Every worker needs some break after a long period of extensive work. Taking more breaks not only has been proved to increase the productivity but also is a healthy way to motivate workers.

Startups have got it for a while. And I also believe that startups invested in this strategy due to the fact that motivation is the essence of good products. The truth is that the times are changing for workers, and for good.

Play at work? I remember, not long time ago when a co-worker from a governmental company that I used to work approached me and asked if I would mind join him to play some ping-pong in the first floor of the building. At first, I thought that it was a joke until I saw that there was indeed a ping-pong table there.

But enough digression. The case is that I like to play games, especially video games. It’s probably my favorite entertainment form, alongside movies and books. After Nintendo unveiled the Switch, it became instantly clear to me that I needed one. I strongly believe in the power of play at work, with the device being the perfect accessory for my breaks. You basically can take it wherever you want and play it for a while to cool off.

So here comes my story with Splatoon, more precisely Splatoon 2. Since I started to work from home, it became almost essential to chill now and then, simply because I got used to losing track of time at work really easily. The idea behind buying the game was really simple. The game has online matches that last 4 minutes. So, the idea was to every now and then, I would stop a while and play a match to unwind.

There where lies my problem. I absolutely got addicted to the game. Those 4 minutes are easy excuses for “Just another match”, but also the fact that the game is online and really competitive didn’t help the idea of de-stress or unwind. The contrary. Instead of blowing off steam, I started to create even more steam.

The consequence was that during the brief time that I played Splatoon 2 I was constantly more stressed out than relaxed. I was regularly so infuriated and frustrated that this was impacting my productivity in a not good way. Instead of taking a break, playing a match and then returning to work, as I was really agitated and impatient, it was hard to concentrate and work right away.

With this experience, I’ve learned that maybe we can’t have only good experiences with online devices and rely on that this will help us to unwind a bit. Nowadays, my breaks consist in taking some air, disconnecting literally, because that’s the main reason for taking a break: to feel connected with yourself and focused on your energy.