>\n

Make Monday meetings goofy<\/h3>\n

Do you spend a lot of time in the boardroom on Mondays? Bring in a collection of comical hats (sombreros, derby hats, or dunce cones) and require all speakers to wear hats. No talking unless you have a hat on!<\/p>\n

Dress in mismatched clothes<\/h3>\n

Let your staff put together the most outrageous clothing combos for the work day. Sure, a striped polo shirt goes with plaid golf pants and hiking boots. Don’t forget to get some office selfies for social media!<\/p>\n

Have lunch catered to the office<\/h3>\n

Is there a new little eatery down the road everyone’s been dying to try? Surprise the staff with takeout from the restaurant — including dessert!<\/p>\n

Host a raffle fundraiser<\/h3>\n

Put together an amazing gift basket filled with office snacks, bottles of adult beverages, concert tickets, and restaurant gift cards. Sell raffle tickets for $5 each, with the proceeds going to a favorite local charity. Draw the winner during the 2pm afternoon slump to liven up the office.<\/p>\n

Ready to make Blue Monday the best? Jam to that song and get planning. Paper Direct has a collection of clever certificates<\/a> you can personalize for your creative contest-winning employees. Shop online today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a flurry of winter parties and new year’s toasts, it’s time to get back to work. Feeling bummed? You’re<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":16845,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[205],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-office-fun"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paperdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16844"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paperdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paperdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paperdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paperdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16844"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.paperdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16955,"href":"https:\/\/www.paperdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16844\/revisions\/16955"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paperdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paperdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paperdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paperdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}