Some things we do to support and improve staff morale:
We have weekly “Game Time” where we play a drawing game
We used to have in-person retreats and will again soon (which always involve a lot of silliness, including karaoke for those who enjoy it), this year we have also had various virtual events for the team, including a murder mystery type game and an elaborate clues-based game in Gather Town
We have had some dress-up days for staff birthdays, including one day where we all dressed up as different characters from a card game that one of our staff is good at
This year for my birthday the team collaborated on a poem where they said something nice about me for every letter of the alphabet (it was awesome!)
We have various slack channels that encourage bonding: a silliness slack channel (where we post memes, jokes, Ben’s tik toks...), a support slack, high fives to compliment others, “I done good” to brag, mindfulness, workout, and pair debugging to support good habits, etc
Different staff organize other meetings that are optional: I’m involved in a monthly “action for happiness” meeting and a weekly “accountability” meeting
We have other opportunities for 1:1s: we optionally get paired every couple weeks in Donut for “fun on ones” and have occasional Icebreaker 1:1s in Gatheround
We have a budget for personal development and morale-supporting items like SAD lamps, monitors, etc
Managers check in on staff morale weekly and our People Ops checks in with polling and reaches out or provides support by request for folks who need it
We do a “cheer” at the end of every All Hands where we all say the same word to end the meeting, selected by our “cheer tsar”—and Max always says “can the cheer tsar tell us what the cheers are”
Amy covered most of this, but to expand on a few points.
My favourite retreat activity was an EA-themed baking competition. Our last retreat was in December, and we also had a really nice “secret santa” round.
Memorable office party activities include seeing who can slide the furthest on a beanbag on a smooth floor, and trying to estimate how many average dinosaurs you’d have to have to equal the mass of the moon.
Caitlin is our head of people ops. A big part of her job is supporting staff morale—both by facilitating fun things like the above, and by making sure that staff have the support they need.
Some things we do to support and improve staff morale:
We have weekly “Game Time” where we play a drawing game
We used to have in-person retreats and will again soon (which always involve a lot of silliness, including karaoke for those who enjoy it), this year we have also had various virtual events for the team, including a murder mystery type game and an elaborate clues-based game in Gather Town
We have had some dress-up days for staff birthdays, including one day where we all dressed up as different characters from a card game that one of our staff is good at
This year for my birthday the team collaborated on a poem where they said something nice about me for every letter of the alphabet (it was awesome!)
We have various slack channels that encourage bonding: a silliness slack channel (where we post memes, jokes, Ben’s tik toks...), a support slack, high fives to compliment others, “I done good” to brag, mindfulness, workout, and pair debugging to support good habits, etc
Different staff organize other meetings that are optional: I’m involved in a monthly “action for happiness” meeting and a weekly “accountability” meeting
We have other opportunities for 1:1s: we optionally get paired every couple weeks in Donut for “fun on ones” and have occasional Icebreaker 1:1s in Gatheround
We have a budget for personal development and morale-supporting items like SAD lamps, monitors, etc
Managers check in on staff morale weekly and our People Ops checks in with polling and reaches out or provides support by request for folks who need it
We do a “cheer” at the end of every All Hands where we all say the same word to end the meeting, selected by our “cheer tsar”—and Max always says “can the cheer tsar tell us what the cheers are”
Amy covered most of this, but to expand on a few points.
My favourite retreat activity was an EA-themed baking competition. Our last retreat was in December, and we also had a really nice “secret santa” round.
Memorable office party activities include seeing who can slide the furthest on a beanbag on a smooth floor, and trying to estimate how many average dinosaurs you’d have to have to equal the mass of the moon.
Caitlin is our head of people ops. A big part of her job is supporting staff morale—both by facilitating fun things like the above, and by making sure that staff have the support they need.
Oh, those were good too! Definitely loved the bake-off. My team’s name of Nick Bakestead was one for the books.
I also really liked the EA themed rap battle. Even though I epically choked trying to freestyle, the raps from Aaron and Louis made up for it!
And I liked when Stefan did spot on impersonations of other staff members. I think he really nailed me, Oli, and Tara!
Lots of good ideas here—thanks for sharing! :)