[HN Gopher] Ask HN: Team fun event ideas during WFH?
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       Ask HN: Team fun event ideas during WFH?
        
       Can y'all share any team fun event ideas that have worked well for
       you during the WFH/pandemic period? My folks miss the natural in-
       person interactions that occur in the office, and we could use some
       time together to decompress. But, how do we do that remotely? Maybe
       you long-time remote teams are already experts at this? Is there an
       "awesome-remote-team-fun-events" GitHub repo?  Any ideas are
       welcome, but I'm particular interested in events with $0-$100 per
       person budget and work with team size of 5-20 people. Thanks.
       Edit: This is something we'd do during work hours.
        
       Author : pseudobry
       Score  : 142 points
       Date   : 2021-02-09 17:25 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
       | themakermark wrote:
       | Once a month we pick a fun recipe that can be made in less than 1
       | hour and we all cook it together (over zoom) and then eat. We
       | have done sushi, sourdough, ramen, pizza etc.
       | 
       | This works well as it feels like a shared experience of learning
       | together, in this case learning to cook new foods. Many of us
       | continue to make those same foods once we learned.
       | 
       | To make it easier on everybody, we ship any tools or ingredients
       | we can and always do it during overlapping work hours.
        
       | Bashmaistora wrote:
       | Online board games on a video call is a fun option.
        
       | jot wrote:
       | Live Video Escape Room maybe? https://livevideoescaperooms.com/
       | 
       | Or for a different way to think about it try what Podia did for a
       | team dinner: https://kindops.com/remote-dinners
       | 
       | At The Skiff Coworking community we enjoy weekly drinks here:
       | https://getmibo.com/ It's so much more natural an experience than
       | Zoom.
        
         | almost wrote:
         | Thanks for posting that! https://LiveVideoEscapeRooms.com is my
         | site, part of my attempt to help the customers for my startup
         | (A SaaS product for Escape Rooms) weather the pandemic. Online
         | Escape Rooms are really a lot of fun, it's so cool to see all
         | the creativity in the industry being channeled into crazy
         | online games (many of theme featuring live video links to the
         | escape rooms, but some also hosted completely online).
         | 
         | I've since also pivoted my startup and created a new product
         | (https://TelescapeLive.com/) for escape rooms moving to online!
        
         | ljoshua wrote:
         | Shameless (semi-)self plug: my wife loves putting together DIY
         | escape rooms, and given the current situation she recently made
         | one that can be done completely virtually with little prep:
         | 
         | https://www.thegamegal.com/diy-escape-room-kit-alien-threat/
         | 
         | Five "rooms" (or in other words, five people or small groups)
         | that all coordinate via a video call and each have a mini-site
         | and individual puzzles to solve that build up to the main
         | solution. I think she's pretty awesome and therefore the game
         | is pretty awesome, but I'm a bit biased. :)
        
       | brundolf wrote:
       | 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 some non-work conversation with the people I do
       | interact with, and have any exchange at all with those I never
       | interact with
        
         | aicarlson wrote:
         | 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.
        
           | Buttons840 wrote:
           | 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.
        
             | aicarlson wrote:
             | 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.
        
         | josephorjoe wrote:
         | > 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
        
           | brundolf wrote:
           | 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
        
       | breck wrote:
       | - One team member organized an event where everyone contributed a
       | song they'd take to an island, we made a playlist, then played
       | them one by one in Teamflow, and each person explained why they
       | chose that song.
       | 
       | - Another time we did a game where each team member sent a story
       | to the organizer, names were removed, then everyone tried to
       | match the story to the person.
       | 
       | - There's always guest speakers to present on a relevant topic.
       | Easier now that they don't have to travel.
        
       | ianmabie wrote:
       | I have a good friend who runs http://barnonetrivia.com - they
       | have professional hosts who lead ~hour long live zoom trivia
       | games. Questions are creative and original. Can't recommend
       | enough - very fun!
        
       | screye wrote:
       | We play a lot of Codenames. It is a lot of fun.
        
       | akrolsmir wrote:
       | I've been building a list of fun board games to play online at
       | https://boredgames.gg!
       | 
       | One of the games I built as well, https://oneword.games, is very
       | well suited to work events; it's a casual, cooperative game that
       | supports any number of players, so fits neatly into team happy
       | hours or "offsites"
        
       | bkanber wrote:
       | I always have fun with gather.town. Pictionary in particular is a
       | blast.
        
         | politelemon wrote:
         | Sadly it seems to block other browsers
         | 
         | >To ensure a high quality experience, join Gather on Chrome!
        
           | bkanber wrote:
           | I use gather.town on Firefox/Ubuntu all the time FWIW. Seems
           | to be perfectly supported.
        
       | boomeranked wrote:
       | We run "trips" to Paris, if you want to bring your team to the
       | city of lights! Live footage from Paris, cheese and wine
       | delivered, the whole nine yards!
       | 
       | https://www.woyago.com/
        
       | nicolashahn wrote:
       | Our team played Among Us during our last team social. I think I'm
       | going to suggest Golf With Your Friends next, I played it with a
       | different group of people and it was a ton of fun, very silly
       | especially if you turn on collisions, jumping, spin, etc.
        
       | pessimizer wrote:
       | boardgamearena.com, esp. 6 nimmt, Oh Hell!, Incan Gold, and No
       | Thanks seat more than six, are very easy to explain, are very
       | fun, and are brisk. Turn the Tide only seats six, but meets the
       | other points.
       | 
       | Short tournaments could be fun. The site allows people to be
       | spectators to games they're not participating in, and if everyone
       | is connected by voice chat it could be a nice shared experience.
        
       | g051051 wrote:
       | > 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.
        
