'GAMIFICATION': gaming in the workplace.

Playing video games instead of doing your work might sound like a surefire way to get in trouble at the office. But some employers encourage game playing, and even use it as a path to promotion.

Gamification—a relatively new word that stands for applying game-design thinking to non-game applications—has been used in several industries and is now making its way into offices. Gartner, a research firm based in Stamford, Conn., predicts that nearly 2000 global organizations will be using gamification to train their employees and track their performance by the end of this year. And in February, IEEE announced that its experts predict that over the next six years, gaming will be integrated into more than 85 percent of daily activities, which include tasks in the workplace.

It's stuff like this that almost makes me grateful I 'retired' way back in 2009.