We spend more time at work than most us do with our families.  For many of us, co-workers are a family away from home – and sometimes they can get on our nerves or hurt our feelings just like family members.  It can be hard to be kind.  It’s so easy to form cliques, or hold onto grudges and resentments. This week, following a nice, relaxing long holiday weekend, I challenge you to break out of the mold and practice at least one random act of kindness at work.

These 10 ideas assume that you work in an office.  Even if you don’t most, of these actions can still work for you.  Or think of your own!

1. Bring in snacks to share. Bake cookies of muffins, or bring in a basket of juicy strawberries
2. Offer to do a lunch, or coffee or tea, run for a co-worker who is heads-down on a deadline.
3. Bring in flowers to brighten up the whole office. Put them in an area where everyone can enjoy them.
4. Buy a couple of cheap umbrellas to keep in your desk to offer to co-workers who are going out to lunch or leaving for the day and have not brought one.
5. When someone does great work, tell their boss, in person or via e-mail.
6. Invite the new person to have lunch with you.
7. Clean out the microwave, even if you aren’t the one who made the mess – and don’t complain to everyone in earshot about it. Just quietly clean it.
8. Start a library in the break room by bringing in books or magazines that you’ve finished. (As a writer, this is my favorite one)
9. Set yourself the goal of learning one new thing about one of your co-workers each day.
10. Just generally treat others the way you’d like to be treated. Would you like to be greeted with a smile and a “good morning” at the beginning of the day?  Would you like to be cut a break when you make a mistake?  Would you like someone to ask how your weekend was, or how your sick dog is doing?  Well, then….