Much like Valentine’s Day in the home of a happy couple, many feel that Employee Appreciation Day should be celebrated any and every day of the year. Apparently that’s what I was thinking when I wrote the copy for not one, but two of our catalog covers, boldly declaring Employee Appreciation Day as March 9th. (It’s actually March 5th.) 

I ran across this quote over the weekend:

"Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well." -Voltaire 

Employee morale. Employee engagement. Employee retention. 

I’m not making this up…

Once, at a former workplace, our espresso maker got more peer nominations for Employee of the Month than anyone else. A high performer, true…but really?

That was the state of our morale. Our spirits had been broken by circumstances too mind-boggling to adequately describe here; but, we were truly disenchanted and pretty much walked around like an office full of zombies. Zombies who really valued a strong cup of coffee in the afternoon. 

This week calendars are promoting Fun at Work Day; our calendar lists it on Thursday, January 28. Though some people may roll their eyes or consider office diversions like Fun at Work Day to be frivolous, having fun at work can actually be extremely profitable, as Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For prove. 

At SAS, a privately owned software company at the top of Fortune’s list this year, an employee-friendly culture reigns supreme and fun isn’t hard to find. Employees watch intramural teams compete in volleyball and soccer during weekdays and M&Ms are readily available for staff (they go through 22.5 tons a year).