Most of us with a full-time job will spend much of their time awake at work. According to Globoforces research, 51% of us spend more than 30 hours a week with family, meanwhile 91% of us spend more than that per week at work with colleagues.
That’s why it is not meaningless with who you spend that time with. Especially if you are working with the same people for years your daily life is tied up together, even if you would never talk with each other at work or you would never meet your colleagues outside of the workplace. They will be there the same number of hours a day and in the best-case scenario – they might become to your long, life-lasting friends as well outside of work. And many of them do, since the mentioned research points out that 95% of us have made a friend at work. Being surrounded by nice people is obviously lovely but there are so many things to be thankful for when it comes to your workmates.
We at BookerZzz treasure colleagues more than gold and believe that teamwork is dreamwork even though it is not always easy to see how much they actually influence our life every single day. Have you ever thought of why your colleagues really matter? This article is a wakeup call and an eye-opening few minutes for you, since we have created a list of reasons why our workmates are so important to us and what we need them for to brighten our day!
1. To receive compliments from
Who is coming up with the most creative ideas? Who is so fun to be around that you would love to hang out with outside of work as well? Who shines in presentations or who is such a responsible person that you would want to be taking care of your dog while being on a holiday? Tell it to them and make their day – or maybe it’s you that deserves the compliments? Who would not love to get acknowledged by their work? Praises boost motivation, confidence level and show that you appreciate your colleagues and their work. We are ambitious people at BookerZzz and might sometimes fall into a trap of the busy workdays by forgetting to valuate one another. But we have learned from our experiences and will be praising the atmosphere in the office. Did we hit the targets? – the whole team gets invited for a lunch! Someone got a promotion? – let’s toast to that after work! Did we manage to arrange a great deal? – let’s have pizza night to celebrate that! At BookerZzz we take the compliments and positive feedback as a part of the company culture and celebrate all the forms and sizes of success. And let’s not forget our Special Appreciated Person -elections that are arranged yearly, that for sure is a title for each of us to aim for and the biggest compliment from your colleagues you can receive.
2. Teamwork is dreamwork & sharing is caring
Two (or more) heads are better than one. We did change our mindset to working with OKR’s (=objectives and key results) to make it easier combining larger goals with measurable results. OKR’s were introduced to work more across departments such as the share & tell -concept, which helps each of us to understand what different departments are doing and how we could all maximize the help of each team. Besides, within multiple creative spaces, you and your colleagues will put your thinking hats on. Together you will be able to come up with so many more solutions than alone. A successful brainstorm session is like rolling a snowball and would not be possible without your awesome colleagues! Share your tips with them and learn from others – that’s the benefit of the whole team.
3. To meet up at the coffee machine with
The coffee machine is the heart of the company, you head there in the morning to start your day and to get an energy boost in the middle of the afternoon. Catch up with your colleagues, listen to that joke, the smile that it creates on your face will have the same effect as caffeine – humour can be a great stress reliever! The Swedish concept “Fika” should be adapted to every workplace: the official daily coffee break of 10 – 15 minutes for the whole office. It is a sort of a mini borrel to get energy from. In case you are not a fan of coffee, fika can be as well tea, soda or whatever you fancy. Of course, we already have our monthly cake Friday, which is actually really close to the concept! Last Friday we did get into a debate, of rather using a spoon or a fork while eating cake – who had known that this is something to argue about? (fork supporters seemed to win). Discussions you can end up with colleagues in an international office and different culture backgrounds are definitely interesting. And let’s face it – cake does taste better when you have someone to eat it with.
4. To create an open office & open atmosphere
What could be more fun? Imagine sitting at home behind your desk and trying to get yourself motivated. It’s a bit the same kind of effect as when you try to do a workout at home vs. go to the gym – suddenly training becomes a lot easier. In our open office, there are always people to ask from if you are out of ideas or something is unclear. Your colleagues around motivate you to achieve better results and give a hand when it’s needed. An open office is more collaborative, social and a flexible working environment, which will have a positive effect on your achievements. A closed office can be less dynamic than an open-plan and employees can feel separated from their colleagues meanwhile sitting inside of four walls by themselves. In case you need more privacy or more quiet atmosphere, it is possible to work in different spaces as well by yourself.
5. To play laser tag with
If you have ever watched the series “How I Met Your Mother” you know that one of the main character’s dreams was a laser tag event at the office. At BookerZzz this became true recently! The social committee is arranging regularly different activities to improve the company culture and the social interaction between departments and colleagues which we highly appreciate. In these events you have a chance to get to know each other even better. You get to play games, barbeque, go bowling, ski… there are awesome things to do with the people around you at work. Getting together in an unusual environment with them (e.g. hiding behind the tables with your workmates in the dark office or debating rather your spoon is meant to eat cake with) does bond you on a different level. Multiple researches have proven that among the energy boost of a fun work environment, it also increases productivity and helps to tackle challenges.
6. To become a cosmopolitan
What do you know for example about Turkey, South-Africa, China or Slovakia? Getting a quick deep dive into another culture has never been as easy to do then it is at BookerZzz. Things were not always that way, but because of our external growth, the company had to adapt to changes. This meant among other things – changing our main language in the office to English. And believe it or not, all the jokes do not work in English as they do in Dutch! But because we appreciate different insights from different cultures and want to highlight the diversity of talents, we did it! Now each one of us does has a chance to grow their expertise from one’s home country along with work-related tasks! Recently we had an international lunch where all the cultures were presented in different meals and snacks, – an interesting get together point to introduce the Dutch favourite treats to your colleagues from other countries and taste a piece of their food culture. One step closer to being a “citizen of the world”!
7. To look towards the future
As we noticed, it is not insignificant with who you spend your days with. With the right people around you, it will be possible to grow as a person, learn from the ones who know, teach others and expand your way of thinking and your skills to become to next level. Colleagues motivate, they appreciate, support and celebrate whenever you need them to do so.
Not only your colleagues make your working days more fun, they also boost your confidence and cheer with you when you have been offered a new challenge. They are great company outside of work as well and can teach us about a lot of things, whether it was about their background or their ways of working. Together with them, it is possible to change the perception of an individual and renew your working habits, which makes the sky limitless for all of us. Let’s remember to appreciate each other and as simple as that; it costs 0.00€ to be a nice person to people around you.