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!
Random field trips for shits and giggles?. Especially impromptu ones. That’s a bad idea. It’s a recipe for “I didn’t wear the right shoes for laser tag”, or “I don’t want to go see that [event/show]”, or “I have a deadline I need to meet, I’m going to be stressed the whole time”
Field trips should be planned, paid, during business hours, and if not related to business function, optional.
A neutral field trip would be: Hey, we are going to a restaurant for lunch Friday. The company is paying. Your lunch break will be extended, but the extension will be paid.
A good field trip is one you can make relevant to the project, that’s a different story. Say you are working on a medieval/fantasy action adventure: go to an arms or art museum and see all the cool swords, spears, and armor. If it’s a farm sim, maybe tour a cider mill or a historical/working farm: learn about the tools and equipment they use, etc.