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Patricia Finn

Fifty Hour A Week Toys


If you could bring a toy to work, what would it be? Think. Dress down day has gotten boring and old. It’s time to liven up the workplace. I recommend adding Toy Day to the calendar. It will reduce work-related stress. You might even consider a professional ‘Show and Tell’ event. Would you bring a stuffed animal? A truck? A train? Oh, so you have stopped playing with toys have you, well it’s time to start again. Anyone who works fifty hours a week deserves a toy.

What toy would I bring? Probably my all-time favorite, a soft, pink rubber ball that fits perfectly in the palm of my hand. I can throw it and catch it and it bounces well. Here are some toy choices for professionals I have worked with and what I would expect them to bring to Toy Day. A slinky for the salesman. A truck for the landscaper. The CEO’s might bring yo-yos but will need instruction and practice. The massage therapist would bring a frisbee.

To build my defense for returning to the world of toys, I ask you to think back to the days when Lincoln logs, Legos, and mini kitchen sets were a part of your happy lives. My Toy Day theory is based on the premise that toys are relaxing and even more relaxing than watching TV. Like many adults I have spent evenings unwinding in front of my television set, sometimes too stressed to even change the channel. Thumb exhaustion. If watching TV works to relieve work-day stress, why are there so many sleep aids being advertised? I plop on the couch and then toss under the covers. I thought I was tired but why am I not sleeping? Weren’t the true crime shows relaxing?

My formula for destressing is to bring out the toys. You don’t remember how to play with toys? You think toys are for children only? Nope. Not anymore. Go into your bedroom, close the door, sit on the floor and dump out the Legos. Feeling more aggression than snap together construction can solve? No problem. Hammer pegs. Anything to unwind without succumbing to the lure of the couch.

 I know about workday stress. It can be very ‘challenging’ as we say in today’s world of political correctness. I recently had a high stress job, and it was difficult to leave the cares of the day behind. One day, I stopped at a stop sign and sat waiting for the light to change. The next morning, I opened a bag of kitty litter and poured it into the cat food bowls. I looked at it and thought, “This doesn’t look right.”

Why the disfunction? My mind was solving problems that should have ended at five o’clock. What a day! My laptop warped and there was a bump in the middle of the keyboard. I dropped something on my foot and my big toenail might not grow back. In the morning when I unlocked my office, someone had entered and left a broken chair on top of my chair. There was a note attached. It said, “Fix this.” I was the interium school principal.

Has anyone seen my pink rubber ball?

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