Games to play at work, in meetings and on breaks

Bingo is for the meeting that should have been an email. Share one link and the speaker fills everyone’s card without knowing it. Meeting or Email is the game where you finally get to send it back.

Keep the arcade for the 3 pm slump. Pizza Party only lets you eat while the VP is looking at her notes. In You’re on Mute, the dog barks just when it’s your turn to speak. Over in Reorg, HR moves your manager’s desk while you watch.

Guess games fit in the gap between two calls. Play the jargon quiz before the 9:30 stand-up. Everyone gets the same nine phrases, so a Chief executive posted in the team chat can be checked against everyone else’s. Some of the silliest job titles in Real or Fake are real. At Buffer, customer service staff are Happiness Heroes.

On days you can’t play at all, the fake work screen looks busy from across the room. Nobody walks over to check, in case they get asked to help. The fake spreadsheet and the fake coding screen each fill the monitor with one app, typed a key at a time. The fake Zoom meeting does it with a call, and nobody taps the shoulder of someone on a call. A fake update screen or a fake blue screen says the computer can’t work today, so neither can you.

Games to play at work on your computer

Every game here opens in your browser. You won’t download anything or sign in.

The corporate jargon quiz takes a couple of minutes, so it fits in the wait for a call to start. Your best scores stay on your device, filed in your personnel file.

Why a browser tab beats a console

From across the room, a browser tab passes for work, and one key closes it. A console on your desk looks like a console, even when it’s switched off.

Games that look like work

The boss key game has you play Snake, then hide it with one key before the boss reaches your desk. When you’d rather think than play, the fake work screen fills your monitor with a spreadsheet and a ticket board.

Games built on office paperwork

In Expense Report, you snap your receipts with the expense app’s camera before the ink fades, a coffee more shaky each time. The Application is the job interview across HR’s desk, where the right answer is whatever HR wanted.

Games to play at work with coworkers

Bingo is made for a group. One person starts a room, and everyone who opens the link gets a card of their own. The quiz works for a team too, since the five questions are the same for everyone that day.

Keep the scores in the team chat, because a leaderboard pinned up in the meeting room turns into a KPI by the next quarter.