Hellobee Boards

Is it a team that would like some kind of bonding event? My group did an online trivia game that was a lot of fun. But I could also see that coming off as like forced fun if it’s not the right team. We’ve also had a lot of fun with team games of geoguessr.

Another thing you could do is credit your people an off the books comp day (or half day) as a thank you for all their hard work through the pandemic. That way they get to use the time when it helps them most as opposed to giving everyone time at once. I’ve done this, but depending on your office culture it could be controversial.

Is there a way to call out their accomplishments that doesn’t mirror your meetings that would usually involve free lunch? Especially something with upward visibility like a slack channel that the whole company is on that you could call out two people per day on to highlight accomplishments and particularly individual contributions in a broader way?

As a person who is SUPER video-conferenced out I would love nothing more than a nice note and an afternoon off. My boss is currently all about team building through virtual meetings, team games, etc and for me it’s just another thing I have to fit into my schedule.

Agree! A thoughtful note and afternoon off would definitely improve my morale!

The ideas you already have are great. Extra time off is always welcome, especially if you can make it such that everyone is taking off time at the same time like an afternoon or a day since there's less pressure on people to "catch up" or work while their colleagues are. If your work is customer-based, maybe asking some of your customers to send thank you's or notes of appreciation to your team would be great.

I asked this same sort of question a few months ago in a different forum as there is apparently a Finance and Accounting appreciation day back in September. Who knew? I also got the feedback that everyone is conference called out so any sort of virtual gathering was nixed. I really liked the idea of giving people some time off but I am part of a much larger team (the whole team is about 70+ and my team was about 15 people and included both contractors and employees). I couldn't get management to fully mobilize in time to grant everyone time off so there was the equity to think about (plus contractor time) so I ended up going on my own and writing each member a personalized note through email thanking them for their work.

My other thoughts were trying to get our CEO and CFO to film a short video or send a quick email thanking everyone. Again, the issue was that we're just on the accounting side and we couldn't work with the finance team quick enough. I love office politics!

A hand written note mailed and an afternoon off. I would appreciate this more than an email.

I’ve always disliked team bonding activities and even more so now that everything is virtual.