office pick-me-ups

[lust2hart]

Does your office do any sort of office-wide "pick-me-ups" - for example, during your busy season and people are stressed out, management will bring in a massage therapist or some treats or something? What have they done? Or what do you wish they would do, if they were to do something like that?

[gnomesweetgnome]

We have come-and-go parties pretty much every month at work, in addition to retirement parties, baby showers, etc. This week is university-wide Staff Appreciation Week so my supervisor has been bringing in different treats every day all week, and some of the supervisors got together and had a party for their student assistants to celebrate as well.

[stephlove]

Sometimes they let me change the radio station.

[firedancer49]

Absolutely nothing. Although, a chair massage person comes in once a week, but you have to pay for it if you want it.

[Deleted]

During the summer most everyone goes to a park by the office and plays soccer or Frisbee or whatever for an hour at lunch. We also do quarterly activities out of the office - last month it was bowling but we've gone to a nice restaurant, laser tag, and a trampoline park before.

[WOT?*]

Old place did potlucks and occasional events like bowling, arcade, etc.

DH's place did a massage therapist once. She ended up marrying one of the equity partners.

[cuddlyevil]

I organize monthly social events for the other administrative personnel in the department. We've done an ice cream social, coffee & cookies, tailgate party, a taco bar. This month people are moving offices and are in/out so we're doing a trivia contest--everyone who gets all the right answers is entered into a drawing for an Easter surprise (it'll be an easter lily or something nice like that).

I'm think of some outdoor activities for May & June since the weather will be good and we'll be scattered across 3 buildings.

[Bernadine]

We do a monthly birthday celebration and everyone takes turns bringing in a dessert. I'd rather just not do it.

[chickadee77]

Ours does random dilly-bar days. Yum!

Also, our new dean once gathered the whole staff on a Friday (the day before, she said it was a "jeans day," so most people were appropriately dressed) and surprised us by taking us outside on the campus's huge front lawn and staging a softball game. Participation voluntary, but if you didn't, you could still hang outside and eat the surprise ice cream and enjoy a nice summer day. Then she let us leave an hour early. I love her. She was the best boss ever.

[LeggsBenedict]

I'm pretty sure they are doing an easter egg hunt today but I switched my shift with someone. No eggs for me.

Sometimes they throw candy at us and then tell us we aren't allowed to eat it on the sales floor.

[walterismydog]

They have nerf wars on a daily basis.

The company USED to provide alcohol but now they have to provide their own. I say "them" because I don't work at the office and I've always had to supply my own alcohol.

[looseseal]

When I was in public accounting, we would have "tax season survival kits." They were just bags filled with hand sanitizer, snacks, fun post-its or office supplies, and sometimes coupons for free lunches. Soemtimes they would bring in a chair massage place, or do dry cleaning pickup, or provide breakfast. At my new job, they don't do as much but we also don't have to work 75-80 hour weeks, so that's nice.

[Deleted]

In my old office, we did a few things. We had potlucks pretty frequently (any excuse, really, lol). We also had a week every year that was like an 'appreciation week' where all of the managers/supervisors brought in a different treat each day. Free chair massages that week, too.

[MWOS]

Sometimes they give us roach traps, but sometimes we have to supply our own.

[Deleted]

We have monthly wine tastings -- this month's is today, in fact!

And other cocktail parties, drinks, etc.

The best way to show appreciation to lawyers is through alcohol.

[fuckyourcouch]

nope. oh wait, every time it's someone's birthday we're supposed to have an office lunch. but nobody even acknowledged my birthday existed soooo

[mrsgoontz]

Everyone gives me money once a year and I bring in birthday treats once a month. My group also does happy hours every few months at a nice restaurant/bar.

For the company overall they bring in food trucks every so often (but you still have to pay for the food), and we have a big holiday lunch that the company puts on for everyone.

[Deleted]

We have potlucks for birthdays/holidays a couple times a month. We have a breakfast potluck tomorrow.

Last summer on some of the hottest days, they bought us ice cream and handed it out.

They let us leave early the day before most holidays but they still pay us for a full day.

If we meet/exceed 140% productivity every month we get $500 bonus.

Around Christmas we have cubicle decorating contests and the top 3 winners get gift cards or get lunch bought for them or something like that.

[lindsaymg]

I will preface this with I work for a company that is on all the "top places to work for" lists. We are spoiled.


Big meetings always have food-- yesterday we had Chickfila at 4PM for a big announcement.

Celebrations include beer, wine and margaritas.

We also have free soda fountains all the time which I don't take advantage of.

We have food trucks twice a week (just about every truck in town is there).

We have two food vendors every day for lunch plus two for breakfast.

We have an awesome Santa come to take free pictures with kids every Christmas.

Our holiday party has the budget and outrageous nature of a Kardashian wedding.

