Photo Credit: Joshua Davis, flickr.com

It’s no secret that the United States lags well behind the rest of the West in the number of vacation days taken each year.  For some, it may even be considered a mark of pride, proof that a dedicated American work ethic is still alive and well.  For those of us with growing families, even when we have vacation time available to us from an employer, finding time and money for a vacation can still prevent us from getting away.

Consider this alternative perspective: taking a vacation may be the best way to set you apart from the rest of the pack, allowing your leadership and management skills to shine.  Need some more convincing?  Check out “Be a Leader: Take a Vacation,” an article from our friends at the Third Path Institute.

PDF: “Be a Leader: Take a Vacation“

Image by sqback, sxc.hu

Have any of these scenarios happened to you?

• You’re eating lunch at your desk and checking your Web email account. A friend forwards a YouTube video that’s hilarious yet full of swear words. You forward it to an office buddy who you know will love it.

• You have a disagreement with your manager and let off steam by posting some particularly nasty comments about his management style on your blog.

• You’re on a business trip and lose a thumb drive that has confidential company documents on it. You were supposed to encrypt this information, but hadn’t gotten around to it yet.

While these scenarios sound relatively innocuous, any one of them could actually get you a dressing-down from your boss, a formal reprimand — or worse, fired.

With email, the Internet and mobile electronics so ubiquitous, it’s easy to forget what you should and shouldn’t do at the office or with company electronics. To keep yourself out of hot water, you’ve got to know what your company’s electronic communications playbook is and stick to it.

It’s smart to play it safe. In the United States, employees have no reasonable expectation of privacy in the workplace, so companies are within their legal rights to monitor email, blogs, social networks — even text messages sent over your company-provided cell phone — to check up on what you do and say, according to Helene Wasserman, an employment attorney with Ford & Harrison LLP in Los Angeles. “You have to know it’s a place of business, not home,” she says.

Someone Is Watching
Typically, companies aren’t spying on you and other employees to catch slackers or people sending too many personal emails, according to legal and security sources. In most cases, it’s to prevent leaks of confidential information that could result in regulatory fines, lost business or bad press.

So what should you do? Here are some dos and don’ts for using the company computer and protecting yourself and the company.

1. Think before you type Unlike hallway conversations or phone calls, what’s said in an email can last forever, and chances are, it will be seen by more than just the intended recipient. Plus, employers view email communications differently, says Lewis Maltby, executive director for the National Workrights Institute, a workers’ rights advocate in Princeton, N.J. “You could get fired for telling a joke to a fellow employee over the Net that your boss heard in the cafeteria and thought was funny.”

2. Know your company’s email and Internet usage policies Many companies have built rules for using email and the Internet into their employee handbooks. Some offer workshops on electronic communications policies. If you’re not sure something’s covered, be sure to ask. When Jim Cahill, a communications manager at Emerson Process Management, in Austin, Texas, started a blog about the $4 billion industrial automation manufacturer two years ago, he was the company’s one and only blogger. Today, the company has several, and they all use the same checklist of what they can and can’t mention, Cahill says. “If anyone else would get started, they’d have to know these are the things you have to follow,” he says.

3. Protect your gear People lose stuff all the time. According to a November, 2007, survey by the Ponemon Institute, a Detroit privacy think tank, slightly more than half of 893 people surveyed said they’d lost or misplaced a cell phone, laptop, thumb drive or other device containing sensitive company information in the recent past. With the risk so high, it’s imperative to take steps to make sure work data is protected. Use passwords or encryption, so data on lost or stolen devices can’t be read. Keeping your laptop, phone and company files organized in one place, such as a wheeled briefcase, is a good way to prevent things from getting lost in the first place, says Clyde Lerner, owner of In the Moment Computing, a Sunnyvale, Calif., computer services and organization company.

Using the company computer wisely can save you a lot of headaches — and it might even save your job.

Michelle V. Rafter is a journalist based in Portland, Ore. She has spent more than 20 years writing about business and technology for magazines, newspapers, wire services and Web sites.

The aftereffects of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan are still a major cause for concern as the auto industry tries to pull itself up from recession, but that isn’t the only thing that is giving industry experts pause these days. Now the car business has been confronted with new data that is causing yet more concern: Home values are continuing to fall, and they hit new lows in March, tumbling even below the level we experienced in the depth of the Great Recession in 2008. While the recession is over by conventional definitions, the continuing slide in home values is a red flag for the auto industry, which would like to believe recovery will actually gain momentum in the second half of the year.

