8 ms·

Related note: do it during work hours, if possible. Not all of us want to be expected to take an evening to devote to work events. Even if I genuinely like my c

Related note: do it during work hours, if possible. Not all of us want to be expected to take an evening to devote to work events. Even if I genuinely like my co-workers, there are times that I want to set aside where I don't have to think about work.

squidbot 6y ago
My team is fully remote and distributed among time zones, making it impossible to have an event during "working hours" for everyone. So we all just agree on an acceptable time. We think it's important to socialize as it helps engender trust, so we take the hit as it were. We do try to make it fair by moving the time around so it hits various people's off hours.
evanlivingston 6y ago
This can't be stressed enough. Work outings are still work, and all of a sudden an employer has monopolized my time. Are work events _really_ optional? If I _never_ show up to them?
- Taylor_OD 6y ago
  100%. I was required to go to a company holiday party at a former work place and I only found out that it was not really an optional event after I'd already booked tickets for a movie with a Q&A with the director...
- josephorjoe 6y ago
  i've skipped a lot of "optional" work events and i'm sure it has been a negative for my career. there was one former boss who i felt was always a bit cold and standoffish (but always professional) with me and i could never quite put my finger on why until i did show up at one of the weekly happy hours i almost never went to and realized that he loved them and spent the whole time laughing and smiling and chatting with everyone. since i was rarely at those and especially missed most of them my first 6 months on the job (when i had some ongoing family issues that required my non-work time and focus), i suspect he took that as a bit of antisocial behavior on my part and prevented him from really trusting me
  - g051051 6y ago
    > i've skipped a lot of "optional" work events and i'm sure it has been a negative for my career. In the Navy, we'd say "Your presence is not required, but your absence will be noted."
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - blandflakes 6y ago
    I had a manager deny me the promotion that he otherwise agreed I deserved because I didn't participate in enough happy hours.
  - doanerock 6y ago
    I was like ok what ever, then I read that they where "weekly". That is a lot of events. I was thinking like quarterly at the most.
pseudobry 6y ago
Couldn't agree more.
corytheboyd 6y ago
I too strongly agree with this
zucked 6y ago
Work "fun" events that happen outside of work hours are totally bogus.
- frombody 6y ago
  Only if the place you work is no fun.
  - groby_b 6y ago
    My workplace is plenty fun. But so is my private life. More importantly, people in my private life need my presence more than my company fun event needs it. Easy choice.
  - LeifCarrotson 6y ago
    I'd disagree with this, and I consider my work 'fun'. In the Before Time, we had monthly summer grill-outs with families and Thanksgiving turkey bowling and winter pizza luncheons and other events. We had only one event (a Christmas party) at the founders' house after hours. But none of that was mandatory, try as you might one or two people are going to have a conflict for the Christmas party every year because the holidays are busy and that's fine. But it's one thing to ask an employee to report after-hours for an emergency service call. It's another to demand they attend something (fun or not) that could have been during work hours but you scheduled it after hours.
  - abcdjdjd 6y ago
    You sound like a stereotypical character from the movie The Office that would probably also tell people "They have the case of the Mondays".
  - thorin 6y ago
    When I first got a job after Uni, I moved to London where I knew no-one. By accident I ended up living in a house share owned by the HR lady that hired me and one of my housemates was another new dev in my team. There was plenty of money around for socializing and events planned so in the week, I had a great time going to bars, restaurants and parties at my employers expensive. Everyone loved it although it would have been nice if there were more women! They even hired the Albert Hall for a party one year. At weekends, I generally wasn't available as I would drive away to see old friends and go kayaking/climbing etc in the countryside. The weekday activities suited me perfectly. Now if I joined a new company, I have family and young kids and plenty of friends that I want to spend time with. It's pretty unlikely whether I'd spend much time out of hours with the company as it would be far down my priorities and time would is limited. If I had nothing else on or it was something special, I might turn up.
leetcrew 6y ago
there are arguments for/against. it's nice that a work event during normal work hours doesn't cut into my free time, but it does cut into the block of time that I've already set aside to, you know, get my actual work done. I generally don't attend optional events scheduled during work hours unless I think attending will directly contribute to the work I am responsible for. "virtual happy hour" doesn't meet that criteria. on the other hand, I might hang out in a zoom call after hours if I don't have evening plans already.
- jeromegv 6y ago
  The amount of work you are expected to complete should just not be as high if you have a work event during working hours.
- abcdjdjd 6y ago
  If a company can't find time during the day to make time for these meetings, don't expect workers to cut time into there personal lives for these meetings either.
laurent92 6y ago
I used to offer via ferratas or paragliding on worktime, but then the employees would leave at 5 (none of them have children) and no-one stayed for beers. If you do that, then at least be good at go-kart, you’re paid for it. At least it clarified the situation: They don’t expect work to be fun. I stopped organizing events. If you want work to be boring, then this is how to make work boring. It makes me a bit sad. But at least I’m sure I don’t care if I lose them. I hope to build a better team after moving (which is in the plans), but I’m clearly lacking the talent to build a dynamic team. One of them told me his preferred series was The Office. Now I know my role. Maybe I should incarnate the Mickael Scott role, have a separate office, and be so much a caricature of the boss that they’d have to laugh. But Mickael Scott was the only one at the airport when the girl left.
- ADifferentKyle 6y ago
  If I may... your events might not be as fun as you think they are. Just because I don't have kids doesn't mean I don't have other obligations. I'd like to workout after work. And the dog needs to be walked, dinner needs to get made, clothes folded, etc. I'm also an early person so I've been logged in since 6:30am. Maybe I just want to zone out and watch the grass grow for a while. It doesn't matter - the point is, you don't know what people have going on outside of work, and it shouldn't bother you that those might be a higher priority for the people on your team. If these forced events are so important to you, maybe try delegating them? "I've set aside an hour for us all and have asked Amy to put together an idea."
  - laurent92 6y ago
    Well they are not taking initiative at work, so I thought doing an entirely different task may create another dynamic. But you are correct that I don’t expect myself to be more fun than the next guy, especially a boss. The question remains for me, how can I give them ownership of what is happening, because we are not going to grow if they don’t own things. But maybe that is why I went entrepreneur. I just see the missed potential for everyone, and if I wanted to grow bigger, maybe they are the wrong “first employees”.
- 6y ago
xwdv 6y ago
If possible? ONLY do it during work hours. I don’t work to make friends with co-workers and hang out after hours. I’m there to put my skills to use, get paid for it, and fuck off to live my own life. Asking me to come to an event and participate for free is bullshit, especially an online event! If it hurts my reputation, whatever? I’m still getting paid and have no desire to get promoted to upper management.
abcdjdjd 6y ago
>Related note: do it during work hours, if possible. No, not just IF POSSIBLE, either do them during work hours or don't do them at all. If a company can't make time during work hours to throw an event they are planning, then don't expect your workers to make time for the event after work either.

