Watercooler chats can sometimes end up in silence, with nobody sure what to do next.

Remote workers don’t get to share watercoolers with one another, but as their numbers rise in modern workforces, virtual coffee chats are growing in popularity.

We’re here today to spark your virtual coffee chats with fun and unique activities aimed at boosting engagement.

So grab a coffee and take a peek at 11 quick activities and games you can throw out in your next virtual coffee breaks to get the ball rolling.

What issues do remote teams face?

Remote work often means more limited face-to-face interactions with colleagues. This might manifest as feelings of isolation or disconnection from the larger team. 

The traditional office setting comes with all sorts of lovely conversations, team lunches, and special in-person moments, and the absence of these interactions can negatively impact remote employee engagement.

Workplaces find it harder to establish rock-solid bonds between team members, as members are not co-located. Those small interactions that happen in-person can really help build trust and rapport. 

In the spirit of helping to soothe some of these pains for a remote company, we’re talking about how to spice up those moments in a virtual coffee break. We have a collection of fantastic virtual teambuilding activities to break out in the next virtual coffee chat to get engagement flowing.

Now let’s get into the activities.

Ideas to brighten up your next virtual coffee break

Use our list to boost your teamwork, regardless of the challenges virtual teams face!

1. Caffeine deep dive

So in the spirit of the virtual coffee chat everyone is having, why not start with the basics and take time to appreciate the splendors of the coffee world? While you might have some self-proclaimed coffee aficionados in your remote teams, we’re going to bet they haven’t tried coffee from all 70 countries in which coffee is grown.

Start by sending out a coffee package to your remote workers across their different locations. It’s a nice idea to add in quirky little extras, like nice mugs, frothers and coffee stirrers too. Organize the time when everyone will be drinking together. 

You want to be considerate of time differences for your remote workers, although you never know in a remote office, maybe you have a member who likes a late-night espresso (just don’t recommend it on a work night).

A world of caffeine flavors is a unique treat to perk up your remote workers, who often work through difficult hours. Give them the chance to try Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee, one of the most sought-after for its lack of bitterness, or a curious Vietnamese Egg Coffee from Hanoi. Use online flavor profile lists to make the most of this coffee-fueled activity.

2. Show and tell (nearest object edition)

Add a fun little spin on the childhood classic of “show and tell” for a fun virtual coffee chat. Without giving them the information beforehand, members have to grab something that is close to hand and explain why they can’t live without it.

The next time everyone logs in to the virtual room, clarify whether everyone remembers the game from childhood, where you really need to think about an item that is dear to you and bring it to school. Explain that this time the item has to be very near to them, in the same room, and they need to explain their love for the item.

Sure, they might grab something they truly love, like their favorite JBL speaker, but they might be forced into spontaneously explaining why they couldn’t live without a very plain and boring pen holder too. The fun is in the difficulty if they can’t find a real treasure.

It usually kicks off some curious conversation starters and lets members flex their acting muscles in a playful way. Just be careful grabbing and showing your pet, if that’s the nearest item to hand!

3. Remote zen meditations

So your teams might be spread far and wide around the world. They may be living in stressful places, and they might be loaded with other responsibilities. So why not try giving them some time for peace and relaxation through meditation?

Call this your time when everyone can unwind and recharge together. Create an attractive and serene invite for the virtual meditation session. You can run it yourself, or organize an expert outsider to lead the group through a short meditation session. Encourage everyone to light a candle and find a quiet spot to use.

It’s actually a great way to spend a virtual happy hour if everyone has the time. You’ll want to use someone who really knows what they’re doing to lead the meditation if you go for a longer period. You can even start short, and increase it week by week. Here’s to finding some inner peace!

4. Alliteration Name Game

Fun and light activities work well as a warm-up to virtual meetings. Bring in small games that play on words to get everyone loosened up at the start of your virtual coffee break. One such game is the Alliteration Name Game.

It’s so simple to do. Words and an open mind are the only things needed, and it works great for a virtual watercooler chat. One person just needs to introduce themselves with an adjective that starts with the same letter as their name. “Creative Chris” or “Sunny Sarah” might be a few responses, but you might get members eager to add stranger adjectives before their name. Let them run free with it.

This works well as a simple virtual icebreaker game for new members who need to find conversation starters. Get the laughter and creativity rolling with this simple and fun activity.

5. Snack sync

Here’s an activity that takes a little time to prep, but pays rewards tenfold. Who doesn’t like a good snack? Organizing snack sync means getting everyone in the meeting to try a curious snack and seeing what they think of it.

Prepare and ship some interesting snacks for your remote staff. Designate a snack day and time, it could just be at the start of a virtual meeting. You could take a little time to design nice packages, or just send cool snacks in a box. Whatever works for you.

Have everyone at the start of the virtual coffee chat unbox their snacks and tuck in. The beauty of this activity is that you can repeat it and ask staff to send out some snacks local to where they are in the world. You might end up with wasabi peanuts that make your eyes water, or durian candy that smells worse than it tastes. Who knows? 

6. Babyface bingo

Here’s a wonderful icebreaker activity for a virtual coffee chat. Start by collecting a childhood photo from each member of staff. They’re likely to be a little blurry, greyed-out and faded, but don’t worry about that. Make sure nobody in the group knows who’s who in each photo.

When the virtual coffee chat kicks off, share your screen and, one at a time, share the photo for all to see. Everyone needs to connect each babyface with the correct colleague. This fun little teambuilding activity starts some hilarious conversations and builds bonds in new ways. By sharing early memories, you might start building new bridges of appreciation for each member’s own personal journey.

