Some web sites and blogs are now calculating the lost hours of productivity cost by the recent PacMan tribute offered by Google in honor of the 30th anniversary of Pac Man on May 23rd, 2010. They calculated the cost at over $120 million!
These calculations don’t take into account that the time spent on Pac Man would take away from a 100% productive work hour. Instead of the time going to some other activity, it happened to go to a minute of PacMan that provided joy, a smile, a laugh, and lowered stress.
Studies show that increasing play (even at work) can lead to increased productivity and better health. The official term of “Workplace Internet Leisure Browsing” (WILB) is used to refer to activities that can actually increase productivity by about 9 percent according to one study.
In another way of looking at the event, Google provided a lot of free entertainment. TV and Facebook can account for a lot of unproductive activity, too…depending on what your’re watching or what you’re doing with Facebook. Actively connecting with friends and family and sharing photos en-masse can actually save you time or make you more productive. Watching an educational program on TV (and fast forwarding through the commercials with Tivo) could be considered quite productive as well when you put that knowledge to use.
Fun at work involves taking the ordinary and making it enjoyable. It can be a reward for commitment and hard work. Adding fun lowers stress and gives us a common bond with team members. When we are having fun we develop new brain cells in areas devoted to learning and memory.
Some people might consider playing a game to be childish behavor…but there is a difference between “childlike” and “childish”. Childlike behavior leads to creativity and innovation while childish behavior can interfere with work. Distinguishing between the two is important.
Just for future reference, you can play Google Pac Man it any time by going to http://www.google.com/pacman
To begin a game, click the “Insert Coin” button. If you want to play with two people, click the “Insert Coin” button twice and Ms. PAC-MAN will join in. PAC-MAN is controlled with arrow keys or by clicking on the maze. Ms. PAC-MAN is controlled with the WASD keys. You can mute the sound by clicking on the button in the lower left corner of the game.
If you have FileMaker Pro, download fmPacMan to play Pac Man in your database!
Just use it as a short break…not an addictive past time. Have fun!
Funny. I was one of the ones playing pacman – and sent the link to a few other friends. We did have some fun that afternoon. Worth it for a bunch of usually hardworking women. Gotta be spontaneous now and then.