More fun

One sign that a team is really clicking is how much fun they are having.

In one retail job at a large gift shop, there were as many as five of us at a time working next to each other in one long bank of cash registers. One of the real challenges was how much you could mess with your neighbor's work station when they momentarily stepped away (or, even more challenging, when their heads were turned): steal their pen, toss a wadded up piece of paper into their work area, hide their phone behind the cash register - it got harder and harder to stay creatively messy, but we worked at it.

Our cash registers were actually fairly sophisticated computers. One day i returned from my break to find my mouse so wrapped up in bubble wrap and scotch tape that it took about three minutes to extricate it - and, when i got a couple of customers as soon as i came back on, i had to try to make the mouse work while it was still in its little nest. My coworkers watched the whole show and only barely managed to hide their delight.

One day i was playing trick after trick on Peggy, who worked the sales floor. After one especially creative little tease, as she walked by my register i just beamed with how pleased i was with myself. She turned to me with a look that was equal parts fun and menace as she said, "It's not over yet." It was one of the funniest and sassiest and coolest things i have ever heard a co-worker say.