So encourage everyone to step down memory lane. Head down the lane with them too, sharing your own baby photo too! Uncover the colorful personalities of your groups and share your histories to make your team a close-knit family.

7. Lyrics, love and laughter

Make the most of each person’s musical knowledge with a game focused on song lyrics. Share screen and audio functions give coffee break chats the chance to become jam sessions filled with everyone’s favorite club bangers

Try it as a teambuilding game over Zoom. Split everyone into teams, and lay out some ground rules. Make the objective to not forget the lyrics. Each member can post the missing lyrics to a song in the chatbox of your meeting room. Moments like this create connections that transcend virtual walls.

For remote teams, you might find some really interesting song choices from countries you wouldn’t expect. That’s why it’s good to evenly split teams that are made up of diverse members. Use your own carefully curated playlist, or let teams design their own with Spotify’s ‘jam session’ function.

You might even find yourself urged to finish the last work in the line “Is this real life? Is this just ___?” Just try not to spoil it for another team…

8. Pet Parade

Though your remote teams might be scattered far and wide, everyone needs a little bit of creature comfort. For those working from home, a great way to boost everyone’s happiness is by showcasing the fluffy, feathered, or scaly member of their family.

Ask those with a pet to create a short introduction of their pets, their name, age, species, and a fun little fact or trait that makes them special. On the day of the pet parade, let everyone showcase them, and create a welcoming atmosphere where everyone is free to ask questions. 

A lot of bonds are created through a shared love of animals, and people with pets work hard to keep them happy. A showcase of pets gives a small glimpse into their lives outside of work and improves remote team communication.

So give this one a go to give a boost to your remote teams’ communication. Almost everyone has a love of animals, so for the day, let them steal the spotlight in a pet parade.

9. The Fake Podcast

With a huge spike in interest towards podcasts in the past decade or so, why not spark some extra curiosity by setting up something called a “fake podcast”? Turn your teams into budding podcast stars or step into the interviewer’s seat, asking some pressing questions.

Don’t worry, the name implies that you don’t need to majorly invest in professional cameras and sound equipment. Just keep it light. Try pairing up a few team members who might not interact very regularly, or those with diverse perspectives to share. 

One person is the interviewer, one interviewee. Ask those interviewing to craft up some interesting questions, ranging from their professional journey to their interests or personal insights. There’s a lot to learn from remote workers in faraway lands, so let the questions be as open as your teams like. 

Perhaps you’ll find that some of the insight and wisdom from the interviewee is a shining example of the uniqueness remote workers bring to the company. You could even bring the perspectives you learn into a virtual corporate event, showcasing what they’ve learned outside of work.

Consider sharing it as a recording on your company blog or social media profile. It’s a fantastic way to display the diverse talents in your virtual teams. 

10. Gaming gurus

Now we’re recommending a bit of time dedicated to all things games. Virtual coffee chats work best with a talking point, so take a moment to create a competitive game. Build up teamwork skills and communication for your staff with a session of gaming.

Remote workers might experience a sense of isolation at times and often dive into video games for a bit of escapism. That’s fine, almost everyone does. So bring them into your coffee break sessions. 

One of the great things about dedicating time to games is that you can go as deep into a game as you’d like. There are so many to choose from, from virtual versions of tabletop classics to murder mysteries set in new universes.

Keep the games short and constructive with online pictionary or scrabble for casual players. These ones work well with screen-sharing functions. If your team wants to go further, let users open a platform like Steam and send out invites. Games like Rocket League and Valhalla have fantastic reputations for critical thinking and team problem solving. The only limit on the depth of a game are limits you place yourselves, so take a moment to unwind and play as a group. Strengthen connections and build bonds that last after you’ve all signed out of the game.

11. Fitness challenge!

Okay, so you might feel you spent a bit too much time sitting down playing great games. If that’s the case, bring in fun fitness challenges for your virtual teams to promote wellness as part of the routine. 

As more and more workers are choosing remote careers, virtual workout sessions are massively growing in popularity. There are fantastic new platforms dedicated to virtual workouts for those who are serious about it. They do however often require a lot of preparation beforehand and heavy equipment. So, start out light and see how it goes.

Tracking systems are great for keeping tabs on sustained progress. Fitbit and Strava have clever systems of tracking, making it a breeze to see progress and get everyone cheering for each other as they develop.

Don’t hesitate to try out a simple fitness challenge in your next virtual coffee chat. It might be harder to communicate as you’re sweating buckets, but the bonds built afterward are great. Give it a spin!

Help remote-worker isolation fade away. Get everyone to one of our company retreats!

Here at Surf Office, we know the value of strong team bonds. One of the best ways to achieve those connections is by inviting everyone to a team retreat, from your in-office staff to your remote workers far away. A twice-annual retreat bonds employees in new ways and paves the way for a healthy organizational culture.

We've had the pleasure of organizing over 700+ retreat experiences, including remote teams, for many different companies. Here’s what we offer:

• Stress-free transfers? We got you! ✅
• Quality-assured accommodations? Check! ✅
• Engaging team-building activities? Our speciality ✅
• Restaurant reservations? That's on us! ✅
• Expert retreat planning assistance? Of course, we have this covered! ✅
• Onsite support, tailored to your needs? Absolutely ✅

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Not only this but we also have access to 160+ locations around Europe, APAC, the US, Latin America, and now Africa, meaning the sky is your limit when it comes to choosing the right location for you and your team.

Our 11 ideas work fantastically to get the most out of virtual coffee breaks, but bringing everyone together brings teams up to the next level. Organizing work retreats is our bread and butter, so let us help you elevate your teams. Spaces are limited, get in touch now.