We have a full service coffee bar.

We have a soft tissue repair specialist who works full time from our building which is covered with zero copay on our company insurance.

We used to have a part time masseuse but they cut that because nobody was using them because their rates weren't great and you had to wear clothes.

We have zero dress code-- it literally says "wear clothes" in our manual.

We get one day a quarter for a team outing-- usually involves a lot of food and drinking.

We get two paid volunteer days a year to volunteer for any nonprofit of our choosing-- company sponsored or not.

We have a "bonus day breakfast" where on the friday of our quarterly bonus payout our teams make pancakes

We have video games consoles, air hockey tables, Foosball, and ping pong scattered around our campus.

We have a giant slide in the middle of our building from the second floor to the first.

We have "ice cream Friday" which is a weekly catch up with our VP around our floors ice cream fridge filled with every kind of ice cream bar and Popsicle known to man.  We give recognition to other people on our teams with $50 visa gift cards.

We have "next iron chef" style cook offs (best salsa, best queso, best guac).

[iamgrace]

Newp.

[iamgrace]

lindsaymg is your company hiring? Lol

[lindsaymg]

Mar 28, 2013 15:00:28 GMT -5 iamgrace said:

lindsaymg is your company hiring? Lol

Always, growing 20% a year. It really is a playground for adults.

[cheeseandcrackers]

Not really.
I mean.. sometimes they bring in food..

[partiallysunny]

Mar 28, 2013 14:45:20 GMT -5 lindsaymg said:

I will preface this with I work for a company that is on all the "top places to work for" lists. We are spoiled.


Big meetings always have food-- yesterday we had Chickfila at 4PM for a big announcement.

Celebrations include beer, wine and margaritas.

We also have free soda fountains all the time which I don't take advantage of.

We have food trucks twice a week (just about every truck in town is there).

We have two food vendors every day for lunch plus two for breakfast.

We have an awesome Santa come to take free pictures with kids every Christmas.

Our holiday party has the budget and outrageous nature of a Kardashian wedding.

We have a full service coffee bar.

We have a soft tissue repair specialist who works full time from our building which is covered with zero copay on our company insurance.

We used to have a part time masseuse but they cut that because nobody was using them because their rates weren't great and you had to wear clothes.

We have zero dress code-- it literally says "wear clothes" in our manual.

We get one day a quarter for a team outing-- usually involves a lot of food and drinking.

We get two paid volunteer days a year to volunteer for any nonprofit of our choosing-- company sponsored or not.

We have a "bonus day breakfast" where on the friday of our quarterly bonus payout our teams make pancakes

We have video games consoles, air hockey tables, Foosball, and ping pong scattered around our campus.

We have a giant slide in the middle of our building from the second floor to the first.

We have "ice cream Friday" which is a weekly catch up with our VP around our floors ice cream fridge filled with every kind of ice cream bar and Popsicle known to man.  We give recognition to other people on our teams with $50 visa gift cards.

We have "next iron chef" style cook offs (best salsa, best queso, best guac).

(heart) Wow.

[Deleted]

Oh now I know I'm officially old and contrary. I would be very unhappy with all those shenanigans at Lindsay's company. That's like an introvert's worst nightmare.

[SKP82]

Not at my current company.

My last company provided bagels for breakfast and ordered lunch every Friday. The Christmas parties were also awesome.

I hear my new company has pretty fantastic annual meeting locations.

[lindsaymg]

Mar 28, 2013 15:16:03 GMT -5 05heel said:

Oh now I know I'm officially old and contrary. I would be very unhappy with all those shenanigans at Lindsay's company. That's like an introvert's worst nightmare.

Many people here actually feel that way.

[RoxMonster]

Sometimes our principal will bring in free food like the day before Christmas break or something.

Local businesses also donate goodies to us during Teacher Appreciation Week.

[cc]

I want to work where lindsaymg works!

[lilibet]

Mar 28, 2013 15:16:03 GMT -5 05heel said:

Oh now I know I'm officially old and contrary. I would be very unhappy with all those shenanigans at Lindsay's company. That's like an introvert's worst nightmare.

Totally agree. No thank you.


My office sometimes tries to do fun things but they usually fail. They sometimes make us do these "fun" games that are usually things someone saw on that minute to win it. The office coord stands up front and screams at everyone to go go go!

They also did a Wii Olympics thing last year but a few people complained because they were forced to participate in events that used the wii fit and when they stepped on it (in front of the room full of people) the system did the "wow, you're fat" weeze/sigh noise. One lady was mortified.

And even when they try to do nice basic things they mess it up - my direct boss brought ice cream from DQ to a meeting once (didn't ask who wanted some or anything before) and then got mad when a few of us (the diabetic, the woman with IBS/stomach issues, and me who has issues digesting lactose) said no thank you she got really ticked and was a total jerk about it.