       | kurttheviking wrote:
       | Terrariums (e.g. https://www.etsy.com/listing/880201016)
       | 
       | We all received a kit in the mail and on a Friday afternoon,
       | everyone was guided by an indoor gardening expert. It was a calm,
       | pleasant, ~2 hour exercise and I got a fresh plant for my desk
       | out of it.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | jakub_g wrote:
       | We sometimes play fun multiplayer games online (+zoom for
       | talking)
       | 
       | 1) https://garticphone.com/en
       | 
       | 2) Among Us
       | (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.innersloth...)
        
         | kroltan wrote:
         | Absolutely second on Gartic Phone, it is brilliant.
         | 
         | It is a drawing game, but it has no scoring, so it is very
         | welcoming for all skill levels, including zero!
         | 
         | Among Us also has a desktop version if you prefer, but it is
         | paid. (cheap though, 10BRL, dunno dollars) (you probably know,
         | but to anyone who reads)
        
       | SimonDorfman wrote:
       | https://rocketcrab.com/game/justone
        
       | maerF0x0 wrote:
       | Mandatory fun is rarely fun. Let people self organize. Allow them
       | to take the cash alternatively.
       | 
       | Also do everything in your power not to label people who do not
       | want to participate. The worst is when a company has mandatory
       | fun, and then kiss your promotion goodbye for not "being a team
       | player" by attending an event that doesnt interest you.
        
       | aantix wrote:
       | Buy everyone on the team a Google Cardboard VR viewer.
       | 
       | https://arvr.google.com/cardboard/
       | 
       | As the "teacher", take them on a virtual expedition/field trip.
       | 
       | https://edu.google.com/products/vr-ar/expeditions/
        
         | gregschlom wrote:
         | But hurry, "Expeditions and Tour Creator are shutting down on
         | June 30th, 2021"
        
           | kridsdale1 wrote:
           | Google, shutting things down? Woah!
        
           | gizmo385 wrote:
           | Sounds like they're just merging it with an existing project:
           | 
           | > To make Expeditions VR tours available to everyone, we're
           | migrating the majority of them to Google Arts & Culture's
           | free site and application. There you'll also find a vast
           | collection of cultural artifacts and stories from around the
           | world which will enable everyone to continue exploring.
           | However, as Arts & Culture expands the Google Expeditions app
           | will no longer be available for download and Tour Creator
           | will no longer be accessible as of June 30, 2021.
        
           | easton wrote:
           | I wish Oculus (well, maybe not Oculus, but they are the only
           | ones with a standalone headset currently) would build
           | something like this. Google had good tools for making the
           | content (although it'd have to be adapted to be 6DOF), but
           | the problem was that you had to either have every kid bring a
           | phone and be on the school Wi-Fi or have a box of Android
           | devices to keep up with (which probably weren't under MDM or
           | anything). If you could have quest for $299 and have
           | interactive educational content there (which the textbook
           | manufacturers were making with Google, so they'd probably be
           | in), there'd be a big market I think.
        
       | josephmosby wrote:
       | Every Thursday at 5 EST we have company "pub trivia" over Kahoot.
       | Folks take turns as the host and coming up with trivia questions,
       | and as we've grown we have a healthy set of inter-team rivalries
       | going.
       | 
       | For ad hoc events we've played Among Us, had a tarot card reader
       | come read fortunes, had multiple chefs do cooking classes, and
       | had a few musicians do amateur concerts over Zoom.
       | 
       | Agree with others that work hours is best. We have standardized
       | on around 5 ET for most things, which is not too late for the
       | East Coasties and not too early for the West Coasties.
        
       | ximus wrote:
       | video games
       | 
       | - lots of diversity, choice (helps finding something that best
       | fits everyone)
       | 
       | - lots of positive emotions (designed by people whose jobs it is
       | to make you have fun). tremendously effective at creating shared
       | moments of joy.
       | 
       | - lots of cooperative games (team building yaye!)
       | 
       | - loose engagement: easy to hop in and out without much fuss,
       | play as much as you want
       | 
       | - easy to repeat: so many games to choose from, some games have
       | no ending
       | 
       | - won't necessarily fit anyone (but what does)
       | 
       | recommendations?
       | 
       | - Portal
       | 
       | - Among Us
       | 
       | I'm sure fellow HNers will have better suggestions
        
         | marineverse wrote:
         | Shameless plug, but it's free :-)
         | 
         | Activity: Split into groups of 5 and go sailing. Relaxing or
         | you can organise a race around island #5 ( start and finish
         | next to the big boat ).
         | 
         | Search for "Pancake Sailor" on Steam - it's free and has both
         | Windows and Mac version.
         | 
         | Greg
        
       | damagednoob wrote:
       | Here's a few online games I've enjoyed playing with my team:
       | 
       | https://codenames.game/
       | https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=sechsnimmt
       | https://www.jackboxgames.com/split-the-room/
        
       | mo2lina wrote:
       | Appears there's quite a few players emerging in this space, some
       | with overlapping vendors :-), so I'll go ahead & throw my venture
       | in the ring https://www.evee.com
       | 
       | We've found the most engagement by organizing larger team "mini-
       | festival" where you pre-book multiple experiences and let your
       | teammates pick & choose which events they want to attend.
       | https://demo.evee.com
        
       | m_a_g wrote:
       | Tabletop Simulator was a lifesaver for us. We play it every week
       | and I can't recommend it enough.
        
       | Wingman4l7 wrote:
       | My team of ~10 had a pretty good time with a D&D one-shot session
       | using https://app.roll20.net/ . Bonus was that enough of us
       | enjoyed it that we could pick up where we left off and hold
       | successive events. Caveat -- the DM (and at least a couple more
       | people) were familiar with the website, and were able to help
       | newbies set up fresh characters.
        
       | fovc wrote:
       | We use watercoolertrivia.com and it's great for having something
       | to talk about other than work/covid. We use their weekly program
       | ($1/user/mo iirc), but they also host one off events
       | 
       | Disclosure: I previously worked with one of the founders
        
       | graphcalculator wrote:
       | Our team uses https://backyard.co - it's free, has tons of really
       | fun party games, and comes with built-in video chat. My favorites
       | with large groups are Fake Artist, Word Scramble and Codewords
        
       | myowz wrote:
       | An Oculus Quest 2 costs 300 + tax -- extremely memorable way to
       | have an event in these times. And acts as a collaboration device
       | and an amazing gift going forward.
        
