Checklist of things every manager should do
managerchecklist.teambit.io
managerchecklist.teambit.io
Back in 2013, our first startup grew from 4 to 9 people in a matter of months and, as first time managers, we found ourselves completely clueless on how to best support our team.
Being a manager, especially a first time manager is tough. There are simply so many of things you need to keep in mind and so many things you just don’t know.
Manager checklist is our effort at making the weight of being a manager more bearable. You can look through it once and copy to your to do list or you can regularly come back here to check stuff, but hopefully it will help you make sure you’re supporting your reports in the best way possible.
I’m here to answer any of your questions!
Lunch (on company time, and paid for by the company, since a lunch in a restaurant might not fit into every employee's budget) is probably OK. Note, however, that you may alienate employees who have dietary restrictions due to health or religion.
But please, no dinners or nights out. An event organized by your manager, who is in a position of power over you, will not be perceived as optional - it will be perceived as a work-related function that you will feel pressured to attend ("mandatory fun"). For those who have spouses/partners and/or children they want to go home to (or just a life outside of work), it would be an imposition on their personal time.
If employees want to socialize with each other outside of work (some do, and some don't, and not everyone likes everyone else), they're free to organize it on their own, without meddling from management.
I guess it really depends on the environment in the team and the way you frame it though.
For example, a 40 year old female marketing director isn't likely to be interested in hanging out with 25 year old guys after work, so if you make that kind of forced socializing an official thing organized by management, you'll run into problems.