Improving Office Culture
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- desmo
Looking for some tips on improving office culture.
I work at a small studio (less then 8 ppl).
Any ideas other then, drinks? Maybe offsite learning sessions, team lunch, bowling, etc. Is there something small that you guys do once or twice a month that changes things up a bit?
Essentially, its all work and we need to get the boring out of the office
- detritus0
Orgy.
- Black out the windows, blindfold everyone, let the gay commence.detritus
- Was it awkward in your office the next morning?desmo
- No, cuz they did it all over againMilan
- Well, it's been 6 months and we've decided it's best if we all keep the blindfolds on.detritus
- Productivity's gone up fairly significantly, mind.detritus
- quality is down though, right?Amicus
- No one's talking to each other, so I don't think anyone really knows.detritus
- monospaced0
Let individuals control music for the day, take breaks and play a game once in awhile (Yahtzee, for example), and yeah, bowling is good too.
- the music one is good, there's always good fairly lighthearted banter comes from that.Wolfboy
- sarahfailin0
- oh, OTHER than drinks. ... the globe does a lot too.sarahfailin
- what is that?monospaced
- I would say that's a Hinged Globe of Hidden Awesomeness™, by the looks of it.Continuity
- ArchitectofFate0
go visit a real proffessional of any craft, the older the better. They have the best stories.
- BaskerviIle0
• Show TED lectures each week for inspiration.
• Provide a group free lunch each week for all 8 of you to actually sit down and eat/chat together.
• Organise group trips to exhibitions
• Share inspiration site and video via email all the time.
• Each week, send a summary of all the creative work produced around to everyone, or organise a creative show and tell.
• Get people from other studios/companies/startups to come in and give talks.
• Create a startup of your own for everyone to work on in their spare time (like google's 20% time)
- Continuity0
Pay them better salaries, and don't make them work 16-hour days for two months straight.
You'll be amazed how much morale improves.
- Also, I'm not being sarcastic when I say this.Continuity
- daaaamn, you crazy!monospaced
- I know!Continuity
- whoa whoa whoa whooooaaaadoesnotexist
- < lolmonospaced
- sine0
^ this
why does office culture need uplifting? that's what you need to look at. anything else will just be temporary.
it doesn't have to be their salaries or working hours that's the problem.
also, it's the end of the year! fuck this shit already!
- utopian0
^ this
- mg330
I watched a company I worked at try to invent a culture out of the blue when they became a new company, having left a large parent company. They seemed to make it about the method of getting work done far more than the environment the work was being done in. We were trying to create this culture around working hard to grow and strengthen our reputation as a new company.
Office culture, IMO, is not about the way you work. It's not about feeling pride about getting work done. It's about being in surroundings that are comfortable, stimulating, and motivating, and being surrounded by people that you can trust, respect, be respected by, learn from, and never feel subservient to. A good culture is one where everyone feels like an equal; just a bunch of nice and talented people working TOGETHER and not against each other.
- < 2nd paragraph. So true.centro
- I'm happy to say that after about a month at Ogilvy, I'm feeling everything in the second paragraph. :)mg33
- someone has to be in chargemonospaced
- True mono, but they still have to choose between friend or foe.
mg33
- uan0
good food. free food. and not talking 'bout work during lunch
- CALLES0
definitely more sex amongst yourselves
- dmay0
These guys seem to have a great office culture:
http://www.campaignmonitor.com/c…
- i_monk0
Learn your employees' names and make some effort to talk to them at least once in the four years they've been there...
What? That isn't a common problem? Just here, then...
- I think it might be time to polish up your CV, there, son!Continuity
- Get out of my brain!i_monk
- There are only 8 people, I'm sure he knows their names and talks to them all regularlymonospaced
- *woosh*i_monk
- oh... haha, sorrymonospaced
- animatedgif0
Better pay
Provide beer on fridays 4/5 onwardsThough if the people don't give a shit in the first place then they're beyond help.
- Thursdays. People (rightly) want to go the fuck home on Friday nights.Continuity
- Agreed. Thursdays make the best office happy hours.DRIFTMONKEY
- mg330
Also - if someone at your office gives the go ahead on a Scotch of the Month club, YOU START THE SCOTCH OF THE MONTH CLUB.
- monospaced0
Alcohol at work, while fun in theory, won't help the studio culture one bit.
- Numbs the pain, though. Sometimes, that's all you need. :\Continuity
- Numbs pain? It makes people drunk and stupid and lazy and makes teh work shitmonospaced
- Well, if it's consumed during productive hours, yeah, I agree.Continuity
- the only time we drank was in all-night pitch work, and that was only during the production phasemonospaced
- No alcohol at work will thoughanimatedgif
- dbloc0
this is what we do.
- DaveO0
Lots of good thoughts here! I hate it when people think that free drinks after work is something people will consider as a great benefit. Anything arranged after work to me is just eating into my personal time. I love the people i work with but i love my wife and friends more.
I think having good things to do as a group in each quarter would be good – spring party, summer away day, holiday party etc. They key i reckon to this is actually making sure they happen and moving projects around them, rather than canceling and rescheduling a million times.
Friday breakfast delivered to the office at 9:0am is always good!
- +monospaced
- I meant during work not after workanimatedgif
- autoflavour0
group sex..