Here is what’s behind the industry’s latest crop of fears: The 2011 Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index of housing prices in 20 metropolitan areas has declined for the sixth consecutive month. Worse yet, the most recent drop put the index at a mark below the previous recent low-water mark that came in April 2009. While the economy as a whole has not experienced a so-called “double-dip” recession, there is no doubt that home values have. The question is: Will the drop in values have a negative effect on new-car sales?

If the March values represented the bottom of the trough, experts might be relatively sanguine about the industry’s prospects going forward, but many analysts project continued erosion in home values, largely because falling prices scare some homebuyers from the market and prompt others to delay home purchases. Further, in a traditional recovery, home construction most often is one of the biggest engines of growth, but now residential construction is lagging manufacturing growth by a large margin. That begs the question: Can manufacturing continue to surge while home-building lags and home prices are in decline? The quick answer is likely “No,” since unemployment in May rose back over the 9-percent mark, another indicator of a weakening economy.

One important effect of declining home values is it makes consumers feel poorer, and when they feel poorer they are reluctant to puchase big-ticket items, like automobiles. Declining property values also affect car dealers, because the lessened value of their real estate holdings can make it more difficult and more expensive to borrow money. Even government is affected: State and local governments face lower property tax revenues as property values fall. This, in turn, could prompt state agencies to acquire fewer vehicles. While some analysts feel we have essentially reached the bottom for home values, others are not nearly as optimistic. That’s an important cause for concern through the balance of this year, because the fragile recovery of the auto industry and the economy as a whole can’t take much more bad news.

Tom Ripley is a Driving Today contributing editor who writes frequently about the global auto industry from his home in Villeperce, France.

Six years ago, 48-year-old Steve Sando started a business growing heirloom beans that he purchased in Mexico and Central America. Working in Rancho Gordo, in Napa, Calif., Sando found success selling his beans at farmers’ markets and to niche customers. And then one day, a loyal customer suggested Sando start blogging about his… beans.

In the year since Sando launched his bean blog, business at Rancho Gordo has increased some 300 percent. “We literally see results,” Sando says. After he writes about certain varietals, “sometimes I’ll get five orders a day and then sometimes it will go crazy and I’ll get 24 orders.”

Clearly, blogging can go a long way toward building your business or career. It’s nothing short of free global advertising. Whether you are writing about your own company, or on behalf of the company you work for, a blog is a powerful tool that demonstrates your business reputation to potential customers, partners and employers.

And with the stakes so high, it’s critical to watch out for potential pitfalls. Here’s how to blog smart and take full advantage of opportunities to advance your career and business goals:

1. Set an objective for the blog
Don’t just blog because everyone else is doing it. Set an objective. Most business bloggers are seeking to attract and keep customers. Familiarity breeds good business. “If you have two suppliers with exactly the same products, the customer is going to go with the one they know,” says Anil Dash, vice president of evangelism for Six Apart, which makes TypePad, Movable Type and Vox, some of the most popular blogging tools around. Blogging becomes a very personal way for a businessperson to connect with customers. Sando explains the magic this way: “People feel as if they’ve discovered you.”

2. Create a winning concept
Why would anyone want to read your business blog? What do you have to say about your career or business that’s unique or interesting? Once you answer these questions, you can develop your concept. One winnable concept is to use the blog format to tell the story of you or your company. “This is where the voice of your company can come out,” says Dash. “It’s a real chance for you to show that there are people on the other side of the business.”

3. Choose your platform wisely
There are scores of blogging services and software products. In addition to Six Apart’s products, some of the popular ones are Blogger, LiveJournal and WordPress. Investigate your options. Some companies offer a free monthlong trial, so this might be a good way to test the platform before committing to one. “Go with one of the big ones and try it out first,” advises Paul Gillen, a social media consultant and author of The New Influencers: A Marketer’s Guide to Social Media (Quill Driver Books). “It can be hard to move your blog if you’re not happy with the platform.”

4. Confirm appropriateness of all content
Many blog tools have add-ons, such as music, book reading lists, trivia quizzes and so on. Avoid any content that is not business-appropriate. Understand the impression you want to convey to visitors. “Nothing is more embarrassing in a business environment than having loud music play when you go to a Web site,” Gillin says. “I don’t think polls are a bad idea. I don’t think some trivia games are a bad idea. Just make sure it’s relevant to who you are or what you are writing about.”

