What is a spirit week?

A spirit week is a series of events that employers can host to make work more fun and festive. Each day can have a different unique theme or activity, and the organization encourages all employees to participate. Some employers plan spirit weeks to coincide with the anniversary of the company’s founding, but you can host one at any time of year. Businesses often hold the events annually and come up with fresh spirit ideas for work each year.

Related: Employee Appreciation Day Ideas

Fun spirit week ideas for work

Spirit week ideas can include special events, small activities, changes in dress code and more. Use the following ideas as a starting point and feel free to get creative and come up with some of your own.

1. Contribute to a worthy cause

Encourage employees to make a difference in the lives of others in honor of spirit week. You might hold a pledge drive with different departments or locations vying to see who can raise the most money for a charitable organization you or the team selects. Teams can provide daily updates, and you can share the current leaderboard via email throughout the week.

Volunteering is another way employees might give back to the community during the week. You could close the office for a day and have employees volunteer at various locations throughout your town or city.

Related: Making Charitable Donations: A Guide for Business Owners

2. Set attire-related work theme days

You could give each day of spirit week a different dress code theme. Employees can enjoy a more relaxed dress code and have fun checking out each other’s outfits. Here are a few fun themes to consider:

• Sports day: Employees can wear their jerseys, hats, sweatshirts and other apparel that features their favorite team’s logo or dress in the team’s colors.

• Pajama day: Your team members can come to the office looking like they just rolled out of bed.

• Superhero day: Employees can dress as a superhero or wear superhero-themed apparel.

• Twins day: Everyone can choose a partner and dress in a matching style.

• Holidays: Team members can come to work dressed in apparel that represents their favorite holiday.

• Eras: You might have your team members dress like it’s the roaring 20s or the psychedelic 60s, or let each employee choose an era to inspire their outfits.

When choosing work theme days, consider if a theme may embarrass some employees, such as a beach day that features swimwear. Also, think about whether a theme could put certain employees at risk. For example, a flip-flop day may be unsafe for employees who move heavy items as a part of their daily job duties.

3. Recognize employees

Spirit week can be the perfect time to recognize the achievements of your employees. A member of your C-suite or the business owner could make a speech or write an open letter to the organization. You might choose superstar employees from different departments to honor during the week or shine a spotlight on a specific department each day.

Celebrate your heritage

You might include a celebration of the history of your company in your spirit week ideas. Potential ways to do this are:

• Having a company apparel day: Everyone can dress in logo apparel or wear the company’s colors for the day.

• Holding a trivia contest: You could quiz employees about the history of your company and see who gets the top score.

• Dressing like the founders: You might have your employees come to work dressed in the style popular at the time of your company’s founding.

• Encouraging creativity: You could host a poster and/or video contest, encouraging employees to represent your company’s history. You might arrange the artwork in a gallery for employees to tour or show the top videos at an afternoon event.

4. Eat your way through the week

Food can be a tasty reward for your team, and there are many ways you can incorporate it into your spirit week. You might try these ideas:

• International food day: Employees can prepare foods that represent their culture or a different one and bring them in for a potluck.

• Food truck day: You could hire a few food trucks to park outside during lunch hour. You can foot the bill for all the meals so your employees can eat their fill.

• Company barbecue: You can fire up the grill outside and have a lunchtime picnic.

• Ball game day: You could serve your favorites from the ballpark like hot dogs, nachos and cotton candy. Peanuts and crackerjacks can be a fun addition, too, but double-check that no one has nut allergies beforehand.

• Breakfast for lunch: Consider hiring a caterer or local restaurant to serve breakfast fare during lunch hour. Think scrambled eggs and bacon, waffle and omelet stations and an assortment of fresh fruits and pastries.

• Taco Tuesday: You can create a taco bar with meat and vegan options.

Related: How to Hire a Caterer

5. Hold an office Olympics

Come up with some fun office games for departments and teams to play. You can let winning players or teams advance to one or more rounds of competition and then have a final event that the entire company gathers to watch. At the end of each final game, you could have an awards ceremony and present the winners with medals.

Learn more: 14 Office Games to Build Your Teams (In-Person and Remote)

6. Include family and pets

You can choose ways to include your employees’ families and fur babies in the fun. Here are some spirit week ideas you might try:

• Host an event: You can hold an after-hours event and invite partners or entire families to attend. You could choose a hotel conference room or restaurant for the event or rent out a movie theater, museum, golf course, bowling alley or other venue.

• Organize pet picture day: You could ask employees to bring in framed photos of their pets and create a gallery for everyone to tour.

• Bring someone to work day: You might have employees bring their child or pet to the office for a day.

• Throw an open house: You could open your business up after hours, so employees can bring family and friends for tours of the office. You might serve refreshments and have your executive team or the business owner on-site to meet and greet attendees.

7. Maximize kindness

If you’re looking for spirit week ideas for work that can include your remote employees, consider having a random acts of kindness day. This can involve encouraging your employees to help and support one another and to look for opportunities to be kind to people they encounter outside of work. You could start a channel on your messenger app for people to share their activities if they wish.

Spirit week ideas FAQs

Why should we consider having a spirit week?

Work theme days and spirit weeks can have several benefits. They can boost employee morale, relieve stress and strengthen the bonds between team members. By providing opportunities to have fun at work, you can send the message that you believe in a work-life balance and value your employees’ happiness and mental health. Implementing spirit week ideas for work can be a meaningful way to show your appreciation and say thanks to your employees. Some can also provide marketing opportunities. For example, you could share the results of a charity drive via social media and send press releases announcing the results to local media.

Are there any work spirit week ideas that should be avoided?

When brainstorming work spirit ideas, you should exclude anything associated with a race, culture or religion. Avoid any games or activities that might be difficult for employees with disabilities to perform. Also, be careful about choosing work theme days that require employees to spend too much money on outfits or costumes or that need a lot of planning. This can help keep your spirit day ideas for work from being a source of stress.

How do we spread the word about work spirit days?

You can inform employees about work theme days and special events through multiple channels. You could have supervisors announce spirit week at a meeting a month or so before the event and remind their teams closer to the big day. Other options include sending out an email and adding an announcement to your internal website. For special events that take place after hours and/or involve family, you could post signs in break rooms and send out invitations by email or regular mail.