Holiday Party Joy in Business and at Work

I attended a great company holiday party last Friday – the company owners wanted to show their gratitude to their team for a great year. Here’s why the party was great:

• It was held in a fun local bowling alley – the owners (Lynn and Joanne) paid for everyone to bowl, and we could dress in our business / weekend casual clothes.  Lynn, Joanne and their significant others bowled with the rest of the team:

(I held my 40th birthday there, BTW, rolling a 220 and beating everyone at the party – apparently, being 7 months pregnant gives you a great center of gravity for rolling strikes. P.S. – there was nearly 100% employee attendance, many with their significant others, on this Friday night before Christmas, including but not limited to the manufacturing manager whose daughter had been born 2 days earlier. Most of the employees, managers and owners gather here every other Friday to bowl after work. Everyone was smiling and having a great time.)

• There was a buffet of hearty bowling alley food (pizza, meatballs, wings, salad) – Lynn and Joanne fed everyone, too.
• When I walked in, Lynn handed everyone (including me) a $10 bill. “What’s this?” I asked. I had never been handed cash at a company holiday party before. “We’re paying for the soda,” Lynn explained. “The $10 is our version of a drink ticket. Easier to keep track of and control.” Great best practice from Lynn and Joanne. Basically, you could buy 1.75 beers with the 10 bucks, minimizing alcohol overindulgence. “I don’t drink,” I reminded Lynn, handing her back the $10. “Keep it,” she responded. “Everyone gets $10 to spend any way they choose.”

• Then, Angela the office manager gave us each a number (mine was 21) to take turns drawings from a bag of gift cards with values from $25 to $100. Corie, one of the newer engineers, drew a $50 gift card to P.F. Chang’s, a restaurant she wanted to try:

• Knowing my husband and son could not attend, Lynn walked up to me after a while and gently advised: “Please feel free to get home to your family whenever you need to leave.”

How do you generate holiday joy for your team this year (and every year) in business and at work?

Happy Holidays to you and yours!