5. Establish credibility
Be smart and double-check all facts before publishing them on your business blog. The content you post is a permanent public record. A good rule of thumb to follow is this: Don’t write anything you wouldn’t say to a newspaper reporter. If you work for a larger organization, there might be constraints on what you can say due to company policies or government regulations. Understand those rules.

Dash points to Boeing as a large company that blogs smart. The airplane manufacturer is building a giant commercial plane, the Dreamliner 787. After Boeing let a Dreamliner team member blog about the plane and post interior drawings, other blogs and frequent flyers took note. It ultimately helped Boeing book orders by showing passenger interest.

6. Fess up to mistakes
If you make a mistake, admit it. “Other bloggers will pick on you if you don’t get things right,” warns Dash. “Start with something human and humble and explain that you made a mistake,” Dash advises. “You should be fine.”

7. Drive traffic to your blog
If no one reads your blog, it defeats the purpose of writing one. Come up with a marketing plan. “Talk to customers,” Dash says. “If you send out email newsletters, put a line at the bottom that says, ‘check out our blog.’ While someone waits on your switchboard, have the hold message give the address of your blog.” You can put the blog Web address on your product packaging, your business cards and your email signature.

8. Engage your audience
Post often, even if it’s just a sentence or two. Posting frequently helps your blog rank higher on search engines, Dash advises. Also, ask your audience for input. Sando asks his readers for recipes or feedback on topics such as whether serving acidic food in ceramic bowls will expose diners to lead. “The comments people leave are amazing,” Sando says .

Elizabeth Wasserman is a freelance writer and editor based in Fairfax, Va. She writes for a variety of publications, including Congressional Quarterly, Inc. magazine, and she edits the online publication CIO Strategy Center.

More than 5 million American businesses earn less than $5 million annually in gross revenues. These businesses account for more than 40 percent of the Gross National Product, yet they have largely been ignored in federal government’s stimulus and financial reform efforts.

How are today’s businesses to survive and thrive at a time when the economy remains shaky at best and growth continues to stagnate? The answer is Conscious Business Development, also known as Triple Bottom-line (3BL) or Conscious Capitalism.

Conscious business is defined by Wikipedia as “expanding the traditional business framework to take into account ecological and social performance in addition to financial performance.” This is a new way of doing business that is good for people, profits and the planet. It’s about building wealth, in the sense, whole wealth – something that you’re deeply passionate about, you care about, that you want to do the rest of your life.

As a veteran entrepreneur of 25 years, I’ve witnessed a shift happening in small business today. People are realizing that they can actually make money doing what they love, doing it with integrity, and creating a life they love. And it is not just a feel good fad. The Conscious Capitalism Institute (CCI) has found that businesses that adopt this model outperform the S&P 500 long term.

This movement is emerging at a critical moment when untold numbers of workers are starting their own businesses after losing corporate jobs during the recession. Supporting the success of these new entrepreneurs is critical given the findings of a new study by The Kauffman Foundation titled “The Importance of Startups in Job Creation and Job Destruction” (http://www.kauffman.org/uploadedFiles/firm_formation_importance_of_startups.pdf). It found that startups are responsible for virtually all growth in the U.S. economy over the past three decades.

So how can business owners tell if they are aligned with the conscious business model? Here are a few guideposts.

1. Stakeholders – How decisions are made is critical. When making critical business decisions do you choose the cheapest route or highest short term ROI? Or do you engage with your customers, vendors, employees and investors to make a decision that serves them all the best you can?
2. Impact – A conscious business helps to solve a need/problem for a customer. A positive impact is not limited to charitable contributions or social entrepreneurship. Do you and your stakeholders support causes that are larger than your products or services?
3. Connection – Is there separation in the way you behave in your business versus in your life?

Being 100 percent aligned with your business and how it behaves is the true measure of a conscious business, walking the talk always in your life, in business and in public.

Image credit: David Foster

EDITOR’S NOTE: Correction made to the link to the study from the Kauffman Foundation, 29 July 2010.

Quickly! Who do you think has faster rising numbers of work life balance dissatisfaction—men or women?

Well, if the research from Jeremy Adam Smith’s terrific book, The Daddy Shift, can be trusted (and I know it can), men represent the fastest growing demographic of those who feel work life and family life are out of whack.

How could that be?  I think there are two basic reasons.