squidbot 6y ago

My team is fully remote and distributed among time zones, making it impossible to have an event during "working hours" for everyone. So we all just agree on an acceptable time. We think it's important to socialize as it helps engender trust, so we take the hit as it were. We do try to make it fair by moving the time around so it hits various people's off hours.

evanlivingston 6y ago

This can't be stressed enough. Work outings are still work, and all of a sudden an employer has monopolized my time. Are work events _really_ optional? If I _never_ show up to them?

Taylor_OD 6y ago
100%. I was required to go to a company holiday party at a former work place and I only found out that it was not really an optional event after I'd already booked tickets for a movie with a Q&A with the director...
josephorjoe 6y ago
i've skipped a lot of "optional" work events and i'm sure it has been a negative for my career. there was one former boss who i felt was always a bit cold and standoffish (but always professional) with me and i could never quite put my finger on why until i did show up at one of the weekly happy hours i almost never went to and realized that he loved them and spent the whole time laughing and smiling and chatting with everyone. since i was rarely at those and especially missed most of them my first 6 months on the job (when i had some ongoing family issues that required my non-work time and focus), i suspect he took that as a bit of antisocial behavior on my part and prevented him from really trusting me
- g051051 6y ago
  > i've skipped a lot of "optional" work events and i'm sure it has been a negative for my career. In the Navy, we'd say "Your presence is not required, but your absence will be noted."
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- blandflakes 6y ago
  I had a manager deny me the promotion that he otherwise agreed I deserved because I didn't participate in enough happy hours.
- doanerock 6y ago
  I was like ok what ever, then I read that they where "weekly". That is a lot of events. I was thinking like quarterly at the most.

pseudobry 6y ago

Couldn't agree more.

corytheboyd 6y ago

I too strongly agree with this

zucked 6y ago

Work "fun" events that happen outside of work hours are totally bogus.

