I’ve heard people say, (paraphrased) “work is work: if your going to give me free time then let me go home.”.
On the other side, an impromptu surprise that you get to be relieved of your responsibilities for the day and go do something fun seems like it would be beneficial for people’s mental health and creativity.
Yet, one can imagine if someone had a sick child at home, or some other concern that infinitely more important than work that it might be a bit torturous to go out and try to have fun with your coworkers when you would rather, and rightly so, want to be home attending to the more important thing.
Although I would want to be the type of leader that I person would feel comfortable just telling that they needed to go home if such a matter of importance were to arise.
If you gave a person a choice at the beginning of their job between a day off or an office field trip, most would probably just choose an extra day off.
Yet, much like buying a gift card for someone you know would never spend money on themselves perhaps it could be a more memorable and helpful experience for them to go out and have fun with no responsibilities.
Yet this may simply be an expression of the lonely ness and desire for human connection that I personally feel, due the current circumstances of semi isolation (just me and my partner) in a new and strange city.
I am not a CEO, I just graduated and I’m working to get my first job. One day I would like to lead people, and perhaps this, per my lack of knowledge, seems a bit farcical, but I wanted to gather some opinions, thanks!
If it’s paid we can go to Chuck-E-Cheese for all I care
In that circumstance, a periodic board game day might be better.
Its social, but much more relevant, and gets new ideas into the team, or gives them ways to try shit out together.
Plus, professional game designers are the one group of people some if the denser and more experimental board games would be a team building rather than team sundering exercise for.
There’s not a straightforward answer to this because it’s far too context dependent, and even a CEO at a small company won’t have absolute control over the culture of that company; I’ve seen company culture turn from amazing to toxic after losing only a couple key employees (good managers are gold dust).
To draw a comparison: staff pizza parties are so widely scoffed at not because people hate pizza, but because, when set against a backdrop of employees not actually being respected or valued, it makes them feel worse. Good will can’t be bought, whether by pizza, extra days off, or field trips. Some of those things can help, but much more important is the cumulative culture that’s built at the company.
Most decisions like discretionarily giving someone time off to look after family are going to be made at a level lower than CEO. Sometimes great policy ideas arise from a great manager using their discretion to make a sensible call, and then going “maybe we could put [idea] in place for future”.
An envelope with cash!
Instead of coming up with cheap gimmicks for your workers in order to save yourself and the company money while playing PR games with your workforce … just pay them all a bonus, give them time off and let them all decide what they want to do with their time and money.
This. My social battery drains like a sieve and I find work related social events especially draining. Give me a bonus and day off instead and I’ll be singing your praises.
Would you find it better to get a surprise day off or another PTO day for you to spend? I get that the latter is probably better if you wanted to make plans but it somehow feels more sterile as a surprise good thing might be a pleasant thing, or maybe you could surprise them with a free pto day sometime in the month?
Most people do not like surprises, especially surprises involving their work and/or money. Even if it may be a ‘good’ surprise, many simply do not like them.
How would a surprise day off work? “Surprise, you commuted into work today for no reason! Go home!”
Most workers desire consistency.
Could be an announcement like “Hey guys, tomorrow you have the day off on us. Have fun!” at the end of the work day or whatever.
Saying “you get one day PTO to use whenever you want” is of course better, but sometimes unplanned free time is nice too. Both would work fine imo.
They already said to have a company outing. It wouldn’t be “you commuted into work for no reason” it’d be, “you commuted into work thinking you were going to work and now you get to play and get to know your coworkers”.
You’re telling me I got all mentally prepared for work and now I have to switch gears to social time? Hard pass, just give me extra PTO.
You’re lying if you think you would rather work than go do something fun. Either that or you’ve been brainwashed into thinking that work must be pain. Maybe your current job sucks and that’s why you think that you’d have to “switch gears” but if you’re not talking to your coworkers during the work day then you’re probably not doing your job in the first place which is what days like this help fix.
At my previous job, my relationship with my coworkers was 100% based on work. I had no problem asking for help or talking shop or whatever. However, due to not wanting to potentially tank my future career prospects, I meticulously avoided talking about anything personal or emotional at work.
Any kind of work social event was always painful then, since there was no work to talk about.
Meanwhile, we were a contracting company. Our company worked for other companies, where we signed contracts saying we would have the work done by a specific date. So company social activities either meant I was meeting with coworkers off the clock, or I was burning up valuable time I would need to get my project delivered within customer expectations.
So if my company said “hey everyone, we’re going to a trampoline park!” My thought would be "motherfucker - so I’m gonna spend the day pretending to have fun while making awkward, stilted conversations so I can effectively hide my emotions from my coworkers and thereby retain a professional demeanor and reputation. Meanwhile, I’ll be stressing all day about the work I have to do, since I’m already behind schedule and now I’m more behind schedule. Fuuuuuuck!
Thing is, that isn’t fun for everyone. Especially with activities chosen for you, it could be quite the opposite of fun. I’ve been subjected to “mandatory fun days” many times, and all of them have sucked hard for at least one person there (not always me, but they are always a massive waste of time for me).
