I’ve heard people say, (paraphrased) “work is work: if your going to give me free time then let me go home.”.
On the other side, an impromptu surprise that you get to be relieved of your responsibilities for the day and go do something fun seems like it would be beneficial for people’s mental health and creativity.
Yet, one can imagine if someone had a sick child at home, or some other concern that infinitely more important than work that it might be a bit torturous to go out and try to have fun with your coworkers when you would rather, and rightly so, want to be home attending to the more important thing.
Although I would want to be the type of leader that I person would feel comfortable just telling that they needed to go home if such a matter of importance were to arise.
If you gave a person a choice at the beginning of their job between a day off or an office field trip, most would probably just choose an extra day off.
Yet, much like buying a gift card for someone you know would never spend money on themselves perhaps it could be a more memorable and helpful experience for them to go out and have fun with no responsibilities.
Yet this may simply be an expression of the lonely ness and desire for human connection that I personally feel, due the current circumstances of semi isolation (just me and my partner) in a new and strange city.
I am not a CEO, I just graduated and I’m working to get my first job. One day I would like to lead people, and perhaps this, per my lack of knowledge, seems a bit farcical, but I wanted to gather some opinions, thanks!
This. My social battery drains like a sieve and I find work related social events especially draining. Give me a bonus and day off instead and I’ll be singing your praises.
Would you find it better to get a surprise day off or another PTO day for you to spend? I get that the latter is probably better if you wanted to make plans but it somehow feels more sterile as a surprise good thing might be a pleasant thing, or maybe you could surprise them with a free pto day sometime in the month?
Most people do not like surprises, especially surprises involving their work and/or money. Even if it may be a ‘good’ surprise, many simply do not like them.
How would a surprise day off work? “Surprise, you commuted into work today for no reason! Go home!”
Most workers desire consistency.
Could be an announcement like “Hey guys, tomorrow you have the day off on us. Have fun!” at the end of the work day or whatever.
Saying “you get one day PTO to use whenever you want” is of course better, but sometimes unplanned free time is nice too. Both would work fine imo.
They already said to have a company outing. It wouldn’t be “you commuted into work for no reason” it’d be, “you commuted into work thinking you were going to work and now you get to play and get to know your coworkers”.
You’re telling me I got all mentally prepared for work and now I have to switch gears to social time? Hard pass, just give me extra PTO.
You’re lying if you think you would rather work than go do something fun. Either that or you’ve been brainwashed into thinking that work must be pain. Maybe your current job sucks and that’s why you think that you’d have to “switch gears” but if you’re not talking to your coworkers during the work day then you’re probably not doing your job in the first place which is what days like this help fix.
At my previous job, my relationship with my coworkers was 100% based on work. I had no problem asking for help or talking shop or whatever. However, due to not wanting to potentially tank my future career prospects, I meticulously avoided talking about anything personal or emotional at work.
Any kind of work social event was always painful then, since there was no work to talk about.
Meanwhile, we were a contracting company. Our company worked for other companies, where we signed contracts saying we would have the work done by a specific date. So company social activities either meant I was meeting with coworkers off the clock, or I was burning up valuable time I would need to get my project delivered within customer expectations.
So if my company said “hey everyone, we’re going to a trampoline park!” My thought would be "motherfucker - so I’m gonna spend the day pretending to have fun while making awkward, stilted conversations so I can effectively hide my emotions from my coworkers and thereby retain a professional demeanor and reputation. Meanwhile, I’ll be stressing all day about the work I have to do, since I’m already behind schedule and now I’m more behind schedule. Fuuuuuuck!
Thing is, that isn’t fun for everyone. Especially with activities chosen for you, it could be quite the opposite of fun. I’ve been subjected to “mandatory fun days” many times, and all of them have sucked hard for at least one person there (not always me, but they are always a massive waste of time for me).
I don’t actually want to be friends with my coworkers (friendly, yes; friends, no); it’s nice to have totally separate groups. No drama bleed, and people leave me alone so I can get my work done. Most jobs I’ve had, I don’t like my coworkers enough to be around them outside of job tasks, and I don’t have to. We are there to work, we didn’t choose the people we work with, and I’m not interested in using my job to replace my social life, especially since I typically have vanishingly little in common with the people with whom I work. We talk professionally about work stuff and that’s it.
Plus the work doesn’t vanish on this “day off”. It just means you have more to do the next day like any other day off, but you didn’t even get to do your own thing to cause that extra workload. Hard pass.
That’s a good question. I guess it might depend on circumstances. A surprise day off before like a long weekend would be pretty cool even if I’ve already made plans I would think, but then I like to stress out and over prep for trips and such. Extra PTO certainly helps when planning ahead tho. A situation like “hey, here’s an extra day for the next long weekend/xmas/whatever” a couple weeks ahead of time might balance being a surprise and allow planning ahead?
To be honest I’ve never thought this through this far before. No employer has never actually asked what I’d prefer and no one looks for thought out solutions when complaining to friends or online.
Definitely another PTO day in this hypothetical.