Number one: lack of work life balance couldn’t get worse for women.  You could argue that working women have never really known work life balance. When women entered the work force en masse several generations ago they were still expected to keep things running on the home front.  “You want to work?” asked many a Ward Cleaver. “Go ahead. But I still expect my shirts to be pressed, dinner on the table and the Beaver to have his cookies and milk.”

Number two: Ward Cleaver is dead.  Though Ward was actually a fairly caring soul, he’s nothing compared to today’s father.  Most men today want to be more involved with their children than ever before.  They crave time with their kids, whereas Ward was content with a fatherly lecture from behind the newspaper.  Herein lies the challenge for many men as they seek work life balance.

While we can intellectually condemn antiquated restrictions on gender roles, the truth remains: men are expected to be financial providers.   From pop culture, to the work place, to social policy—men are still groomed to believe we are ultimately measured by the thickness of our wallet.  As much as dad longs to be at the Little League game or the piano recital, he is still conditioned that he is of most use to his family at the office.  As one therapist describes it, “If we are going to acknowledge that we still depict women as sex objects, we have to be aware that we portray men as success objects.”

Even couples who think they have evolved beyond traditional gender roles can still be slaves to them.  A young couple with a baby, for example, might be philosophically opposed to daycare and choose to have one parent stay at home.  However, with women generally earning seventy-five cents for every dollar a man earns, that decision is most likely made for them. The end result for the overwhelming majority in the above scenario is mom stays home and dad goes to work.    It would take a lot of courage, regardless of gender, for a family to have the bigger wage earner at home and the lower money maker financially supporting the family.

Of course there are marvelous examples of the opposite as witnessed by the growing number of at home dads (though I would wager that the moms were out-earning the dads in most of those scenarios) and they should be celebrated.  Likewise, we shouldn’t condemn ourselves or previous generations of men for financially providing.  We can take great pride in what sacrifices men have made to keep the family afloat. But we do need to acknowledge that those outdated, traditional gender lines may have faded but they still exist — for both men and women.

Ironically, many men don’t even recognize the profundity of these forces.  We just know we are putting in long hours away from our families.  Many of us just feel that is our lot in life.  That’s what dads do, right?

Not unlike step-one of the twelve step program, if you are having work life balance issues, you need to acknowledge the problem.  You have to be aware of what you are fighting if you want to improve things.   The point here isn’t to place blame or exonerate you from taking responsibility for your life.  Nor is it to start a futile battle of the sexes and whine that men have it tougher than women.   The point is to acknowledge that society’s depiction of what dads are supposed to do could be a significant reason why your work life and your home life are out of balance.

In the coming weeks, I will address what I see as other unique challenges faced by men trying to achieve some level of work life balance.   Work life balance isn’t simply about working less—it encompasses a myriad of issues, including your relationship with your partner, your children, your job and yourself.

Image credit: Simply CVR

Bye-bye, Aughts — don’t let the door hit you in the ’00s on your way out.

True, there were all those years of economic euphoria. Only thing is — like that classic sitcom Seinfeld — they were based on nothing. As a result, the United States is stumbling into the Tweens with a full-on nasty hangover known as high unemployment.

Still, there’s no need to let dismal job numbers deter you from pursuing your career goal — whatever it may be. Whether you’re entering the new decade unemployed, underemployed or unhappily employed, you’ll need to tailor your game plan to succeed in the new year’s uncertain economic climate. Here’s how.

Goal: Identify Your Target

Plan of Action:

Stay focused.  If you’re just entering the work force for the first time or are without a job due to forces beyond your control, target the field you want to be in — with laser precision — to make the hunting simpler (and your prospects brighter).

“By casting too wide a net, job seekers waste time applying to positions for which they are not perfectly suited,” says Sophie Beaurpere, director of communications for the online job-search aggregator Indeed. Instead, she recommends that would-be applicants make Web technology work for them, with methods such as Indeed’s Job Trends tool (which allows users to chart the growth/decline of various fields over time) and job opening e-mail alerts. “These means help seekers stay informed about the newest postings and also track changes in their target field,” she says.

And you’ll want to do that right now: January is a very popular time for job searches. “It’s always the highest traffic month of the year,” says Susan Joyce, editor and publisher of the Job-Hunt Web site. “It’s as if everyone has made a New Year’s resolution to find a new job, and as soon as most of the bowl games are over, they jump into the job market.”

The downside of a winter search: loads of competition. But Joyce says this traditionally dies down by April.

