Corpo Mode: things to do when you're bored at work

Corpo Mode is a free site for the slow part of the workday. You can play a game, count down to home time, look up a piece of jargon or find an excuse to leave. Nothing needs installing, and every page opens in an ordinary browser tab.

Play a game in a coffee break

Each day’s shift is five games, and everyone plays the same five. The leaderboard ranks the best totals of the day. If five isn’t enough, pick another from our games to play at work.

If you’d rather not play at all, put up the fake Windows update screen. The computer looks busy instead of you.

Count down to home time

The average workday now ends at 4:39 pm. Yours may not, so the countdown to 5pm runs to whatever time you finish.

On Fridays the average worker logs off at 4:03 pm, so that’s the finish the how long until Friday clock suggests. For the calendar, what week it is gives the week number and what quarter it is gives the fiscal quarter.

Translate the jargon

Give the average UK worker 24 common office phrases, and they can explain 7. Our corporate jargon dictionary puts every one of its terms in plain English.

People search for WFH, PTO and CC more than most terms. The daily jargon quiz tests you on nine phrases.

Write the email you’re putting off

Ask UK office workers which email habit bothers them most, and a needless CC comes first. When you finally write that email, end it in the right tone with one of our email sign-offs.

Before a day off, copy one of the out of office messages. If an email from “IT” asks you to click a link, check it against the phishing email examples first.

Find an excuse

Fridays now finish around 4 pm, about an hour earlier than in early 2021. To get out before that, choose from our excuses to leave work early, each rated by risk. For a whole day off, the excuses to get out of work carry the same risk ratings.

Plan the team’s fun

The office fun page has team ideas that fit inside a working day, so nobody gives up an evening for them. At a stand-up, one of our icebreaker questions for work takes about a minute.

• No sign-up and no ads. The site sets no cookies, and scores are saved on your device, not on an account.
• The daily round is the same for everyone, so you can compare scores with the team.
• Every fact is checked against the sources listed on its page. The about page says how each page gets written.
• A browser tab closes with one key when someone walks past.