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!
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.
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.
If it’s paid we can go to Chuck-E-Cheese for all I care
If I had to attend events off the clock, my union president would eat nails and spit rust.
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.
Definitely the worst part of working is to give up 8+ hours of your day. It doesn’t matter if it’s a trip or staying in the chair looking at a computer. You still took away 8+ hours of my life.
In fact, when I signed up for the job, I did so wanting to be hours sitting in a chair looking at the computer. Not for “socializing” or whatever. I would prefer another day in the chair, since that trip will just give me less time to meet my deadlines.
There are two types of people in the world
There are people who want to socialize with their coworkers, bond with them, have friendships with them, etc.
And there are people who just work here, man. They show up everyday, spend 8 hours doing their job, collect their paycheck every 2 weeks, and don’t want to spend a moment more than they need to at work and or think about their job or coworkers on their days off.
Field trips, team building days, etc. are great for the first type of person, they’re torture for the second.
I’m the second type of person. I don’t, overall, dislike my coworkers. I’ll joke around with them, I think they’re mostly all nice and decent people, maybe even above average. But at its core, the nature of my relationship with them is that I get paid to work with them, and that is plenty enough reason to be friendly (though not necessarily friends with) them. I don’t need to go get a beer with them after work, or go bowling or whatever with them to build a bond with them. My bond with them is that if I do my job and they do their job, we both get paid and can go do whatever the hell we want to do off the clock, either with each other if they’re one of the rare people who manage to make the jump from being a work friend to being a regular friend, or separately if all we really have in common is that we work together. I have plenty of friends and hobbies and such that I don’t need to seek them out at work, and I prefer it that way, my professional life and private life don’t really need to touch.
I don’t want birthday cards from my coworkers, I don’t want to contribute anything to the office Christmas party (I work for my county government, I really don’t think we should even have an office Christmas party) and when they’re taking up a collection for a coworker who is sick or about to have a baby or whatever, my only thought is “how 'bout they just pay us enough that we don’t have to do this?”
So if it’s decided that I don’t need to work for a day, I’d rather just be home. Or have the option to go in and work to get caught up/get ahead on my work in exchange for overtime while all the type-A, middle management, people-people, chatty Kathy, office gossip, busybody types are out of the office doing whatever.
I certainly don’t want to come in on my day off to deal with any of that. Those days off are the reason I work, so that I can enjoy the rest of my time.
Two particular examples I recall that ground my gears.
I used to work in a warehouse. The company used to do two Christmas parties, one for the office staff, one for the warehouse employees. Usually the office staff would get treated to dinner at a restaurant after work. For us warehouse people, they would usually get us a catered lunch. Never anything particularly special, but at least I didn’t have to pack a lunch that day. One year they decided that they’d take us warehouse plebs out to a nice steakhouse for dinner. I declined. I was busting my ass all day in a warehouse, I’d be gross and sweaty and want to go home to shower and change after work. I had time to do that, we got off at 5, and the dinner wasn’t until I think 7, but after dealing with almost an hour of rush hour traffic, and being tired from working all day, I really didn’t want to get dressed again and go back out. And to top it off, I was one of only like 3 people in the warehouse who spoke decent English, and the other two were 2 or 3 times my age, and one was my boss. The rest mostly spoke Spanish, and they were nice enough, but I couldn’t really have enough of a conversation with them to even determine if we even had anything in common to talk about, much less actually talk to them about it. About all we could manage is “hey, can you go grab this box for me?” or showing each other funny videos and laughing.
To me that sounded like I was going to spend a couple hours sitting mostly in silence with people chatting in Spanish around me.
And of course, they were paying for food, but not for drinks. If I’m going to a nice steakhouse, I’m going to want at least a beer, glass of wine, or cocktail with my dinner, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to pay anything out of pocket to attend a work function.
I also really don’t get the appeal of a steakhouse, don’t get me wrong, I like steak, but I can make a steak with some sides as good or better as any steakhouse at home for half the cost. Steak isn’t complicated.
My boss was surprised I didn’t want to go. I’m surprised that anyone wanted to go. I’d rather they have me a few bucks to order some pizzas, grab a six pack, and stay home with my wife (who was invited to this as well, I asked her if she wanted to go, she felt the same way) watching Netflix.
The next one is more recent. My current job has been on a big mental health thing lately. We have to do a mandatory training thing a couple times a year, usually it’s pretty bullshit, but at least there’s a thing veneer of “,you need to do this to keep your required certifications, even if none of it actually applies to what we do”
But this last time they decided to do a “wellness retreat”
Which consisted of us mostly sitting in an auditorium listening to about 4 different speakers talking about mental health, suicide prevention, fitness and healthy eating, etc. and a guided meditation thing, doing a middle school science class egg drop experiment as a team building exercise, and a Cornhole tournament. We had to provide our own lunches, and they had therapy dogs visit us, not really giving any presentation or anything just kind of there and we could pet them during our lunch break.
Half of the presentations felt like I was watching an ad for these people’s businesses, and the other half were just boring rehashes of things we’ve all heard a thousand times before interspersed with some sad stories.
I had to give up my day off for that. I wanted to flip a fucking table when they had the nerve to mention work-life ballance. And half of us are night shifters, and they never schedule any of these things overnight, so it was downright insulting when they talked about how important it is to get enough sleep.
And I don’t even want to play Cornhole when I’m drunk with my friends I actually want to be around, I really don’t want to play it with a bunch of coworkers totally sober.
I got overtime pay for it, but I gladly would have paid that much out of my own pocket to skip it.
If you want to surprise your employees, let them leave early (with pay) on a Friday, hand out gift cards for takeout or a movie or something, buy them pizza, or better yet, just give them all a raise or a bonus. If they want to go hang out together and bond, they can go do that with their extra money after they leave work early on a Friday, maybe invite them to join you for whatever you’re doing. If they don’t, they can go enjoy life on their own terms.
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.
Then why would you force anything else? You know what they’d pick but you’re still considering forcing some bullshit holiday? I’ve worked both type of places and I’ll take the day off every single time.
A truly diverse office will be full of very different types of people - people that’d rather be with their kids, older people that won’t enjoy the same things, introverts, people keeping their mental disorders secret, etc etc. Statistically, probably some women that are uncomfortable around some of the men because of some shit they overheard.
You don’t know what’s best for every single one of these individuals. They do.
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!
I would want to accommodate all kinds of people and situations.
- Off-work activities should be optional - technically and practically (no or little social pressure)
- On-work activities should be optional, possibly with a little push depending on goals and hoped for gains, and be introduced with context of what they are useful for or intended for
Due to personality and consequential social anxiety, I’m more sensitive than most people. If there’s open communication and accommodation to all parties, and a shared goal, it should be possible to find a good way.
Activities may be for team-building, to visit places for reference, or other activities that may have more or less direct usefulness for projects.
If it’s an on-work-hour activity, I don’t think there’s a need for alternative compensation. Either you join or do your normal work.
Off-hour work has a more informal tone and should have more distance from concrete projects.
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I love your rationale and agree. You seem like a good leader and I hope you get there some day
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.
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.
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!
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!