Goal: Ditch a Dying Industry

Plan of Action:

Maybe the hallway between you and that new corner office seems to get longer by the day. Maybe job security in your industry gets more precarious by the minute (you know who you are, newspaper reporters, bank tellers and Saab dealers!). Whatever the reason, when your vocation situation calls for you to go in a different direction, you’ll want to make a choice that will serve you for more than a few years. So, which careers are looking good in 2010 and beyond?

Roger Moncarz, the Division of Occupational Outlook branch chief in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Employment Projections Program, reveals that the occupations expected to enjoy the greatest growth percentage during the period from 2008 to 2018 are (in descending order):

• Biomedical engineers
• Network systems and data communications analysts
• Home health aides
• Personal and home care aides
• Financial examiners

Moncarz notes, though, that fastest growing doesn’t always mean careers with the most opportunity. For example, although the biomedical engineer sector is expected to increase at a rate of 72 percent, that adds up to only 28,000 jobs by 2018. So it’s important to look at gross growth, too. Using that metric, the profession most worth pursuing would be registered nursing: it’s projected that there will be 3,200,000 new positions by 2018.

Of course, there are many professions you’d best avoid if you want to have a job in 2018. Included on that list: sewing machine operators (shocker), telemarketers (woo-hoo!) and door-to-door salesmen (ditto!).

Goal: Leave Your Job

Plan of Action:

You’d love to unshackle yourself from your current desk and look for a nicer ball and chain elsewhere (perhaps one made of white gold). But you’re wondering if now — considering the economy — would be a good time.

Ask yourself these questions: Am I in a decent job? Does it feel relatively secure? Is my gut telling me that now would be a bad time to shake things up?

Then trust your gut … especially if it is telling you to be cautious.

According to Joyce, “There are more unemployed people per open job.” That also means the current economic climate isn’t especially conducive to pursuing a job in a new industry. Indeed, according to October 2009 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are 15,700,000 unemployed individuals actively seeking work, and only 2.5 million job openings. In other words: there are about six people per job opening. (And that’s not counting employed or underemployed workers who may also be looking for work.)

And if you’re actually considering going one step further — leaving your entire career — keep this in mind: “I don’t know many people who have switched careers during a recession,” says Joyce.

Goal: Captain Your Own Ship

Plan of Action:

While, as Joyce says, the economic downturn may not be the most fertile of environments to grow a new career, she notes, “I do know several people who have started businesses [during recessions].”

Hanging your shingle as a consultant, particularly if you can lure your former employer — or your former employer’s competitor — to become a client can be especially lucrative. Keep in mind, encourages Joyce, that “consulting gigs do sometimes turn into full-time jobs when the economy begins to recover.”

Of course, taking a job like that would go counter to the whole “captain your own ship” initiative. But then … it’s good to have options!

Goal: Plan Your Career Long-term

Plan of Action:

The short-term take-away is that opportunities do exist in our new economic reality. And how about after that?

The key is to plot where you’d like to be over the next decade and to examine how your skills fit those goals. From there, research the job outlook in that industry. Arming yourself with information is the best way to begin that process.

For a top-notch resource on career paths, check out the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ just-released Occupational Outlook Handbook (available online). You can also watch the experts weigh in on where job growth will be thanks to the multitude of downloadable videos shot at the White House’s December 2009 Forum on Jobs (check it out at Whitehouse Web site).

Thomas P. Farley — career writer for Men’s Life Today — is also an etiquette and lifestyle expert and the editor of Modern Manners: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Social Graces.

Image credit: dreamguy

Sometimes, the office can be as treacherous to navigate as the prison yard at San Quentin. You may not wind up with a shank in your side, but there’s a better-than-even chance somebody wants to stab you in the back and use your stinkin’ carcass as a stepping stone for their own advancement.

Office predators are constantly looking for fresh prey to steal credit from, or dump on to cover their own crappy work or simply thin out the herd so they can stand out in a smaller crowd.

Face it, kids: It’s a jungle in there. And short of carrying an elephant gun in your computer case — which we’re sure is illegal in at least two states — we’ve got some strategic advice to help you identify office enemies.

Establish Attack Patterns
When you’re dropped in-country on your first day of the job, it’s always smart to start with a fact-finding mission. Figure out who’s armed and who’s dangerous by debriefing office veterans. There’s no use spraying ammo — unless you know where to aim.

