Employee Appreciation Day in 2021

Over the past year, I’m sure you’ve heard the word burnout before. When your TV room is your gym, dining room, chillaxing stat...

March 5, 2021
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There are 300 more icebreaker questions at the bottom of the article
How would you describe your job to a five year old?
What season would you be?
What is a weird food you have tried? Would you eat it again?
What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Would you go in the mother-ship with aliens if they landed on Earth tomorrow?
What is your favorite season?
Do prefer working from home or the office?
What is your earliest memory of this job?
What is the best thing you have bought so far this year?
What is the earliest book you remember?
If you had to move to another country, which one would you choose?
You are the best criminal mastermind in the world. What crime would you commit if you knew you would get away with it?
What is your favorite movie genre to watch?
What was the last thing you ate?
What person from history would you add to Mount Rushmore?
What is a weird fact you know?
What is your favorite part of working from home?
Were the Spice Girls a good team?
Imagine you can instantly learn any language. Which would you choose?
If you could live in any state, which state would you pick?
Which fictional team is the best team of all time?
What did you want to be when you grew up?
What do you usually eat for a quick lunch?
What simple food will you never eat?
Show us the weirdest thing you have in the room with you right now.
Would you rather stay at a hotel or an AirBNB?
What is your favorite movie genre to watch?
Are you more productive in the morning or at night?
Who is someone in your community that makes a difference?
Who was your most unique pet?
Choose one famous person from history you want on your team during a zombie apocalypse.
What is a good way to give back to the community?
Which song could you listen to over and over again?
Is Hugh Grant funny?
What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?
Would you want to have an imaginary friend today? Did you have one as a child?
What actor or actress would you want to play you in the movie about your life?
What is the best super power?
What is your New Years resolution?
You can only eat one food again for the rest of your life. What is it?
What is the best work holiday?
What is the first gift you remember receiving?
Would you rather join Metallica or Backstreet Boys?
What is the best example of a community you have seen?
What is an easy way to do something nice for someone?
Show us your phone background and tell the story behind why you picked this image.
What was your first job?
Pick any band to play at your funeral.
If you could have an unlimited supply of one thing for the rest of your life, what would you pick?
Which superpower would you give to your arch enemy?
What is the most obscure superpower you would want?
What emoji best describes how you are feeling right now?
If you could live in any country, which country would you pick?
Would you rather live in a city or a town?
What is your favorite holiday?
What is something you accomplished as part of a team?
What is your standard office lunch?
What is your most used phone app?
What is your favorite season?
Have you ever won something as a team?
Imagine you are a professional baseball player. What is your introduction song?
Beach holiday or ski trip?
Have you ever been to a funny comedy show?
Would you rather live at the North Pole or the South Pole?
What is your favorite song to sing?
If you could live in any state, which state would you pick?
Imagine you could teleport anywhere. Where would you go right now?
What is the most unusual job you have heard of?
What was the last thing you ate?
You can visit any fictional time or place. Which would you pick?
What do your family and friends think you do all day?
What movie do you wish you could watch again for the first time?
Show us your most-used emoji.
What was the most unique style or fashion trend you ever embraced?
What movie defined your generation?
You are stranded on a remote desert island. Are you alone or with your worst enemy?
What is your favorite knock-knock joke?
Have you ever told someone Santa is not real?
Do you know how to speak more than one language?
On a scale of 1 – 10, how much of a team player are you?
What is your #1 recommendation in this city?
What is your favorite holiday?
What bucket list item do you most want to check off in the next six months?
What is your favorite mythical creature?
What was the first way you made money?
If you could be great at any Olympic sport, which would it be?
Which song could you listen to over and over again?
When did you start liking/hating mushrooms?
Where is your favorite vacation spot?
Do you take your PTO all at one time, or another way?
Which show do you remember most from your childhood?
Which beverage goes best with pizza?
Would you want to have a personal assistant follow you around everywhere and do what you asked of them?
Have you ever met your idol?
What did you want to be when you grew up?
Would you rather live 100 years in the past or 100 years in the future?
What is your hobby?
When you are alone in the car, what volume is the music at?
Imagine you no longer have to work. How would you spend a Tuesday?
What is your favorite type of sandwich?

Over the past year, I’m sure you’ve heard the word burnout before. When your TV room is your gym, dining room, chillaxing station and office, it could be hard for employees to truly step away from work when their laptop is two seconds away and it’s easy to check an email.  

Employee burnout cases have increased to the point where the World Health Organization has officially recognized it as an occupational phenomenon.  In fact, the WHO has included it in the 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases.

Marrisa Morison, Head of People at Foursquare and HR advisor to Assembly wrote a great article on how to mitigate burnout and what effective leaders have done to deal with it. You can find that article here.

Given employees are stressed and 2020 / 2021 has been tough, what can you do as a leader, manager, executive and even co worker to say thank you to those who keep the wheels running? March 5th 2021 is Employee Appreciation day!! It is a day for companies to thank their employees for their hard work and effort throughout the year. This day was created for the purpose of strengthening the bond between employer and employee.

There are a lot of articles that mention the top 100 ways to thank employees. Many of the ideas are great but they generally focus on material objects, gifts, events and prizes. The truth of the matter is employee appreciation is simple, the appreciation has to be heartfelt and specific to each person. True appreciation could not be a TV for every employee or $1,000 to everyone (even though that would be wonderful).

If you, as a manager, leader, coworker etc want to appreciate a fellow coworker, tell your coworker how they affected you, a project or the company…. and be specific on the outcome!

  • That employee may have thought no one noticed their work or extra efforts and the acknowledgement alone could be a major win
  • Write the appreciation in a format that is atypical.
  • Send recognition publicly 
  • Send recognition via recorded video and get other coworkers to chime in
  • Send recognition via snail mail and get other to sign it
  • Tag the person on linkedin and endorse them if you truly believe they are incredible (do them a solid)
  • Info on how to endorse a coworker here
Thank you!


To recap on the above, you’ll notice all of the options of how to share appreciation takes effort. That effort will go a long way!

If you were to summarize what appreciation truly means, it’s to show acknowledgement. The worst thing you can do to productivity, engagement and morale is to not acknowledge the hard work and additional efforts that person is doing. 

This Employee Appreciation Day, do all the bonusing, gifting, parties etc you were going to do before, but go the extra mile and acknowledge your employee/coworker. Show them you pay attention to what they are doing and that they really make an impact. 

At the end of the day, you’ll see what type of appreciation is longstanding.

Happy appreciating everyone!

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