Including activities that engage your employees is important for improving any work place.  However, to create a healthy happy work environment fun activities should be inclusive, but not forced.  Forcing employees to participate turns the activity into a chore and defeats the purpose of creating a motivating and light hearted environment.  Increasing employee morale can be created easily when managers include activities that provoke thought, team work, creativity, and induces healthy competition. 

One employee I interviewed about her work environment made this statement, "How can they (management) expect to motivate the employees if they make us hate where we work.  Employee aren't going to give more than what's expected of them when they hate their jobs."  I couldn't agree more.  If you're employees are engaged, they will enjoy the workplace even if they don't particularly enjoy the actual work.  In these extremely stressful times, your employees need some stress relief.  You may not be aware of it, but your employees' production has decreased.  How do I know this?  Because that is what happens when any of us get stressed.  It's difficult to concentrate on our work, if we have personal problems such as fighting foreclosure or afraid of getting laid-off.  Therefore, it is in your best interest as the employer, supervisor, business owner, or executive manager to try to do anything you can to take your employees' minds off their problems and onto their work.