“When you join any company, there is real benefit to identifying the culture,” says Roy Cohen, a former placement counselor for Goldman Sachs and a career coach for the Five O’Clock Club, a professional counseling network. “Ask for full scouting reports about who you can rely on and who to be wary of. But do it in a way that makes it seem like you want to find the best method to work with everybody. You may get surface-y answers at first, but people tend to send signals about people that may indicate where you should place your trust.”

Don’t Play Your Cards Until They Play Theirs
You can ask for advice and talk to people to fit into the office environment, but never share secrets with your co-workers until you’re sure you can trust them. “It’s always best to do substantial research on your colleagues before you reveal too much about yourself,” says Cohen. “If you see them use information against other colleagues, you’ll know not to take them into your circle of trust.”

Make Allies in the Trenches
Sure, it helps to have the boss on your side, but you’ll find your most effective recon outside the executive offices. Secretaries, assistants, even the cleaning staff see how people really act — and they know where their bodies are buried.

“It’s good to get to know everyone in the office environment,” says Cohen. “People below the management level often have a good perspective on everyone’s true behavior and habits. They’re exposed to people as they really are and can give you good insights into who to trust and who to look out for.”

If There’s Smoke … Let Your Co-workers Help You Find the Fire
Keep your ears open for any bad news that might surface about you. If somebody’s cooking up foul rumors, “ask your co-workers where they heard these rumors, then go to that person directly — as quickly as possible,” says Holly Green, CEO and managing director of The Human Factor, a management consulting firm. Tell the cook you’d like to help him whip up a better batch with more accurate information.

Green points out that letting rumors run wild is like leaving a fire unattended. Put your enemy at ease by letting them know you’ve come armed with the best intentions. Green suggests saying something like, “I am assuming you had good intentions, but can you help me understand why you said XXX? In the future, if you have any questions about me or something I did, please let me know. I really want to work effectively with you, and that would help a lot.”

Stay Focused on Finger Pointers
Fingers are often loaded … and will eventually point at you! If there’s someone in the office who’s the Babe Ruth of the blame game, get on their team ASAP. “If you see someone deflecting responsibility from themselves by blaming other people, disable their digits by offering to help them solve the problem early in the game,” says Cohen. “Offer to assist them in finding a solution without engaging in a blame game. This will prove you’re task-oriented and someone they can rely on — plus you’ll build political equity in the office.” Bottom line: You’ve just slipped into a finger-proof vest!

Make Sure You’re Really in the Crosshairs Before Firing Back
Hey, Mr. Sensitive, not everybody’s out to get you! If you think someone’s unnecessarily tearing up you or your work, make sure you’re not just freakin’ paranoid. “Before you do something that might label you a troublemaker in the office place, do a reality check with your colleagues,” says Cohen. “But don’t do it in a way that suggests you have a problem with this person. Ask [a colleague] if they have any recommendations about how you can best develop a successful working relationship with your tormentor (but don’t call them that — try “co-worker” instead). You may learn that this is just their working style and not a personal vendetta.”

Mike Hammer is a writer and former editor of Maxim, Stuff and Shock. He has proven time and time again that he can ward off enemies in the cutthroat world of magazines.

Image credit: ilco

OK. Admit it. You still like to play with toys.

High-tech companies such as Google and Microsoft have encouraged playful creativity by turning their workplaces into virtual playgrounds where employees are encouraged to take play breaks. The legacy of the dot-com boom era includes foosball tables, ping-pong tables, X-box stations where employees can engage in multiplayer gaming via networks, Wii stations, and even roller hockey leagues in the parking lot.

“Many of our most creative ideas come when we are playfully engaged in creating, exploring, experimenting,” says Mitchel Resnick, professor of learning research at the MIT Media Lab. “So it’s important for workplaces to encourage playfulness — that is, encourage people to try new things, test boundaries, take risks and explore new ideas.”

Toys take off
Long before Google became a household name, its founders tapped into their love of toys to create low-cost cases to house the hard disk storage at the heart of its search engines. Sergey Brin and Larry Page built the storage cases out of simple plastic interlocking Legos. Now randomly interspersed Lego stations invite creative play at Google offices. Some employees even banded together to purchase Silly Putty in bulk.

These group play stations and playful attitudes have inspired us to take things further, personalizing our cubicles with greater levels of sophistication. Common Star Wars action figures and basketball hoops are being overshadowed by higher-tech toys, such as stealth helicopters and fighting robots. Web sites such as Engadget, Gizmodo, and Boing Boing report on new gadgets and toy trends. Other sites, like ThinkGeek and Kleargear, have become online sources of these gadgets.

