120 This or That Questions for Work

The fastest icebreaker format in existence is two nouns and the word "or."

No scenario. No setup. No one has to reveal anything about their childhood. Coffee or tea. Camera on or camera off. Everyone has an answer before the question finishes loading, and at least two people are already wrong.

Here are 120 this-or-that questions for work, sorted by category. For dilemma-style prompts with actual stakes, see the 100 would-you-rather questions. For open-ended daily prompts, there are 75 questions of the day in the same series.

How to run a this-or-that round

The mechanic matters more than the questions. Get the vote right and any pair of nouns becomes entertainment.

1. Vote simultaneously. Everyone reacts with an emoji or types their pick at the same time, then you reveal. Answering after seeing the majority is voting for the winning team after the match.
2. Count the split. A 9 to 3 result is information. A 6 to 6 result is a rivalry the channel will reference for months.
3. Minority defends. Whoever lost the vote explains themselves. This is where the fun lives. Nobody has ever calmly explained why they charge their phone to exactly 80 percent.
4. Three questions, one minute. In meetings, run it rapid-fire before the agenda. Longer than a minute and it stops being a warmup and starts being the meeting.

The failure mode, as with every team ritual, is the person who has to remember to run it. Rotas break. Memory breaks faster.

Office and workday

The daily texture of work. Safe for any audience, guaranteed to expose at least one deeply held desk opinion.

1. Camera on or camera off?
2. Standing desk or couch?
3. Early meeting or late meeting?
4. Chat message or email?
5. Hot desk or same seat forever?
6. Notifications on or notifications off?
7. Headphones or speakers?
8. One monitor or two?
9. Meeting recording or meeting notes?
10. Agenda or vibes?
11. Keyboard shortcuts or right click?
12. Desk plant or desk lamp?
13. Lunch at your desk or lunch away?
14. Calendar blocked or calendar open?
15. Morning focus or afternoon focus?
16. Voice note or typed message?
17. Emoji reaction or written reply?
18. Office dog or office snacks?
19. Friday demo or Friday early finish?
20. Commute podcast or commute music?

Work style

Where the productive people and the chaotic people discover each other. Expect the inbox one to end a friendship.

1. Early bird or night owl?
2. Inbox zero or inbox 4,000?
3. To-do list on paper or to-do list app?
4. Plan first or dive in?
5. One big task or ten small ones?
6. Deadline pressure or steady pace?
7. Written brief or quick call?
8. Draft in silence or think out loud?
9. Forty tabs open or three tabs maximum?
10. Desktop covered in files or desktop empty?
11. Dark mode or light mode?
12. Detailed notes or trust your memory?
13. Ask forgiveness or ask permission?
14. Finish early and check it twice or finish exactly on time?
15. Big picture or fine print?
16. Feedback in writing or feedback face to face?
17. Multitask or monotask?
18. New project excitement or finished project relief?
19. Work playlist or work silence?
20. Star it for later or reply instantly?

Food and drink

The most dangerous category. Splits here run deep and generational. Proceed with a moderator on standby.

1. Coffee or tea?
2. Sweet or savoury?
3. Breakfast or no breakfast?
4. Pizza or tacos?
5. Crunchy or soft?
6. Sparkling or still?
7. Cake or biscuits?
8. Spicy or mild?
9. Leftovers or fresh?
10. Meal prep or decide at noon?
11. Chocolate or chips?
12. Brunch or dinner?
13. Sauce on the side or sauce on top?
14. Ice cream in a cone or in a cup?
15. Same order every time or something new every time?
16. Office birthday cake or office birthday donuts?
17. Iced coffee or hot coffee, all year round?
18. Cheese board or dessert menu?
19. Follow the recipe exactly or improvise?
20. Eat the crusts or leave the crusts?

Tech and everyday objects

For the team that has opinions about chargers. Every group has a "same password with a 1 at the end" person. Today you find out who.

1. iPhone or Android?
2. Phone on silent or phone on vibrate?
3. Read the manual or press buttons until it works?
4. Paper book or e-reader?
5. Subtitles on or subtitles off?
6. Charge overnight or charge in panicked bursts?
7. New tab or same tab?
8. Wired or wireless headphones?
9. Update now or remind me tomorrow, forever?
10. Password manager or the same password with a 1 at the end?
11. Phone case or living dangerously?
12. Streaming with ads or one more subscription?
13. Smart watch or normal watch?
14. Group chat contributor or group chat lurker?
15. Talk to your devices or never speak to them?
16. Trust autocorrect or autocorrect off?
17. A folder for everything or search for everything?
18. Delete unused apps or keep them forever?
19. Screen brightness maximum or minimum?
20. Loud clacky keyboard or silent keyboard?

Weekends and life

Off-duty splits. Good for Friday rounds when the team is already half out the door.

1. Beach or mountains?
2. Sleep in or early start?
3. Big party or small dinner?
4. The book or the movie?
5. Plan the trip or wing the trip?
6. Summer or winter?
7. City break or countryside?
8. Workout or long walk?
9. Sunday roast or Sunday takeaway?
10. Museum or market?
11. Camping or hotel?
12. Board games or video games?
13. Concert or theatre?
14. New place every trip or same place every year?
15. Window seat or aisle seat?
16. Hours early to the airport or gate-close sprint?
17. Fridge magnet from every trip or no souvenirs ever?
18. Rain sounds or total silence for sleeping?
19. Saturday errands or Saturday nothing?
20. Sunset or sunrise?

Impossible picks

The ones that stop the channel. There is no correct answer to any of these, which has never once prevented a 40-message thread.

1. Always slightly early or always exactly on time?
2. Speak every language or play every instrument?
3. Invisibility or flight?
4. A rewind button or a pause button?
5. A year in the past or a year in the future?
6. Never queue again or never hit traffic again?
7. Free flights forever or free food forever?
8. Talk to animals or read one mind per day?
9. Always find parking or never lose your keys?
10. Perfect memory or perfect sleep?
11. One extra hour every day or one extra day every month?
12. Never do laundry again or never do dishes again?
13. Snow every winter or never again?
14. Teleport ten seconds a day or freeze time ten minutes a week?
15. Only whisper or only shout?
16. Always know the exact time or always know true north?
17. Luck you can't control or skill you have to earn?
18. Re-live one day or preview one day?
19. World-class at one hobby or decent at all of them?
20. Never lose a sock again or never lose a pen again?

Make it a tournament

Once the team has favourites, run a bracket. Take the eight closest splits from past rounds, seed them against each other, and vote one match per day. Coffee versus dark mode sounds absurd until your channel spends a Thursday litigating it.

The bracket works because it gives the ritual an arc. Individual votes are fun. A three-week road to crowning "the team's most divisive opinion" is a running story the whole channel is inside.

When you've run out

A hundred and twenty questions at three per round is a couple of months of rounds. Long before then, your team will have started writing its own, which is the real goal. Inside jokes always beat imported content.

For more formats, take the would-you-rather list when you want actual debate, the question of the day list for open-ended prompts, or the icebreaker questions for the classic format. Our Dicebreaker generator serves random prompts free with no signup.

And if the team likes picking sides, Halftime turns that energy into a daily two-minute game with scores, streaks, and a weekly champion. Same ritual, nobody on rota duty.

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If your team would vote in a daily this-or-that, Halftime is the version that runs itself. A 2-minute game and a daily prompt every workday. Opt-in, async, free for 30 days, no card needed.