“A company should not be a family”: when you are forced to have “fun” at work

Once a week Happy Hour, on holidays a toast, once a quarter a gathering evening, a Purim party with a performance and once a year a company vacation. Sounds fun? In some companies, and not only In high-techthis is how the schedule of an organizational activity looks like, designed to be enjoyable and above all to increase the connectedness of employees to the workplace. The goal of all these leisure activities is positive – to create interpersonal relationships between colleagues, consolidate the teams and thus improve performance. But there are employees for whom this list actually causes to cringe and rush to find credible excuses for the faucet.

during the corona outbreak, work from home Distanced people and teams and caused a feeling of isolation which led to an increased need for human connections. Therefore, with the return to work in offices, whether fully or hybridly, people longed to return to events – including corporate ones. And yet, when the fun is dictated from above there are those who prefer to stay at home. If they participate in company events it is only because it is expected of them. It’s not fun for them.

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FireBlocks company event

(Photo: Tomer Plotin)

“We have fun days that include a tour and dinner and always also a company presentation. Apart from that, we have weekends in Israel or abroad and for me that’s the worst – traveling with the whole company. I never joined,” says Gili (pseudonym), who works at a content services company. She joins the fun days because those who don’t attend are looked down upon. “They say it openly. We’re a pretty small company so you know me and know I don’t like it. They tell us how many came and how many didn’t and it doesn’t look good if you don’t come – like you’re not cooperating. I won’t be fired for this – but I am considered a misanthrope.”

She does not enjoy these fun days and for her they are unnecessary. “It’s artificial fun when actually the goal is to consolidate us and create a sense of family and I don’t believe that a company should be a family. It’s terribly transparent and clear and everyone comes and plays this game. It’s not suffering, but it’s unnecessary,” she says.

While she is willing to tolerate the fun days, she does not go on trips and has no intention of doing so in the future. “These trips are the worst because it forces intimacy with work colleagues. I have friends at work but it’s already a bit too much. Being together for two days in a bathing suit, sleeping together, this is an intimacy that I don’t think has a place at all at work. If I want to have fun I have people to do it with.” She makes sure to attend the toasts because it is “easy” and so she can cover the absences from the other events. “It is part of the interest in corporate politics to take part in these events. The corporation wants to be played with.”

In the high-tech company where Michal (pseudonym) works, there is an annual vacation with the families, an annual trip of several teams together, toasts on holidays, team evenings and conferences with theoretical content. What makes her not connect to most of the events is that they do not fit her status in life – a mother of small children. “I don’t go to parties because it doesn’t appeal to me in any way. When I was 30 and I only had a partner it was a lot of fun and I would go to everything, but now I’m looking for other things. The parties, for example, start at 10:00 p.m. and last until midnight. It’s not They tell us that we can take two hours off the next day.”

Vacationing together with the families is considered a real benefit in her eyes, and despite that, she is not so happy to travel with the family. “In the end, when we arrived, it was really fun. The real difficulty was that it was between the holidays at a time when the couple also have to work and there are also school days. It’s a crazy financial benefit, but they don’t give us the money if we don’t come or decide what we want to do with it.”

These events, which are supposed to be fun, must be attended, even if there is no official obligation to attend. “You have to come. If you don’t come, then you have to explain why you don’t come to the direct manager and sometimes to the human resources manager. It’s a pretty small company, so I feel like I’m hurting the human resources manager personally if I don’t come. It doesn’t matter to me to show presence in everything because I’ve been for many years in the company, but if I don’t come, I will explain and apologize.”

The human resources and welfare managers who organize the company’s events all emphasize that there is no obligation to attend, and that from the point of view of the management, no points are ‘deducted’ for those who do not attend. However, employees who do not regularly participate in organizational activities pay a price.

“In the end, whoever doesn’t come regularly will hurt the team’s work. The informal connections are created from shared experiences in these meetings. It will be easier and more convenient for me to work with someone who has already established a relationship between us. The organization will not look at you differently, but it may affect the ability of those people to succeed in the organization. If we form a good relationship and our professional relationship deepens, it will be easier for me to contact you because we already have the initial relationship. Those who do not participate lack this stage, which may ultimately stop their success in the organization. I will never I will force someone to participate, but our responsibility as an organization is to create these meetings that suit most people and create opportunities,” says Dafna Berger, Vice President of Human Resources atFirefox.