What’s hot in cubicle play
ThinkGeek began in 1999 by selling T-shirts and stickers, and business snowballed from there, says Shane Peterman, director of public relations at the Fairfax, Va., company. ThinkGeek’s most popular item is a Wi-Fi Detector shirt (about $30) with glowing bars that change as the Wi-Fi signal around you fluctuates. Other in-demand items: black stealth helicopters that can be flown around the office (or into other people’s cubicles), Nerf rocket launchers that can fire over six meters (powered through batteries or a computer’s USB port), and a connected basketball hoop (again, through a USB port) that detects baskets and tallies the score.

“It’s all stuff that we’re interested in,” Peterman says. “Some of it is useful, and some things are purely for fun.”

As the technology advances, and the cost of creating these high-tech toys decreases, cool new items are constantly coming on the market, says Rafe Needleman, editor of Webware, who has two helicopters and a Nerf missile launcher in his office. “For around 20 to 60 bucks, you can buy a helicopter that hovers in midair,” he says. “It’s incredibly cool, and good for blowing off steam from time to time. It’s kind of magical, it’s fun. Then in ten minutes, my life goes back to the same misery that it usually is.”

You’ll pay $$$ for the coolest
For some of the most cutting-edge, high-tech toys, you have to pay the price. Robot Brothers’ RoboPhilo (which stands for Programmable Humanoid in Lifelike Operation), is a 13-inch robotic humanoid that lets you program its arm, leg, head and joint movements from your PC. At almost $500, it’s a pricey cubicle toy. The RoboPhilo comes prebuilt or as a kit. Other programmable robot kits are even more expensive, with the Robonova-1 from Hitec costing about $1,000.

Recent advances in animatronics are inspiring the creation of realistic-looking monkey and Elvis heads that can be programmed from a PC. A chimp head from WowWee, at about $150, can be controlled like a puppet, via remote control. Besides carrying high price tags, some consider them a bit creepy. “I wouldn’t want one,” Needleman says.

ThinkGeek sells the ProLaserFX Showcube (about $2,000), a programmable laser projector that can produce light shows. The Optimus Maximus keyboard (about $1,600), with tiny LED screens on each key, can be programmed to show your CPU usage or identify which iTunes song you’re playing.

From your own fun to your co-worker’s annoyance
Entertainment seekers beware: There’s a fine line between fun and annoyance, between good taste and being offensive. “Around our office, we don’t take anything seriously,” Peterman says. “There’s no surprise whatsoever if I’m sitting at my desk, and someone walks by and shoots me with a Nerf gun.” In some places, it could be a problem, he admits. “People need to know what’s OK in their workplace.” At the same time, you should take caution to respect the boundaries of those who are on deadline or who don’t want to engage in play. Any cubicle warfare that could hurt others is, of course, also a no-no. One site sells a launcher that shocks you if you get hit, for example.

And here’s another idea that takes things too far: mobile webcams that spy on co-workers — and possibly violate their privacy. Although workers don’t have many privacy rights in the workplace — employers can monitor email and use surveillance videos – co-workers should refrain from infringing on the rights of each other.

An atmosphere of playfulness
When it comes to good, clean fun, Google seems to set the pace for other companies, says Michael Kwun, senior intellectual property attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and a former Google attorney. “The founders are big into games and toys, and this playfulness extends in gifts given to employees and partners.” One year Kwun received a lava lamp decorated with a faux Google legal logo, with the inscription, “Thanks for a good year.” “Toys and gadgets are an extension of your personality at work”, Kwun says. “I think there’s something about identifying your cube as yours. Standard corporate furniture is not all that personal. But you arrive, see the culture, and think, ‘Gee, one day I want to have that, too.’”

And toys make work more fun. “Who wants to sit in a cube? Nobody. No one wants to go to meetings that are about meetings,” says Heather Gold, a comedian and Silicon Valley satirist at Subvert. “I feel sorry for people who don’t have toys or don’t have fun. Besides, the mindset of play is absolutely the best way to problem-solve.”

Jodi Mardesich is a former staff writer for Fortune and the San Jose Mercury News. She has written about technology for 20 years and has been published in The New York Times, Slate, Salon, The Advocate, and Yoga Journal.

Image credit: James Whately