Yeah, i used to organize hack days. It was mostly one vacation day i managed to get for the team where a few would come in and hack on games or whatever.

Until a vp decided to join. Then hacks had to be about creating products and ideas had to be documented, and someone had to "win".

Now the occasional hack that benefited the company as a side effect of almost free motivation and team building disappeared. Only the most suck Ups juniors appears. And all ideas pitch how much money the company could make but are not really fun or challenging to implement.