         | alfiedotwtf wrote:
         | Reading through all the comments here, I was meh towards most,
         | but yours was the only one I wowed at.
         | 
         | Sure, people like different things, but a device (gift) and
         | then spending time together (co-op games etc) is an awesome
         | idea
        
       | victormustar wrote:
       | This is not particularly original but I built a little social
       | game for work teams a while ago (before the pandemic):
       | https://live.jubiwee.com/ - We enjoy using it with my team from
       | time to time. The goal is to bring back social interaction even
       | if we all work from home (for what it worth).
        
       | cowllin wrote:
       | Async team building as weekly ritual is often a better investment
       | than a one time event, one of the many reasons I built
       | watercoolertrivia.com :)
        
       | lizlathan wrote:
       | Here's 101 ideas for you!
       | https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/101-virtual-field-event-ideas...
        
       | umbula wrote:
       | Live action "Where's Wally?". Turn camera off. Hide. Turn camera
       | on. Works better with two plus people in the same location.
        
       | Jorslu wrote:
       | Our team plays https://skribbl.io/ weekly during our "Coffee
       | Break Hour"
       | 
       | It's a fun way to interact, laugh, and find out who says they
       | can't draw but can actually draw. We play with about 8 people,
       | sometimes others join in to just watch or we take turns.
       | Honestly, skribbl has been the closest thing to in-person
       | interactions we have had in a long time. I created the weekly
       | 1-hour coffee break meeting on our calendars @ 3pm local time.
       | Usually water-cooler talk, sometimes video games for the laughs.
        
       | adamjb wrote:
       | Our office of 13ish does the quiz in the newspaper [0] as a team
       | at 9:30 two days a week. One person shares their screen and reads
       | the questions and then we collectively decide on our answer.
       | Lasts about 10 minutes and it's a fun way to start the day.
       | 
       | [0] Today's quiz (we got 16/30, pathetic!)
       | https://www.theage.com.au/national/target-time-and-superquiz...
        
       | Hansenq wrote:
       | This is a tough problem! Every quarter I have budget in the same
       | range as yours that I try to fill up. Some good things that have
       | worked for me outside of the normal board games/order takeout
       | are:
       | 
       | - Team Japanese cooking class via Kenji Y--we really enjoyed this
       | one! The recipes are simple and super tasty and he's a great
       | educational host. https://kenjiskitchen.com/
       | 
       | - Mixology class hosted by Avital--I have one scheduled for next
       | month and I'm pretty excited! https://avitaltours.com/
       | 
       | If I have leftover budget I use that to buy a nice gift/box of
       | chocolates/macarons/etc and send it out at the end of the
       | quarter, but I agree, it's tough to plan bonding events while
       | remote. Any little bit of planning an event helps though!
        
       | gagzilla wrote:
       | You can also host an event for online volunteering- eg. mapping
       | projects. Examples- https://www.missingmaps.org/ and
       | https://www.hotosm.org/
       | 
       | Most of these would show a leaderboard of whoever has made most
       | contributions (within your event/subgroup) and you can turn it
       | into a game.
        
       | mccolin wrote:
       | Beer & Cheese Tasting!
       | 
       | We had a company event from City Brew Tours (based out of NYC, I
       | believe, but we're in Philadelphia) where we were shipped boxes
       | of cheese, crackers, and beers (or ciders or sodas at the
       | employee's selection to support alternatives) and during the
       | event were given a tasting experience over Zoom.
       | 
       | It was excellently done, gave team members a chance to socialize
       | about non-work things, and we learned something, too.
       | 
       | https://www.citybrewtours.com/
        
       | darkwizard42 wrote:
       | https://fishbowl-game.com/ is a fun one and specifically
       | encourages good communication with low stakes. Easy to play with
       | at least 4 people
        
       | secondbreakfast wrote:
       | My friends launched Marco[0] last year for teams do fun stuff
       | virtually. Was at first skeptical of doing something like a gin
       | tasting on Zoom, but all of the events I've done are really fun.
       | They vet the events, manage delivering food and booze for you,
       | etc.
       | 
       | [0]: https://www.marcoexperiences.com
        
       | IvyMike wrote:
       | Everybody gets sent a lego set and (for those who can) a drink,
       | and you spend a couple of hours building and talking.
        
         | mytailorisrich wrote:
         | That's a creative idea. I'm writing it down!
         | 
         | Where I work the Xmas party was obviously cancelled because of
         | Covid so I was expecting an online event paid-for or gift
         | vouchers, but they said that in the end we got zilch and they
         | decided to give away the budget to charity because "that felt
         | like the right thing to do"... Well, for moral and engagement
         | no it wasn't...
        
         | Kluny wrote:
         | Rad idea! I was given an IKEA-branded lego set for Christmas
         | and it was good for hours of entertainment during the winter
         | break.
        
         | tschwimmer wrote:
         | My team did this recently and it was a lot of fun!
        
       | giantg2 wrote:
       | We played kahoot once
        
       | CiuB wrote:
       | I was randomly chosen to come up with an event for my team, a
       | couple of weeks ago. Our team had recently doubled in size, and I
       | have never met some of them face to face. So I decided to come up
       | with a 1 1/2 slot, where a team member could present something
       | about themselves. Be it a hobby, interest, holiday, interesting
       | story, game you played e.t.c. people were given the option to
       | join and watch only, or present. a About a 1/3 of my team
       | volunteered. So we had around 10 presentations. I personally
       | presented my beer brewing hobby. At the end people sent me there
       | favourite (I like to call them lightning talks) and who ever got
       | the most won some money. It was great. Found out stuff I never
       | knew about people. And the winner was a guy who did wood carving
       | in his spare time, particularly Daenerys from Game of Thrones.
       | People who were from other countries talked about there homes and
       | some about photography, there was a guy who talked about his
       | heavy metal interest, another archery and the others were
       | interesting to.
        