I don’t actually want to be friends with my coworkers (friendly, yes; friends, no); it’s nice to have totally separate groups. No drama bleed, and people leave me alone so I can get my work done. Most jobs I’ve had, I don’t like my coworkers enough to be around them outside of job tasks, and I don’t have to. We are there to work, we didn’t choose the people we work with, and I’m not interested in using my job to replace my social life, especially since I typically have vanishingly little in common with the people with whom I work. We talk professionally about work stuff and that’s it.
Plus the work doesn’t vanish on this “day off”. It just means you have more to do the next day like any other day off, but you didn’t even get to do your own thing to cause that extra workload. Hard pass.
That’s a good question. I guess it might depend on circumstances. A surprise day off before like a long weekend would be pretty cool even if I’ve already made plans I would think, but then I like to stress out and over prep for trips and such. Extra PTO certainly helps when planning ahead tho. A situation like “hey, here’s an extra day for the next long weekend/xmas/whatever” a couple weeks ahead of time might balance being a surprise and allow planning ahead?
To be honest I’ve never thought this through this far before. No employer has never actually asked what I’d prefer and no one looks for thought out solutions when complaining to friends or online.
Definitely another PTO day in this hypothetical.
The goal of these evens are to make co workers socialize with each other. So that way when they’re working on things they know that a week ago at the event bob said he dealt with X, I can ask him what he did. Or John studied Y in school, he could probably help me with this. If you just send everyone home then you’re building an anti social environment where people just exist around each other, and because they’re busy with work don’t take the time to get socialize and get comfortable around the people they’re working with.
Co-workers are like family
You can choose your friends but you can’t choose your family
I’d rather spend as much time away from my co-workers so that in the long run, I can appreciate the times I have to be around them at work because I have to … not because I want to.
I do the same with my family (as much as I love them) … if I spend too much time with them, eventually, I’ll find reasons to not want to be around them and our relationship suffers … the less time I spend with them, the more I appreciate them and the more they appreciate me.
That’s what pto is for. A company outing is literally for what the person you responded to said and you ignored
So that way when they’re working on things they know that a week ago at the event bob said he dealt with X, I can ask him what he did. Or John studied Y in school, he could probably help me with this. If you just send everyone home then you’re building an anti social environment where people just exist around each other, and because they’re busy with work don’t take the time to get socialize and get comfortable around the people they’re working with.
Everyone share the same hobby? Is it a paid or during work hours?
Make it during work hours and something all of the people can enjoy. We once had a brunch and then went to a local Madame Tussaud’s.
For a gaming company I’d suggest some gaming museum or tech fair.
As a worker‘s perspective, just make sure it’s on the clock and during work hours.
This is a good point— it should be during work hours, and yeah maybe doing a poll would make sure it’s something of interest to everybody would be a good thing— thanks!
I recommend including a “no thanks” style option in the poll. Avoid implying they have to choose from options they aren’t interested in.
I like how you think.
I’d suggest some gaming museum or tech fair.
I think a trip to an arcade with a wide range of different vintage games.
Is it a paid or during work hours?
“If you gave a person a choice at the beginning of their job between a day off or an office field trip”
This future CEO is absolutely not interested in paying people for this.
I realize it changes based on scale, but the Director for my group has periodic get-togethers for our ~19 person IT team. It’s only for a few hours, takes place at stereotypical “corporate event” places (think Dave & Busters, etc), is during work hours, and food is provided. It’s “requested attendance”, meaning if a remote employee can’t make it or someone has something going on, it’s no biggie. There’s some minor talk like company news/discussion, who got promoted, etc but mostly it’s just intended as a thank you to the entire team for our hard work. He even gives out small gifts to us, though that’s certainly not necessary! It’s also 100% paid for hourly associates. My company is far from perfect, but that’s the way to do it.
I think it’s actually insane to require people to go to an unpaid “recreational” event on their own time. I don’t even think it’s okay to politely ask, with no penalty!
Random field trips for shits and giggles?. Especially impromptu ones. That’s a bad idea. It’s a recipe for “I didn’t wear the right shoes for laser tag”, or “I don’t want to go see that [event/show]”, or “I have a deadline I need to meet, I’m going to be stressed the whole time”
Field trips should be planned, paid, during business hours, and if not related to business function, optional.
A neutral field trip would be: Hey, we are going to a restaurant for lunch Friday. The company is paying. Your lunch break will be extended, but the extension will be paid.
A good field trip is one you can make relevant to the project, that’s a different story. Say you are working on a medieval/fantasy action adventure: go to an arms or art museum and see all the cool swords, spears, and armor. If it’s a farm sim, maybe tour a cider mill or a historical/working farm: learn about the tools and equipment they use, etc.
As long as I’m getting paid you can send me anywhere to do anything.
But expect me to go somewhere without being paid and it better be something I’m interested in and that I don’t have other stuff I would rather use my time to catch up on. I have better stuff to do at home than to just hang out and not be productive while also losing a day of wages.
But if it’s paid I would greatly appreciate the stress free day.
