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I can think of many water cooler topics that used to happen naturally in the office but disappear when everyone’s working from home.
If you’ve read some of my recent articles, you’ll know that I’m frequently having conversations with team leaders and project managers across various companies.
A lot of them are running remote teams.
One project manager I spoke with recently is running a remote-first marketing team
They’ll all come into to the office every now and then, but the team is working from home most of the time.
Knowing my role at Water Cooler Trivia, she asked me if I had any suggestions for creating water cooler topics.
Her team is smart, efficient, and motivated. The problem is, once the agenda is covered, calls end in seconds. That doesn’t leave much room for rapport building.
What she needs is was a way to recreate those fleeting conversations that make work feel human again, even from afar.
Back in the office days, team water cooler time was a naturally occurance. Someone mentioned a new TV show, a weird fact, or a weekend adventure, and suddenly the whole floor had something to riff on! They never felt like throwaway minutes because genuine connections were formed during those conversations.
Now? Remote setups kill that by default, and that sucks. You don’t just bump into someone at the team water cooler on your way to grab coffee. Unless leaders design for it, it just doesn’t happen. And that’s sad.
Deep down, I think people still crave those sparks. That’s why you’ll see managers experiment with virtual happy hours, Slack pairings, and random prompts. Sometimes those things click, but much of the time, they feel plain awkward.
If I’ve learned anything from my conversations with leaders and managers, it’s that the simplest water cooler ideas are usually the most effective.
I’m not sure most teams realize how easy it is to set up a quick trivia game.
You just need to have the right tools in place…wink, wink!
Yes, that’s my subtle (but not so subtle) reference to Water Cooler Trivia.
Trivia generate playful banter out of nowhere.
Wrong guesses get laughs and lucky wins earn bragging rights. You’ll find that conversations carry on long after the quiz is over.
The real question is, who isn’t using Water Cooler Trivia?
We’ve got thousands of teams of all shapes and sizes using Water Cooler Trivia to spice up their work weeks.
Their results email lands, and boom! They’ve got instant water cooler ideas for the first ten minutes of their standup.
People share wrong answers, tease each other, and warm up naturally.
That’s the key word: naturally.
None of this feels forced.
A remote HR team told me they built their own Slack emojis inspired by inside jokes from quiz results.
You need a dependable team water cooler moment that closes out the week with laughter instead of just bullet points.
Water Cooler Trivia has gained popularity over time, mostly through word of mouth.
I’ve seen how well this works.
As far as water cooler ideas go, you’re not going to get much better than a trivia quiz!
Here’s three reasons why the platform lands so well:
Every quiz result is like a little gift that your team can unwrap together.
The beauty of trivia-driven team water cooler moments is that they never feel scripted. Nobody says, “Now we bond.” The quiz just appears, and the fun unfolds. That’s why it sticks.
I’ve seen the quietest folks become trivia legends. I’ve watched managers swap jokes with interns. I’ve even seen quiz-inspired nicknames last for months. That’s how a few silly water cooler ideas turn into real culture.
You have nothing to lose and everything to gain with our four-week free trial.
We offer this so you can see how it lands with your team. No pressure, planning, or stress.
Our team will make sure you are getting fun weekly quizzes that appear in Slack or via email.
I can’t wait to hear how a random fact about koalas sparked your team’s latest inside joke.
It’s happened before! And it’ll happen again.
Get started with our four-week free trial of Water Cooler Trivia.