         | summm wrote:
         | Was it optional? I find it incredibly invasive to force someone
         | to present something for the sake of presenting. At best people
         | choose something boring and bland as an excusem And similarly
         | invasive to force people to sit through such presentations.
        
           | CiuB wrote:
           | Yes, I mention people had the option to present or not. Only
           | 1/3 of my team signed up, but that was fine. Only the people
           | who were interested presented, but the whole team actually
           | joined to watch which was completely up to them also.
        
         | pvinis wrote:
         | ah we tried something lighter that that but in the same idea. I
         | wrote about it here https://pvin.is/post/carrot-kiwi-banana.
        
         | kaliara wrote:
         | We've also done this on our team (we labeled them lightning
         | talks), and people really enjoyed them. It also helps to get to
         | know one another on a slightly deeper, non-work way without
         | crossing boundaries.
         | 
         | Recommended!
        
         | wikibob wrote:
         | -
        
           | bpodgursky wrote:
           | > people were given the option to join and watch only, or
           | present
           | 
           | That's literally what they said. What's your objection?
        
       | Nailgun wrote:
       | The best team events are no events.
        
         | Buttons840 wrote:
         | Not always, but it does take an awfully good event to beat
         | having no event at all.
        
       | AdrianB1 wrote:
       | There are a couple of things that we used to do before the
       | pandemic and can be done or adapted for these times. 1. Kart
       | racing. It is an outdoor activity and quite safe if you bring
       | your own helmet and gloves. It requires decent temperatures (at
       | least 20 degrees Celsius), so it depends on your location. 2.
       | Virtual bar or restaurant. We used to go out to some places, we
       | can order foods and drinks while videoconferencing on Teams. It
       | works best with some app that accepts sub-groups in a conference
       | because this is also the dynamic at the restaurants - even if we
       | went in a group of 10-15 around a large table, the discussions
       | were broken in groups of 3-5 based on reach and loudness. The app
       | should not mute the others, just reduce the volume so that there
       | is the atmosphere of having 10 people around the table but being
       | able to talk to 2-3 at the same time.
       | 
       | If you do #2 well, you can do weekly a different theme: 'virtual
       | <your preferred pizza restaurant>', 'virtual <preferred pub>'
       | etc, so you just order from one place every time as you would do
       | if you were physically there. Having dinner and drinks with
       | people helps unwind, doing it virtual helps with (not) driving
       | afterwards after a couple of beers.
        
       | enriquto wrote:
       | > Can y'all share any team fun event ideas that have worked well
       | 
       | Sure. Give everybody a raise and quit forcing stupid "team" shit.
        
       | pt3530 wrote:
       | We have been playing Among Us over zoom. It has been good for
       | team building because we do whole game while talking to each
       | other. The meetings to figure out who is the imposter are fun
       | because the imposter needs to lie to the team to convince them
       | they are not the imposter.
       | 
       | Some simple rules: - everyone's phone is muted so the imposter is
       | not revealed by the startup sound - if anyone dies, they can't
       | reveal it until the body is found
       | 
       | After everyone does the first install/game it becomes easy to do
       | a game every time we finish a meeting 10 minutes early.
        
       | decafninja wrote:
       | Gaming is always an option, but that assumes your entire team
       | consists of gamers or at least willing to try.
        
       | barfly4489 wrote:
       | I've played Bar None Trivia (www.barnonetrivia.com) a bunch of
       | times with my team -- it's a blast.
       | 
       | Hosts were great and led us through 4 four rounds of creative
       | trivia (including out-of-the-box questions, picture round, music
       | round).
       | 
       | We were split into teams in breakout rooms so we actually got to
       | converse and connect with people on our 5-6 person team. Also
       | spent time in the main room as an entire group.
       | 
       | Pricing is $15-20/person depending on time of game. We play at
       | least once a month, couldn't recommend more!
        
       | gigatexal wrote:
       | Two teams of ten or at least more than 5 and play Among Us. We do
       | as a team and it's awesome!
        
         | summm wrote:
         | you can't really talk during the rounds, so not much bonding
         | potential
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | leereeves wrote:
         | Among Us was my first thought, because it's a good social game,
         | but is it a good _team_ game? Encouraging dishonesty and
         | distrust doesn 't sound like a good team-building exercise.
         | 
         | Perhaps it depends on how much the team already trusts one
         | another.
        
           | gigatexal wrote:
           | It is! Because if your team is on good terms it's more of a
           | laugh than legit lying to hurt others on your team.
        
             | codr7 wrote:
             | But there's nothing funny about being dishonest and lying,
             | calling it a game changes nothing.
        
           | heavenlyblue wrote:
           | Does that imply I can't play poker with my coworkers?
        
           | olyjohn wrote:
           | It's not real though. My team understands that it's just a
           | fun game... and we have an awesome time playing every week.
        
           | auslegung wrote:
           | We tend to play Among Us and we have a blast. The inside
           | jokes continue for weeks afterwards
        
       | masonhipp wrote:
       | I just recently launched https://slideswithfriends.com for
       | exactly this purpose -- it's a slide-based game builder with a
       | bunch games made for team building. Imagine Jackbox-meets-
       | Powerpoint but designed for companies.
       | 
       | We have a lot of trivia games, some Quiplash-style games, photo
       | sharing games, and other interaction slides that make for some
       | really interesting and fun event options. And everything we have
       | is customizable so you can add content specific to your company
       | if you want.
       | 
       | Plus there's a sound board :)
        
       | chapium wrote:
       | Give everyone $100 and tell them to take a half day at work.
        
         | chad_strategic wrote:
         | We have a winner!
        
         | maerF0x0 wrote:
         | And there's only one rule. No work during the half day off.
        
