Here are some ideas to help ease the stress of tax season from the members of AccountingWEB.com.

1. Have a Friday Dessert Contest - Have spouses children bake desserts for the staff such as cookies, brownies and other finger foods each week and give a bouquet of flowers each week to the contest winner.

    

2. Have a Theme Meal or Theme Day - Picnic, Mexican, 50's Party, Hawaiian etc.? Encourage staff to wear appropriate attire for one of the above ideas. It doesn't take away from productivity, but it may lighten up the atmosphere for the day! You could hang a pinata in the staff kitchen - get a little aggression out of the way!

    

3. Bring in Ice Cream Bars or Yogurt Bars during the workweek. Have a staff member, manager or Partner distribute the bars after lunch or before the end of the day. Nice idea for those firms in the Deep South.

    

4. We do bowling for bunnies... We have 9 little pink bunnies we set up at the end of the hall and then roll (bowl) 2 3" round plastic balls to see who can knock down the most bunnies. We also flip for pop, where everyone flips a quarter; highest number of heads (or tails) is out. The looser buys every participant a soda.

    

5. A Scavenger Hunt! Make up a list of "Find Someone Who?" (Use your imagination) phrases and encourage employees to have it completed by the end of the week. This is a great way to encourage employee interaction during those long days at their desks.

    

6. Potluck Lunch or Dinners! Have staff bring in a dish for lunch or breakfast and encourage staff to take a break and enjoy the meal with the entire staff.

    

7. Dress Your Manager Day. Anyone with direct reports would be dressed for a day by their staff. Have a few ground rules such as: It has to be gender specific and no skin! Have manager's dress up like nuns, biker chicks or dudes, in pajamas, as a policeman, Elvis, a Wiseman, a "used car salesman" and Joker etc.

    

8. "Beat the sheet" where every week we send out more returns than the year before, we won a prize. Company shirts, swim passes gift certificates were some of the prizes.

    

9. We provide a concierge service to our staff. We have a young retiree who runs errands for the staff -- they love it!

    

10. Saturday childcare is good idea for teens to help with as well.

Go to Part Two!