frombody 6y ago
Only if the place you work is no fun.
- groby_b 6y ago
  My workplace is plenty fun. But so is my private life. More importantly, people in my private life need my presence more than my company fun event needs it. Easy choice.
- LeifCarrotson 6y ago
  I'd disagree with this, and I consider my work 'fun'. In the Before Time, we had monthly summer grill-outs with families and Thanksgiving turkey bowling and winter pizza luncheons and other events. We had only one event (a Christmas party) at the founders' house after hours. But none of that was mandatory, try as you might one or two people are going to have a conflict for the Christmas party every year because the holidays are busy and that's fine. But it's one thing to ask an employee to report after-hours for an emergency service call. It's another to demand they attend something (fun or not) that could have been during work hours but you scheduled it after hours.
- abcdjdjd 6y ago
  You sound like a stereotypical character from the movie The Office that would probably also tell people "They have the case of the Mondays".
- thorin 6y ago
  When I first got a job after Uni, I moved to London where I knew no-one. By accident I ended up living in a house share owned by the HR lady that hired me and one of my housemates was another new dev in my team. There was plenty of money around for socializing and events planned so in the week, I had a great time going to bars, restaurants and parties at my employers expensive. Everyone loved it although it would have been nice if there were more women! They even hired the Albert Hall for a party one year. At weekends, I generally wasn't available as I would drive away to see old friends and go kayaking/climbing etc in the countryside. The weekday activities suited me perfectly. Now if I joined a new company, I have family and young kids and plenty of friends that I want to spend time with. It's pretty unlikely whether I'd spend much time out of hours with the company as it would be far down my priorities and time would is limited. If I had nothing else on or it was something special, I might turn up.

leetcrew 6y ago

there are arguments for/against. it's nice that a work event during normal work hours doesn't cut into my free time, but it does cut into the block of time that I've already set aside to, you know, get my actual work done. I generally don't attend optional events scheduled during work hours unless I think attending will directly contribute to the work I am responsible for. "virtual happy hour" doesn't meet that criteria. on the other hand, I might hang out in a zoom call after hours if I don't have evening plans already.

jeromegv 6y ago
The amount of work you are expected to complete should just not be as high if you have a work event during working hours.
abcdjdjd 6y ago
If a company can't find time during the day to make time for these meetings, don't expect workers to cut time into there personal lives for these meetings either.

laurent92 6y ago

I used to offer via ferratas or paragliding on worktime, but then the employees would leave at 5 (none of them have children) and no-one stayed for beers. If you do that, then at least be good at go-kart, you’re paid for it. At least it clarified the situation: They don’t expect work to be fun. I stopped organizing events. If you want work to be boring, then this is how to make work boring. It makes me a bit sad. But at least I’m sure I don’t care if I lose them. I hope to build a better team after moving (which is in the plans), but I’m clearly lacking the talent to build a dynamic team. One of them told me his preferred series was The Office. Now I know my role. Maybe I should incarnate the Mickael Scott role, have a separate office, and be so much a caricature of the boss that they’d have to laugh. But Mickael Scott was the only one at the airport when the girl left.

ADifferentKyle 6y ago
If I may... your events might not be as fun as you think they are. Just because I don't have kids doesn't mean I don't have other obligations. I'd like to workout after work. And the dog needs to be walked, dinner needs to get made, clothes folded, etc. I'm also an early person so I've been logged in since 6:30am. Maybe I just want to zone out and watch the grass grow for a while. It doesn't matter - the point is, you don't know what people have going on outside of work, and it shouldn't bother you that those might be a higher priority for the people on your team. If these forced events are so important to you, maybe try delegating them? "I've set aside an hour for us all and have asked Amy to put together an idea."
- laurent92 6y ago
  Well they are not taking initiative at work, so I thought doing an entirely different task may create another dynamic. But you are correct that I don’t expect myself to be more fun than the next guy, especially a boss. The question remains for me, how can I give them ownership of what is happening, because we are not going to grow if they don’t own things. But maybe that is why I went entrepreneur. I just see the missed potential for everyone, and if I wanted to grow bigger, maybe they are the wrong “first employees”.
6y ago

xwdv 6y ago

If possible? ONLY do it during work hours. I don’t work to make friends with co-workers and hang out after hours. I’m there to put my skills to use, get paid for it, and fuck off to live my own life. Asking me to come to an event and participate for free is bullshit, especially an online event! If it hurts my reputation, whatever? I’m still getting paid and have no desire to get promoted to upper management.

abcdjdjd 6y ago

>Related note: do it during work hours, if possible. No, not just IF POSSIBLE, either do them during work hours or don't do them at all. If a company can't make time during work hours to throw an event they are planning, then don't expect your workers to make time for the event after work either.