Socialising with your colleagues, a good idea or not?

A week ago I put a poll out on Linkedin about “When was the last time you did something social with your work team or company”, and the results were so interesting!

Considering we’ve been in the middle of a global pandemic, scores of people still working from home and all the restrictions, it’s lovely to see so many people have still been able to do something social with their teams, whether that is team building or just getting together.

I know multiple businesses who had to cancel their Christmas parties who are organising social events for the next couple of months (let me know if you want any help with this, we’ve got some awesome activities and ideas at the moment!)

We probably spend more time working and with our colleagues than we do with family and friends, which is why I personally think it’s so damn important to try and create bonds that are stronger than just “colleagues”.

Get out of your office or work environment, do something fun (nothing worse than organising work drinks if people aren’t already comfortable with each other, it just leads to awkward silences or people getting hammered).

Team bonding doesn’t have to be expensive, it doesn’t even have to be funded by the company, go to a pub quiz, head outside for a walking tour in the city you work in or hire paddleboards.

There is definitely a fine line between team bonding and team building though, team building has tangible outcomes, the focus is on communication, working together and problem-solving. With team building comes team bonding, but I wouldn’t necessarily say with team bonding comes team building.. but I’m open to debating this.

How many people have you connected with on a completely different level after doing something with them? You can find out so much about a person, what makes them tick or what they do and don’t like, just from putting yourselves in a different situation.

I’ve been incredibly fortunate to work with some amazing people over the years that I am lucky enough to still call friends, even though I don’t work with them now.

Yes, of course, you’re not going to want to be best friends with everyone you work with, but even taking that time to socialise on a small scale can really help break down some of the barriers, relieve work tensions and see people in a different light.

I want to run this poll again in the summer, and see what the results look like then.

I'll go back to posting awful photos of the post office soon, but being in an office that runs psychology influenced events, it's certainly interesting to think about.

- Lizzy Dring, Head of Corporate Events, Huxley Events