Sad about Happy Hour
Remember Happy Hour?
For those who don’t: Some Thursday or Friday afternoons we used to leave work and go somewhere else. We’d have casual drinks or light snacks and talk about work, a little. We’d talk about family and hobbies. We’d talk about our shared passion for the work, whether it was medicine, or technology, or education, or whatever. We’d leave a little tipsy and refreshed, and come Monday, we’d return to work a bit more convinced that work was where our friends were.
Welp, Happy Hour is dead.
Sure, some of our teams might be gathering in Zoom or Meet for “Happy Hours,” but those are no fun. Have you ever been? We sit in the same chair, looking at the same screen and the same people we’ve been working with all day. It feels more like we’re simply adding another hour to the workday. Not measurably happier. Essentially, you’re still in the office. Hierarchy is still prevalent, small talk still wins, and you may as well skip it.
Some other teams? They’re connecting for BINGO, or word games, or other online activities. These are fine, but unless you can joke with your friends and have side-conversations, you’re now just taking Scrabble way too seriously.
Skale is working to bring happy hour back, but this time, it’s digital and supercharged, and, since we’re excited to show you what else Skale can do, it’s free.
Skale Happy Hours improve relationships: 1-on-1 conversations are where you get to find a true touchpoint between you and a new coworker, make amends for social offenses during the normal workday with long-time colleagues, and learn exactly what habits or mindsets make the people you work with amazing.
Skale Happy Hours improve alignment: Guided conversations enable you to ensure that everyone on your team has specific important conversations in a space where they can fully reflect and share. We’ve got a “library of conversations” that will ensure your team rows together while incorporating divergent thinking.
Skale Happy Hours improve companies: Internally at Skale, we connect with each other daily. Our CTO (Wei Sun) and our self-professed Queen of Conversations (Alyssa Mcchristian) have never met each other in person, but, because of our daily conversations, they truly know each other. During our “complements” session, Alyssa highlights Wei’s superpower of responding patiently and thoroughly to any ask for help while Wei complements Alyssa’s consistency as he feels that she is someone who he can consistently rely on. I could write a book with knowledge sharing, question answering, process aligning, a-ha moment creating, and tear-jerking moments that have been created through our Skale Habit.
Revive Happy Hour and start doing the work to reinvigorate your company’s culture. It’ll be fun!