         | avgDev wrote:
         | Anyone who has a family and hobbies _liked_ this comment.
        
         | 11235813213455 wrote:
         | getting outside is the important part, no special need for
         | extra money (more than salary), say no to (over-)consumerism!
        
       | swlkr wrote:
       | Zoom trivia is quite fun
        
       | Siyfion wrote:
       | We had a real DJ come and start off each day in spectacular
       | fashion over video link recently. The team LOVED it, he took
       | requests and it got everyone awake and excited for the day ahead.
       | Plus, it drove a great team discussion on our musical tastes! (We
       | had https://djgraffiti.com/ - Can't recommend him enough!)
        
         | djgraffiti wrote:
         | Thanks so much for the shout out. Happy to bring you all closer
         | as a team. If you can make it by early to the set tomorrow I'll
         | have Paradise Circus cued up for you!
        
           | Delge wrote:
           | Nice to see fans here.
        
         | nathanwallace wrote:
         | Agree! We've just been doing a simple Spotify playlist before
         | all hands, shared over Zoom. Works great with everyone just
         | quietly hanging out together for a while and sets the mood for
         | the meeting. Most recent was a 1992 theme for our internal
         | launch celebration of https://steampipe.io (a tool to query
         | cloud resources using SQL).
        
       | pratikss wrote:
       | (1) https://gartic.io (2) https://skribbl.io (3)
       | https://www.brokenpicturephone.com (4) JackBox Party Pack Games
       | (family friendly mode) (5) Among Us
        
       | jfdi wrote:
       | I use https://increment.me and toss some suggestions out and ask
       | my team to send in theirs. Been great so far. Things that have
       | come back for ex - calls with specific leaders in the company
       | w/no agenda, just give people part of a day off, do some mid day
       | gaming, etc. Thematically most wanted company fun inside working
       | hours.
       | 
       | Only disclaimer, Increment's my product.
        
       | abridgett wrote:
       | One of the favourite events we did was "two truths and a lie".
       | Each person makes three statements about themselves (as personal
       | or impersonal as they like) and others ask questions and then
       | vote. We did a little leaderboard. It was great fun and we got to
       | know each other much better. I'll also never trust my colleagues
       | to tell the truth ever again :-)
        
       | shubik22 wrote:
       | Another shameless plug :)
       | 
       | I recently left my job at Google to focus on building a trivia
       | platform (https://www.trivvy.co/). We offer both async trivia
       | leagues and live trivia games over Zoom with professional hosts.
       | We're currently beta testing our live games (for free!), so if
       | anyone wants to do a fun live event (anywhere from 60-90
       | minutes), shoot me an email (sam at trivvy dot co).
       | 
       | Also if you're interested in trying out a multi-week season with
       | one game/week played whenever players are free, feel free to
       | reach out as well :)
        
       | dexter89_kp3 wrote:
       | Virtual Escape Rooms: https://theescapegame.com/remote-
       | adventures/
        
       | jscud wrote:
       | We recently had a fun remote event: a painting class.
       | 
       | A local company shipped supplies to each person (canvas, brushes,
       | paints) and held a video session with a teacher who walked us
       | through how to paint a particular picture step by step.
       | Accessible for beginners, many of us had never painted before.
        
         | tj-teej wrote:
         | What was the company?
        
           | jscud wrote:
           | It was with https://www.createmixandmingle.com/
        
         | phemartin wrote:
         | Loved the idea of having a remote manual activity to spark joy.
        
         | cjohnson318 wrote:
         | That's great! It's really hard to create a safe space for
         | people to do art.
        
       | joshschreuder wrote:
       | I've done a few Jackbox Party Pack games sessions over last
       | year's lockdown, they are good fun and there's normally at least
       | one game per pack that everyone can be good at, without
       | necessarily being the funniest or most creative.
       | 
       | It works quite well over screen share due to being time based
       | rounds with not a huge reliance on reaction times / audio
       | 
       | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jackbox_Party_Pack
        
         | Buttons840 wrote:
         | Jackbox seems alone in this niche, and their style is a bit
         | crude for some. I think some of my family or co-workers would
         | be offended by some of their games.
        
         | pridkett wrote:
         | This is what I've done with my team of about 20 people about
         | once every six weeks. I put them on my iPad and then share that
         | audio and video via a USB cable and QuickTime recorder to the
         | team. It works well enough - particularly if you have family
         | safe mode, but tends to struggle for engagement beyond 8 people
         | (also limits games at that size).
         | 
         | We've also created a few team specific decks for Cards Against
         | Humanity and merged them with Cards Against Containers and
         | Cards Against DevOps. We then use Pyx-Reloaded on a VPS to play
         | the game. Modulo the bugs in Pyx-Reloaded it's fun, but suffers
         | problems when people drop out.
         | 
         | Skrbbl has been good - we have to use personal devices to play
         | it (same with JackBox) and it quickly becomes apparent who has
         | PiHole on their home network and who does not.
        
       | gknoy wrote:
       | I don't know what the per-person budget is, but our team had a
       | really enjoyable time doing one of those group painting
       | activities. They shipped us supplies, and we all were in a Zoom
       | meeting together. I notice the resulting painting on my mantle
       | about once or twice a week, and it always makes me smile with
       | thoughts about how fun that was, and how much I enjoy the people
       | with whom I work.
        
       | jcomo wrote:
       | Co-founder of Offsyte here (https://www.offsyte.co). We created
       | Offsyte as a solution for this problem (not just virtual, but
       | finding fun team events in general). You can find & book events
       | directly on the platform - I'm even seeing some of the vendors we
       | work with in this thread!
       | 
       | You can find escape rooms, cooking & cocktail classes, magic
       | shows and more. Many events have a delivery component so that
       | there's no pre-work required for the team.
       | 
       | Feedback welcome! You can also email me at jonathan [at]
       | offsyte.co
        
         | masterofsome wrote:
         | I really like this. Where I work, my boss just picks a place on
         | Airbnb near the beach, and we stay there for the weekend. Will
         | recommend this to my boss.
        
