We have two big company events each year, a holiday party and a summer birthday party called the Pluggies (a knock-off of “The Dundies” from The Office). This year the challenge was having this celebration completely virtual for the first time. There’s always a level of anxiety associated with forcing some mandatory fun on the company, doubled when it’s virtual.
I switched a few things up to try to accommodate, starting with having the party cut into the workday (started at 3:30) instead of an evening event (it felt odd to ask people to spend a Friday summer evening just sitting at their computers…). We spent the first half-hour presenting some planned awards based on our core values and then I organized different breakout rooms for people to socials. Three were more “structured” with games to play and two general happy hour rooms. I can’t speak to how they all went, but I hosted trivia which by far had the most turnout and I know lasted the longest as people started popping in at the end as other rooms came to a close.
We did “I Love the 2000s” trivia and, with a 2000s playlist as our backdrop, people seemed to have fun. Or humored me enough to have fun. I like to host trivia since I rarely know the answers — true again for the trivia set from Get It Gals — so it’s a little bit of work over leisure for me but I genuinely enjoy hearing people interact and laugh and talk non-work. At the end, people were telling me they wanted more mandatory fun planned. I know that doesn’t hold for everyone at the company, but it’s validating to know if we plan events people are really interested in hanging out with coworkers in this way.
I always have some nerves before big company parties though so I’m also glad I can now go eat dinner with my parents (were getting takeout) and watch a movie (at my still internetless place, it’s a whole thing, we brought over a DVD player).
With Love,
Natalie