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Ask HN: Team fun event ideas during WFH?

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Re: Ask HN: Team fun event ideas during WFH?

#161

Post by libraryatnight »

bluefirebrand wrote: post #85
zucked wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Yep. People don't put up enough resistance to our workplaces invading our personal lives.

We have a newer team member that pointed this out to us. He mentioned in a team meeting that he sees us answering people on Slack or email after hours and wondered if he's expected to do the same. It's really best for everyone to just be off work when you're off work. I've started letting things sit til morning if it comes in after I'm out. I don't want to be the guy that makes another guy feel pressured to keep slack on his phone all night.

Re: Ask HN: Team fun event ideas during WFH?

#162

Post by josephorjoe »

brundolf wrote: post #138

I think it's hard to have meaningful interactions over video chat among groups with more than, say, four people. Inevitably one or two parties do all the talking at a given moment, and everyone else just listens Something we've started doing at my company is monday-morning "random coffee". Everyone gets paired off to video chat with a random person for 20 minutes at the start of the day. It's been a great way to have…

> Everyone gets paired off to video chat with a random person for 20 minutes at the start of the day.

i would quit this job sooooooo fast

random, enforced, early morning socializing is so very much not my scene

Re: Ask HN: Team fun event ideas during WFH?

#163

Post by g051051 »

> My folks miss the natural in-person interactions that occur in the office, and we could use some time together to decompress.

Ugh. The last thing I want to do after working all day is "hang out" with co-workers. If you're going to force me to participate, it better be during work hours, and you can't expect people to make up the lost "work" time.

Re: Ask HN: Team fun event ideas during WFH?

#164

Post by g051051 »

josephorjoe wrote: post #120
evanlivingston wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

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 wit…

> 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."

Re: Ask HN: Team fun event ideas during WFH?

#165

Post by brundolf »

josephorjoe wrote: post #162
brundolf wrote: post #138

I think it's hard to have meaningful interactions over video chat among groups with more than, say, four people. Inevitably one or two parties do all the talking at a given moment, and everyone else just listens Something we've started doing at my company is monday-morning "random coffee". Everyone gets paired off to video chat with a random person for 20 minutes at the start of the day. It's been a great way to have…

> Everyone gets paired off to video chat with a random person for 20 minutes at the start of the day. i would quit this job sooooooo fast random, enforced, early morning socializing is so very much not my scene

I may have exaggerated when I said "start of the day"; we do it at 10am, which is the start of the day for some but not all. Certainly not early-morning for most people

I'm also sure it would be optional if anyone had an aversion to it. It's a small company so we're flexible on that sort of thing

Re: Ask HN: Team fun event ideas during WFH?

#166

Post by aicarlson »

Buttons840 wrote: post #148
aicarlson wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The meaningful interaction cap is at around 4 – even for in person gatherings! https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S10905... Shameless plug, I've been working on solving exactly this problem with Mixaba! Everyone automatically breaks into small groups of 2-4 every few minutes.

Tell me more about Mixaba. I've had the same idea. Rather than brain storming in a large group, break into smaller groups and then mix up the groups periodically. My guess is this would lead to faster group consensus and result in fewer people feeling left out or that they hadn't been heard.

Sure thing! You can see it here: https://mixaba.com/

I did a Show HN last year but a lot has evolved since then :) By breaking people out into small groups you increase opportunities for vulnerability and trust-building, and you decrease the likelihood that a single person will dominate the conversation.

It was borne from negative experiences at a couple all-virtual happy hours at the start of the stay at home orders in the US last year.

With Mixaba, everyone joins a single event and regardless of whether you have 8 people or 800 in the event, it automatically breaks people out into new small groups, shuffling up conversations and making new connections between folks as the event goes on.

Re: Ask HN: Team fun event ideas during WFH?

#167

Post by libraryatnight »

laurent92 wrote: post #108
noarchy wrote: post #38

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.

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…

I work to pay for my life outside work. I like what I do and I find it rewarding, but it's a means not an end. I do not have kids, but I have a wife. We like to spend the evening together. My life is not boring. My work is not boring. Michael Scott as a child said "I wanna be married and have 100 kids so I can have 100 friends. And no one can say no to being my friend. " You seem to want to have employees that can't say no to being your friend.

Re: Ask HN: Team fun event ideas during WFH?

#168

Post by archi42 »

LinuxBender wrote: post #160

I can share my idea, but I have not been able to convince anyone to do this. I would find a MMORPG or similar type game that has concepts of groups, teams, guilds, etc.. and then find challenges, quests, tasks that require teamwork or that can have multiple teams competing against one another. The game should have a chat system that aligns with those team structures. There are probably free-to-play games that carry s…

As someone who spent quite some time with MMORPGs, I think a huge problem is the neccessary time investment to get a lot of the "more interesting stuff" going. In other words: A MMORPG usually is equivalent to the epic pen&paper campaign that can take your group years to finish. You don't want to do that as a fun event. What you want is the quick "one shot" equivalent, a kind of MMORPG which you can "finish" in an evening.

It's just a comparison. Obviously you're not going to do a pen&paper RPG with a group of 20 to 500 people (we did 20 once, it was... uhm... interesting?).

Re: Ask HN: Team fun event ideas during WFH?

#169

Post by [deleted] »

josephorjoe wrote: post #120
evanlivingston wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

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 wit…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Team fun event ideas during WFH?

#170

Post by mopeot13 »

I've been organizing our offices events which have gone well but I did hire Social Scavengers Inc. to help with an event for our Holiday party and it was a blast.

What we've been doing with the events I organize is giving employees a stipend to spend on drinks and/or dinner and then we all participate in an activity on Zoom.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

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