           | ryandrake wrote:
           | Seems like a cool idea for normal-times remote work, but a
           | very terrible idea during a raging deadly and highly
           | communicable pandemic.
        
       | zeeb wrote:
       | WebLiero: https://www.webliero.com/
        
       | dcas wrote:
       | I think the single best thing for me are just casual video chats.
       | Whether they're 1on1, the whole team or randomized chat groups
       | like the Donut bot does, doesn't matter. But it's important that
       | they don't have a work-related agenda so no one feels pressured
       | to get some specific outcome.
        
       | INTPenis wrote:
       | My co-workers have continued their whiskey tastings over MS
       | Teams. The guy organizing them mails out little sample bottles to
       | each participant. Participants pay to cover the costs.
        
       | simplify wrote:
       | There are quite a few listed here: https://quickparty.games
        
       | moistbar wrote:
       | Jackbox games like Patently Stupid or Fibbage are great since
       | only one person has to buy the game in order for everyone to
       | play. Just do a screen share of the main screen and have everyone
       | connect using their phones. My friends and I do it frequently and
       | it works great.
        
         | mbohorquez wrote:
         | I can't recommend these enough. The game packs can be bought in
         | Steam, and there are games for everyone (trivia, drawing,
         | puzzles). The trivia games even have a "Disable US centric
         | questions" so everyone on the globally distributed team can
         | enjoy them.
         | 
         | I started remotely last year and playing these kind of games
         | have been a great way to get to know the team in a more
         | informal setting.
        
           | moistbar wrote:
           | I heartily recommend Talking Points. Most of the work is done
           | by actual players, rather than relying on the game to provide
           | trivia or whatever, so there's no way for someone to play in
           | advance and figure out all the answers ahead of time.
        
       | codezero wrote:
       | A few of the things we've done:
       | 
       | - virtual murder mystery (two people on the team wrote it all up,
       | it was intense, but I think you could buy a good package)
       | 
       | - drawing apps online we use https://skribbl.io but the ads are
       | tedious
       | 
       | - we did a scavenger hunt for household items on different themes
       | (we did a thanksgiving one) - this is easy to adapt to a lot and
       | a lot of fun to see what folks have around their house - fills a
       | lot of curiosity and makes folks feel more connected, also folks
       | get creative in their finds - which adds to the fun.
       | 
       | - I like the other suggestions of a lego set / cooking - I have a
       | friend whose company sent cooking ingredients and folks all
       | cooked together - another that had two or three people "compete"
       | like a cooking show with the rest of the team judging - good
       | times.
       | 
       | - literally just get a cheesy icebreaker book - for once these
       | things really do help get folks primed and engaged.
       | 
       | - Play Among Us
       | 
       | - Give folks a gift card and have them bring what they buy to a
       | show and tell
       | 
       | Really looking forward to other folks' ideas.
        
         | codefined wrote:
         | (Self promotion) If you're looking for an alternative to
         | Skribbl.io that has less ads you can check out a version I
         | host[0]. It runs Scribble.rs[1] under the hood. They offer an
         | official hosted herokuapp version here[2] but I've found it to
         | be unreliable.
         | 
         | [0] https://scribble.feud.today/ [1]
         | https://github.com/scribble-rs/scribble.rs [2]
         | https://scribblers-official.herokuapp.com/
        
         | laurent92 wrote:
         | > Really looking forward to other folks' ideas.
         | 
         | No, I want to work for you! (I'm kidding, I can't leave the
         | company I founded)
         | 
         | PS: Is there something to do with a Lego set? Being able to
         | keep it at the end would be nice to remember the company's
         | present.
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | vga805 wrote:
         | +1 for Among Us, had a lot of fun with my tam playing this.
        
         | Eduard wrote:
         | Do you have recommendations for icebreaker books?
        
       | jefe_ wrote:
       | For a holiday get together a teammate created a trivia game using
       | this tool: https://ahaslides.com/
       | 
       | It was surprisingly fun. You could join just using a link (no
       | account needed), and scorekeeping was well done. They
       | incorporated media, so for some questions a song would play, for
       | others there would be images, word scrambles. My favorite
       | question type, they would play a song, and you had to choose,
       | from a list of emoji, all of the emoji that applied to that song.
       | Unsure how much of this is default functionality of the tool, and
       | how much was my teammates creativity, but it definitely worked
       | very well and as well received coupled with a zoom call. We had
       | about 20 people of all ages playing.
        
       | Aliabid94 wrote:
       | Trivia nights are a fun bonding exercise and easy to do over
       | zoom. We've had fun making our own online jeopardy boards.
        
       | mopeot13 wrote:
       | 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!
        
       | slezakattack wrote:
       | I've seen "The Go Game"[1] work really well amongst teams within
       | my company. I am in no way affiliated with this company, just
       | heard good things. They have a variety of activities like trivia,
       | puzzles, and some others.
       | 
       | [1] https://www.thegogame.com/team-building-games
        
       | mbohorquez wrote:
       | I really enjoy jack party games (someone buys it, shares the
       | screen and everyone else connects by phone), but for a quicker
       | setup this page is great: https://skribbl.io/
       | 
       | It's free and it's like playing pictionary, everyone can enjoy
       | via a link after the host creates the room.
        