Definitely do it on the clock. No one likes unpaid mandatory work fun. If there is driving involved, make sure you pay for mileage or give a gas card to the drivers. Don’t surprise people with an outing or give them too much notice; I find a week is the right amount of time. Lastly, if it’s just for fun, make it optional.
- Plan well in advance
- Be offsite. No pizza parties in the break room.
- Give people the choice (goof off or work; no holiday) with a sign-ups in advance.
- Company pays all fees 100%. Bus/Uber to/from work or nearby as possible so people can maybe not bring their car.
- Go-karts and laser tag and escape rooms and pirate river cruises; take ideas and then vote well in advance
- if 2 people go, 2 people go. They hobnob with the boss over the snack break and talk about the excellent discussion after. Even if it’s just talk about cats because we’re here to build teams not debate ticket DEV371819. 6.Vote on new ideas periodically like every few mo. Keep it fresh. If someone sees a good idea, make sure they know they should suggest it and everyone decides when/if it goes into the queue because the suspension bridge is f’n awesome.
I can guarantee that the 4th monthly field trip will show the Fibonacci numbers going up. Be okay if no one shows. It’ll improve.
Movies are a fun and easy goof off. It allows everyone to self-group so they can talk about Janice in Accounts and how she stole my leftovers. Also left-handed bowling is just dumb enough that people will go ironically and accidentally have fun.
Be offsite. No pizza parties in the break room.
I’m curious what makes you say so? Physical distance? Setting change? Distance to work, physically and mentally?
[off topic]
Back in the day, Mad Magazine publisher Bill Gaines loved to take his writers and artists on vacations. Because he was both extravagant and cheap he was always looking for a way to have his cake and eat it too.
He asked his accountant if they could visit Haiti and take it as a business expense. After all, they did dozens of stories about voo-doo and zombies, so it would be educational. The accountant told him no. The only way they could go to Haiti was if it was to make a sale.
Turns out, there was exactly one American living in Haiti who had a subscription to Mad magazine. And one morning, that fellow woke up to find the entire staff of Mad on his lawn, begging him to renew his subscription.
Sounds like fraud but the kind I can get behind.
Creative interpretation of rules ;D
Absolute Mad lad
lol that’s gotta be a good story for the guy
Back when tax fraud was classy!
I’m not a video game executive but I’ve been an executive and every single second you make a person do something is on the clock. If you pay people for their time, sure. Go for it. If it’s on your employees’ time, no pay, then absolutely not.
Work is not family or friends. They will cut you like a bad branch and forget you existed. Work your ass off when you’re getting paid to do so. But don’t work for free.
Absolutely agree pay people for there time, so it would be paid. But can’t you be friends? Maybe not as the executive, and no one can be forced to, but wouldn’t it be a good thing if your coworkers were also your friends?
You can have friends that are also coworkers, but you cannot have coworkers that are also friends - the “primary” relationship is important, IMO. If the primary reason we’re interacting is that we work together, there’s obviously no reason we can’t be friendly but we are not actually friends.
If your coworker is a coworker first and a friend second, why wouldn’t you pick a raise over them? Why wouldn’t you pick a promotion over them? Why wouldn’t you rather them out for something that negatively affects your job? At that point, it’s just a subjective scale for what you would do for the job and what might screw over your coworker.
Yeah, of course. We did team building. Some were absolutely harmless. Field trips can be educational and fun for all. Like, once we all got a special tour of our city’s infrastructure system that wouldn’t have been possible without a team. That was cool for everyone.
Another (which came up from one of the teams) was that someone would pick a theme and each Friday, someone brought in a dish from their hometown. I offered to reimburse for ingredients and they were usually like, “I don’t know how my grandma makes these.” and never filled out an expense report.
And like a Christmas Party (or equivalent where you live) happens, the company pays. That’s once a year. Part of the job.
All I’m saying is that when you are at work, you should get paid. If you get paid in shares, you’re grown and can decide. But going to an escape room on a Sunday is not OK.
You can sometimes be friends - but that cannot be forced and you shouldn’t try. Sometimes the strict morman will be on the same team as a muslem, an altoholic and a homosexual - you can ask all to work together in the office but they have significant personal differences and will not have anything common to do outside of work. If such things are not allowed them you don’t have a diverse team. I have personally worked with someone live everyone of the above and it works because when we realize those differences we don’t talk about those subjects.
As long as it’s on the clock, everything is paid for, there’s food and drinks, not on a Friday, it’s an activity that everyone can partake in, and not mandatory, I’m ok to join some extracurricular activities from time to time.
Agreed with all this, just don’t keep me past my scheduled finishing time for the day.
I can’t think of a more stressful work day than to see coworkers, in a new environment, with no way to immediately go home(or not compensated for my travel), unscheduled and unannounced, and being ordered to have fun and be social without breaking the social contract of the office.
I will be sick that day.
I just want to do my work, then live my life. Those two things have nothing in common, and I want to keep them separated. If my colleagues want to meet, I ain’t gonna complain. But please accept that I’m grumpy and socially awkward and I love my dogs way more than my colleagues.
My socialization at work is mostly the time clock because we all have a common interest of leaving ASAP. That is the only interest we share.
Just give them the day off FFS. Especially if that’s what they are asking for.
