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.
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
In the Navy, we'd say "Your presence is not required, but your absence will be noted."
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.
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.
More importantly, people in my private life need my presence more than my company fun event needs it. Easy choice.
Now if I joined a new company, I have family and young kids and plenty of friends that I want to spend time with. It's pretty unlikely whether I'd spend much time out of hours with the company as it would be far down my priorities and time would is limited. If I had nothing else on or it was something special, I might turn up.
People don't put up enough resistance to our workplaces invading our personal lives.
But 80% of my employees keep asking for them!
* 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
While possible, I highly doubt getting an even paid for is stopping people from going to do things. If that was the case, restaurants would never be in business.
>* The business will take care of the organizing
Again, same thing. If this was an issue, then restaurants and parks would not exist, people can organize if they really want too.
>* Making it a "work event" gives them slack from family members who might otherwise balk at coworker happy hour
This is possibly the issue, but that sounds like a personal problem for them that they should speak to a therapist about. If they stay after work working longer hours or try to force events to avoid people at their home, then that is there concern and others shouldn't be punished for it. Not to make light of their situation. But people work long hours enough in this country, let people do what they want after work without forcing meetings after work. Which is EXACTLY what these things are, meetings. Anyone who says otherwise, try getting drunk at these meetings and saying whatever you want and see if you still have a job. If it wasn't a meeting, then none of that would matter.
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.
The software industry needs more of you.
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.
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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.
But maybe that is why I went entrepreneur. I just see the missed potential for everyone, and if I wanted to grow bigger, maybe they are the wrong “first employees”.
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.
You talk like they would do suggestions... They are totally passive, and they position themselves as passive, expecting me to come up with the ideas and directions for the software and even for where to position the desks or... everything. They’re just doing as I say.
It is possible to blame it on me for not “leaving them enough room”, but when I leave a blank, they don’t fill it. I expected events to let them be more active, and I’ve tried to give them ownership of projects, but they don’t extend beyond the initial tasks.
Omg I’m just noticing of bad of a team they are. Technically they are good, but they’ll never extend the company beyond simple execution. I made myself blind by trying to empower them, but they don’t want any power. I’ve paid them too much and now they’re not trying.
Sad.
I really don't mean to be rude here. Strangely I've had a boss that had a similar beef with our 5 person team years ago.
Boss always harped that nobody takes ownership but lacked enough self-awareness to realize Boss exhibited extreme overly controlling behavior. From which snacks we had (or didn't) to which color markers we should use in a whiteboard brainstorming session. And don't forget to wipe the sink down in the bathroom after your wash your hands. Things that really didn't matter in terms of whether the business was successful or not. Nobody took ownership of the products or features without being force assigned. They were all too afraid. And too afraid to let Boss know that.
Have you tried telling any of them _directly_ that you want one of them to take ownership of a _specific_ project?