         | LeifCarrotson wrote:
         | Nit: jack party games -> "The Jackbox Party Pack" (or any of 6
         | sequel packs)
         | 
         | https://store.steampowered.com/app/331670/The_Jackbox_Party_...
         | 
         | https://www.jackboxgames.com/
        
       | wilwade wrote:
       | Cost: $0 Time: ~1 hour Location: Zoom Requires: Someone to act as
       | host
       | 
       | Here's something we recently tried that worked fairly well: Story
       | Time. The goal was to share short humorous stories. Exaggerations
       | were encouraged. And topics suggested. To help I (acting as the
       | host) started it off with a story about a car and picking up
       | "new" clothing at 70 mph. Opening up to others for other stories,
       | but specifically encouraging stories about cars or clothing (to
       | help prime the pump).
       | 
       | People tended to thread story topics on their own for the most
       | part, but if things quieted down, I would add in another story,
       | likely shifting the topic around some.
       | 
       | A few stories fell flat, but they are short and for the most part
       | it worked really well. It also helped with one of the parts of
       | "Zoom Happy Hour" that I hate: not knowing who is supposed to be
       | talking and when to join in.
       | 
       | It does require a level of comfort with the team, but at the same
       | time it allowed an enjoyable time for those who just wanted to
       | lurk. It also didn't appear to be limited to those who lean
       | extroverted as some happy hours can even in real life.
        
         | kmarc wrote:
         | Oh but that's what I do on our daily in the morning. Isn't
         | that's why it's called a "stand-up"?
         | 
         | Speaking seriously, we have a Mo-Wed-Fri 3PM 'virtual coffee
         | break'. The team of ~15 is invited, but it's optional, and free
         | mic; you can talk about anything. It's fun, not always the same
         | people, not the same topics.
        
       | iso1631 wrote:
       | For starters, something that happens during office hours.
        
       | wvlia5 wrote:
       | karaoke
        
       | mopeot13 wrote:
       | I've been organizing our internal activities however I did hire
       | Social Scavengers Inc to help out with one part of our virtual
       | holiday party and it was a blast.
       | 
       | What we've been doing is giving our employees a stipend to spend
       | on dinner and/or drinks and everyone joins in in an activity via
       | Zoom- anything from trivia to true or false show and tell.
       | 
       | I hope this helps! Good luck!
        
       | vga805 wrote:
       | Among Us!
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | LinuxBender wrote:
       | 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 some of these
       | concepts.
       | 
       | I agree with others that this should be done during work hours. I
       | do not show up to team or company events that are on my time.
        
         | archi42 wrote:
         | 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?).
        
           | LinuxBender wrote:
           | For sure. I was thinking of things more like World of
           | Warcraft and everyone create a new character, all starting in
           | the same area. And for those with accounts, just create an
           | alt. Each team would need one existing player to explain what
           | is going on. But I could see people not wanting to download a
           | 50+GB game and you can only play for free to level 20 or 30 I
           | think.
        
       | jebarker wrote:
       | My team recently did a virtual escape room. Was well organized
       | and encouraged communication and collaboration within the team.
       | We used this company: https://www.puzzlebreak.us
        
       | ydnaclementine wrote:
       | If you want to play something async, http://gamesbyemail.com/ has
       | a bunch of different board games that you can play by email and
       | will email you when it's your turn. We've had most success with
       | Risk and Chinese Checkers, which both support up to 6 people.
       | Games can last a few weeks. There's also a bunch of 2 player
       | games (Connect 4, Chess, etc).
        
         | woodrowbarlow wrote:
         | last year i set up a game of scythe in my kitchen with an
         | overhead camera -- i could hit a button on my phone to snap a
         | pic and upload to my vps. played this way with a group of
         | friends over the course of a few days and it worked pretty
         | well. some things were tricky -- cards that players receive
         | that are supposed to be "private", for instance, but most of
         | the game worked face-up.
        
       | noarchy wrote:
       | 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.
        
         | abcdjdjd wrote:
         | >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.
        
         | evanlivingston wrote:
         | 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 wrote:
           | 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 wrote:
           | 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 wrote:
             | > 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."
        
             | blandflakes wrote:
             | I had a manager deny me the promotion that he otherwise
             | agreed I deserved because I didn't participate in enough
             | happy hours.
        
             | [deleted]
        
         | leetcrew wrote:
         | 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.
        
           | abcdjdjd wrote:
           | 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.
        
           | jeromegv wrote:
           | The amount of work you are expected to complete should just
           | not be as high if you have a work event during working hours.
        
         | pseudobry wrote:
         | Couldn't agree more.
        
         | squidbot wrote:
         | 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.
        
         | xwdv wrote:
         | _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.
        
         | laurent92 wrote:
         | 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.
        
           | stevezsa8 wrote:
           | You sound like you're trying, which is good. As the other
           | poster said, maybe don't expect so much.
           | 
           | For example, I'm a total wimp. I forced myself to do go-
           | karting because the big macho guys wanted to do it. I hated
           | it, it was loud smelly and scary. I was sore for days.
           | 
           | Maybe allow different people to make suggestions and go with
           | ones that are out of _your_ comfort zone instead of expected
           | your colleagues to do things that might not appeal.
        
           | libraryatnight wrote:
           | 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.
        
           | ADifferentKyle wrote:
           | 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."
        
         | corytheboyd wrote:
         | I too strongly agree with this
        
         | zucked wrote:
         | Work "fun" events that happen outside of work hours are totally
         | bogus.
        
           | frombody wrote:
           | Only if the place you work is no fun.
        
             | groby_b wrote:
             | 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.
        
             | abcdjdjd wrote:
             | You sound like a stereotypical character from the movie The
             | Office that would probably also tell people "They have the
             | case of the Mondays".
        
             | LeifCarrotson wrote:
             | 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.
        
           | fuzzer37 wrote:
           | If they're organized by the company, I totally agree. We have
           | (had) a group who voluntarily organized and went out to a
           | local bar after work on Fridays. Everyone was welcome, and no
           | one felt pressured to go or not go.
        
