Making Christmastime in the Office Merry

Office time-waster | BCBusiness
When half the office is away, Tony Wanless will play.

Who really works around Christmastime? Not many of us. Yet we still have to show up and pretend to be doing something. Here are a couple of suggestions to make the best use of your time when nothing gets done anyway.

Okay, it’s the last couple of days before Christmas and, let’s admit it, nothing gets done. We’re all so occupied with planning for the holiday, buying last minute gifts for the holidays, or just plain dreaming about what we’ll do during the Christmas break, we can’t bring ourselves to do our usual work.

It’s true. Most of us are just treading water in our offices while we wait to clear out for the holiday. But, if you’re not working, what are you doing to make your bosses think that you are?

Surfing the Internet, of course.

To that end, we present the 12 Time-Sucks of Christmas, from the wildly creative crew at smashLAB digital agency.

Plug in your earphones so no one can hear what’s going on, check it out, and try to muffle your laughter while you look like you’re doing some serious spreadsheeting. Since I know the territory, my favourite is the fake PR video for the city of Cleveland tagged as “They’re Not Detroit.”

Then, if you have to show up at work during the post-Christmas week, here’s something that, while not actually work, is enlightening.

Go to the Vancouver Aquarium’s new website, also designed by smashLAB.

It’s a beautiful display of the Aquarium’s offerings, which aims to be the centre of knowledge regarding B.C.’s ocean coasts. The Aquarium society wants the facility to not only entertain visitors, but also teach them about the oceans.

To do so, the website has a wondrous display of pictures and pages that highlight various ways in whitch the aquarium entertains and informs at the same time.

Also, if you can actually duck out of work or have some time off, go to the Aquarium itself and view the “new and unique” way to enjoy the lights of this Christmas season. The aquarium is offering a series of special exhibits and shows called Luminescence that shows how animals create and reflect light.

So, after you’ve wasted time pre and post the big day, spend time doing something enlightening at the aquarium.

That won’t be a waste of time. But it will be enjoyable.

And merry.