The intentions in creating these events and meetings are good, so if they create a nuisance, then the problem is probably in the planning, says Netta Forberg, Senior Director of HR and Operations at eko. “You need to celebrate, but nothing is mandatory. A good welfare woman should listen to the employees and get to know the house, understand what works well, what is good for the employees, what embarrasses them, what makes them cool. In the end, the event needs to suit 80% of the company and fit its values The company we want to broadcast, and it’s really legitimate that there are employees who don’t like it.”

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Company event at eko

At Playtica, which is known for its productions and events invested in for employees, such as parties in Ibiza or Rhodes, training days with Lina and also street parties or dance lessons with Anna Aharonov, the participation rate is 90-95%. The average age in the company is 35, and according to Ziva Shalom, Vice President of Welfare and Global Special Projects at the international gaming company, the participation rate even reaches 98% on the days of the formation. want to participate For us, it doesn’t deduct points from the employee if he doesn’t show up.”

The amount of events intended to bring the various employees together, formation days, classes, classes, lunches and also parties in Pleitika is large even in relation to large organizations. One of the reasons for the large number of events is the company’s organizational structure. “The unique organizational structure at Playtica is a structure of several organizational units within the larger organization. Each such unit (called a studio) has between 70 and 100 employees. Therefore, we are constantly working to multiply and diversify the types of interactions that connect people. Connection meetings are held once every two months between jobs According to professions in the organization. There are global events, local events and formation events for each team or unit,” says Shalom.

One of the ways to make the employees want to come to the event is to organize it in coordination and while consulting with them. Thus, for example at the Torii company, employees from several departments choose to see the ideas before deciding on the activity. “When I planned the annual trip last year, I asked the employees what they would like on a day like this so that it could meet the needs and desires of most people. After each such event we check if they had fun and how we can improve the next event with the aim of having diverse events throughout the year “, says Maayan Tabor Friedman, Head of People at the young startup company, which employs 130 people worldwide, 55 of them in Israel.

While when it comes to formation events for a small number of employees it is easier to consult and adapt the event to the majority, in larger organizations this is a more complicated task. At FireBlocks, for example, the number of employees increased from 70 to 500 within a year and a half and to plan company events they set up a committee that has representation for as many populations as possible in the company that helps in planning the event. “We do every activity in collaboration with the conference because not every idea of ​​mine is in harmony with the needs and desires of the employees. That’s part of the point – working in collaboration. They bring the voices and colors from the field. For example, at a weekend party they issued an organizational survey to choose which artist they would like to see and they Choose a snake fish,” says Berger, the VP of HR at the company. The goal of her company events is to connect people and the various departments, and when it comes to a company where most of the employees are new – the importance of getting to know each other is even greater. “The goal is to get to know each other even from Understanding that every such connection makes work more effective,” she says.

Since the goal is connection and acquaintance, and that the companies see great importance in the participation of the organization’s responsibility is to take care to include and adapt the events to as many employees as possible. “I see more and more in organizations that the welfare departments hold round tables and consult with employees when they need to prepare an event or a trip because they talk about this issue from the point of view of inclusion and diversity,” says Dana Besh Shelah, CEO and founding partner at italent.

“For example, we had an event that fell during the week of Tisha B’Av and we thought it would be fine, but then we received feedback from a certain employee who said that she would not be able to be at the pool all week. There are mothers who have difficulty coming to events in the evening, if I have even the smallest percentage of employees who are not Satisfied or not, following something in the event, I will feel that I am missing an opportunity to produce other informal communication. There is a lot of responsibility here on the employers with a lot of consideration and understanding to produce events that will fit the broadest common denominator possible,” she says. According to her, the responsibility on the employer is also great because an employee who does not come regularly will be perceived as an outsider and will miss the networking. “If I’m an employee who doesn’t regularly come to events that are held in the company, I can find myself a bit out of the loop, and when the next promotion opportunity comes, I’ll be less recognized. There is a very big responsibility here for the direct manager and sometimes also for HR to understand if there is a reason to speak. When an employee regularly says that he cannot take part in the events, the organization needs to see how it can adapt the events to it as well.”