             | el_dev_hell wrote:
             | <rant>
             | 
             | You hit the nail on the head.
             | 
             | After work drinks on Friday are enjoyable _because_ they
             | 're informal and not (usually) arranged as a company
             | initiative. It's a chance to let off the work related
             | stress with a group of people in a similar situation while
             | being on neutral territory.
             | 
             | Don't want to come to Friday after work drinks? Sweet, have
             | a good afternoon. I'll be smashing a pint with/without you.
             | 
             | Friday Zoom drinks from 5-6PM can die. No, I don't want to
             | sit in a quasi-optional meeting with 25 people arranged by
             | HR/management. It's not comparable to shooting the shit
             | with a selection of staff that have formed a connection
             | organically.
             | 
             | The best way to determine the success/failure of Friday
             | drinks is the percentage of people still present at 6:05PM.
             | It's at least 50% below the 5:55PM number. At a local
             | bar/pub, it's pretty stable until 7-8 and you're usually an
             | hour past talking pure "work" shit.
             | 
             | </rant>
        
           | bluefirebrand wrote:
           | Yep.
           | 
           | People don't put up enough resistance to our workplaces
           | invading our personal lives.
        
             | libraryatnight wrote:
             | 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.
        
             | dimitrios1 wrote:
             | It's the exact opposite. They keep coming up because most
             | of your coworkers _want_ these events.
        
               | benjohnson wrote:
               | As a business owner - I can't ethically ask my employees
               | to have "mandatory fun time" after work.
               | 
               | But 80% of my employees keep asking for them!
        
               | abcdjdjd wrote:
               | No offense but frankly ignore them. They are either BSing
               | (aka, being brownnoses trying to look like "team
               | players") or possibly don't have lives outside work.
               | 
               | If someone is that eager to have an event outside work,
               | then you should ask yourself why haven't they organized
               | one themselves? Either it is option A (they are just
               | brownnosing and saying what they think you want to hear)
               | or B, 80% of people don't actually want to go out to
               | events and it is really just a loud minority saying it
               | and the others are just agreeing to sound good.
               | 
               | Chances are, you haven't actually asked 80% of your
               | employees. Most likely you heard it second hand from a
               | manager pushing this idea (again, brownnosing or looking
               | for promotion) or you heard it in a group setting where
               | people don't want to be seen as not "team players" and
               | don't say there actual opinion on it.
               | 
               | If you change your policy, don't be shocked if a lot of
               | people start leaving the company for some "unexplained"
               | reason.
        
               | pc86 wrote:
               | Do you know why they keep asking if they're free to get
               | together on their own?
        
               | smoe wrote:
               | I reckon because anything beyond spontaneously go for
               | drinks or dinner is a big pain in the ass to organize as
               | soon as like more than 2-3 people/opinions are involved.
        
               | bluefirebrand wrote:
               | Because they know their co-workers don't want to hang out
               | with them outside of work so they want the company to
               | force them to, maybe?
        
               | jdminhbg wrote:
               | * The business will pay
               | 
               | * The business will take care of the organizing
               | 
               | * Making it a "work event" gives them slack from family
               | members who might otherwise balk at coworker happy hour
        
               | bluefirebrand wrote:
               | Coworkers are part of the workplace. I didn't say
               | employers.
        
       | crazybones wrote:
       | A small sites I created that is super easy to set up fun event
       | for even 15+ people. https://www.virtualmorale.com/
       | 
       | Have games like Telestrations and Draw and Guess that are very
       | fun for teams!
        
       | sacredcows wrote:
       | Play Catan online
        
       | grok22 wrote:
       | We did this once as a farewell to a departing team member --
       | share-a-drink-over-zoom; worked quite well too. Mostly people
       | chatting and reminiscing and discussing the current customer-
       | from-hell -- it was an unexpectedly good way to bond. Maybe it
       | worked well because the focus was on one person. But zoom can be
       | a pain for separate one-on-one conversations in a group -- but
       | there are now newer online conference systems that seem to
       | facilitate that (haven't used any of those though).
        
       | Buttons840 wrote:
       | Form a chess team with your co-workers?
       | https://nacorporatechess.com/
        
       | jdlyga wrote:
       | Anything that involves free stuff. Cooking class with free
       | ingredients, a painting class with free paint, a wine tasting
       | with free wine. Just anything but a regular old zoom "happy
       | hour".
        
       | bradhilton wrote:
       | Not a super creative, fun "event" per-se, but we have weekly
       | virtual team lunches on Monday where the company orders everyone
       | doordash and we hop on a zoom call to eat and chat. YMMV
        
       | bighitbiker3 wrote:
       | Shameless plug, but this is exactly what we do at Mystery. We
       | have a curated catalog and the ability to distribute supplies to
       | your team.
       | 
       | The activities I've helped vet are all super fun and engaging and
       | our customers have loved them as well.
       | 
       | https://trymystery.com
        
         | kennethfriedman wrote:
         | typo, .com
        
           | bighitbiker3 wrote:
           | Thank you!
        
       | esotericn wrote:
       | In the UK, it is legal to exercise with one other person. So one
       | is able to go for a walk.
       | 
       | Despite this, virtually no companies I know of are encouraging
       | this real, physical, safe interaction that has a huge potential
       | for building team bonds.
       | 
       | It's been a year so far, and we could well be doing this for
       | years.
       | 
       | I think that outdoor team events are a reasonable way forward.
        
       | SecureToaster wrote:
       | We've done: - Bake pizza (and chat) - Played a selection of mini
       | games, trivia, apps, what ever people found. pictionary works
       | well on zoom for instances. - Quiz. Each team had to prepare 10
       | points worth of questions, each team = 1 round. A good compere
       | makes or breaks it. Inc bonus rounds like "2 minutes to find the
       | oldest food item in your cupboard" - paid for
       | www.theeventscompany.co.uk for 1 evening. Not idea how much they
       | charged us.
       | 
       | Also using zooms break out rooms to split us up into small groups
       | of 4-6 so you can have a more personal chat really. Do that for
       | 10m. Then shuffle the rooms. In a 20 room only a few people will
       | really talk.
        
       | cpursley wrote:
       | What about a bonus or some extra time off rather than a team
       | event?
        
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       (page generated 2021-02-09 23:01 UTC)