Hard workers deserve a recess

Daily Press Writer

MONTROSE — Courts take them. Kids enjoy them. Everyone needs a break from the stresses of life and work — so that is what Community Options in Montrose did — they had recess.

Recess at Work Day, held the third Thursday in June, was created four years ago by Rich DiGirolamo, a speaker, coach, teacher, entrepreneur and accountant in Connecticut. He said U.S. workers are getting “beat up” and decided there needed to be a resource for building workers’ morale.

Wendy Whaley, documents director at Community Option’s administration office, decided her staff, which works with the developmentally disabled, needed a break and went to the Internet in search of something to do.

“We are all so busy and I was looking for something on the Internet to build morale,” she said.

She found Digirolamo’s Web site: http://www.recessatworkday.com.

From there, she organized a half an hour for employees to meet, wear funny-looking hats, play games and eat cake.

At 11 a.m. Thursday, around 20 employees from the administration department at Community Options gathered in the conference room wearing their entertaining caps.

They started the fun by playing a version of a new TV show, “Are you smarter than a fifth grader?”

Whaley directed the game by asking questions categorize by grade and subject. Some of the questions were true or false and others were multiple choice. All the questions brought the group together through teamwork and laughter.

“We need time to go ‘ahhh’ and then get back to work,” Whaley said.

Before, the group gathered pictures of themselves as youth. Thursday, they displayed the pictures and played “who’s who,” guessing which pictures were which coworkers.

“Everyone in here is a hard worker,” Human Resource Director Robert Floyd said. “It is really cool to stop like this and get really silly.”

The Web site provides a number of ideas for recess such as creating a company time capsule, playing tag or Frisbee or taking a team meeting to an amusement park.

DiGirolamo said employees need to step away from the “norm” and one day a year is good, but companies should make more of a long-term commitment to boosting morale in the workplace.

“I think people need to make sure to keep humor in the job,” said Jim Womeldorf, adult services director. “It’s a good stress reliever that’s out of the ordinary.”

Womeldorf supervises around 10 managers and said there is not a lot of laughing that happens in their profession. He said workers need to get together and “get funny now and then” to help relieve stress, and it doesn’t have to cost a lot of money.

Employees also joined in conversation over chocolate cake. Later, they returned to work.

Community options is one of 20 Community Centered Boards in Colorado. It provides and coordinates services and support to people with developmental disabilities. The office in Montrose serves 10 counties on the Western Slope. There are more than 170 employees in the Delta, Montrose, Gunnison area, serving around 350 people.

Whaley said there are currently 25 open positions, so everyone has been working hard to find employees. This has led to stress and a recess was just what employees needed.

Contact Kati O’Hare via e-mail at katio@montrosepress.com