Broadcasts.com - "Office Celebrations" (Life is Work)

RESULT: To explore the many ways workplaces host and promote celebrations, some common challenges, and how to think about office celebrations in a way that meet everyone’s needs for celebration.
Camnecdote
- Fun sweater
- Baby shower wine tasting

Protein - Main Event - Topic d’jour

Common Office Celebrations & How They Are Often Done
- Birthdays
  - Assumed that everyone will go out to lunch (usually not paid for by company, but by each individual employee)
  - Office pitch in for a gift
  - Happy Hours
- Potlucks
  - These can be for a variety of reasons, but typically are done in a way that shows off some isms - pressure to make things from scratch, typically assumed that women do the cooking, etc.
  - Also see mindful eating ep- pressure to eat what is brought vs. choosing what food you’d like to eat
  - Also can be a nice way to share a love of food and community (Dan’s fav potluck experience was while working in refugee services)
- Engagement Parties
  - Dan had the weird experience of someone announcing her engagement at a staff mtg because someone read it on Facebook (I did not make the announcement or expect it to be made)
  - Pressure to have an engagement party - lots of gifts/decorations, etc. - super super nice, but I did not ask for it and felt guilty for all of the effort/cost imposed on my co-workers!
- Baby Showers
  - Often take the form of traditional baby showers
  - Again pressure to purchase a gift and pressure on the receiver of the baby shower to accept and open gifts in front of everyone
- Work Anniversaries
  - Someone reaches a milestone year of employment, have some kind of lunch/happy hour to celebrate
- Meeting a work goal/end of year celebration
  - Celebrations created as a reward - pizza parties, go out to lunch, awards ceremonies, etc. (see episode on teambuilding)
- Holidays
  - Note: we will do a holiday specific episode soon - stay tuned!
  - Can look a few different ways depending on holidays and cultural norms. Generally, mainstream holidays include:
    - Halloween
      - Office decorating
      - Costume contests
      - Some version of trick or treat
    - Thanksgiving
      - Potlucks
      - A range of acknowledgements with the problems with how we typically tell the story of Thanksgiving, usually with a lot of glaring omissions
    - Christmas
      - Office decorating
      - Potlucks
      - Parties
        Full office
        Department
    - New Year’s
      - Parties
      - Sharing resolutions
    - Easter
      - Days off! Even though the “traditional” U.S. holidays are p grounded in Christianity, overall not encouraged to openly have religious celebrations but we do get time off for them
      - Except for when Dan worked with the Catholics, they talked about Jesus for a full week no problem
    - Labor Day/Memorial Day/Indigenous People's Day/MLK
      - Days off! Whoop!
Problems:
- Who gets a celebration?
  - Sometimes celebrations looks different for different people not based on that person’s preference, but based on their proximity to power and influence
- How is someone/something celebrated?
  - Often how someone or something is celebrated is rooted in a cultural norm and not in how the individual would like to be celebrated for their personal milestones (see, birthdays, work anniversaries, engagement, baby shower, etc).
  - For holidays, how holidays are celebrated is again rooted in tradition/work culture/preferences of people with most power in the company rather than how the employees themselves would like to celebrate the holiday
- Why are things celebrated?
  - Why do we celebrate birthdays? Why are some holidays celebrated and not others? Who is making those decisions? Is is the employees, or a handful of people at the top?
    - In our work where we are striving to create a world where everyone has the right to be free, to live fully and well, the current answers to those questions do not reflect that world
- Often a stigma associated with people who have a preference for a holiday or type of celebration that doesn’t jive with the overall unspoken office culture
  - Ex. Modern Family - Mitchell wearing Spiderman costume to work
  - Perception of people who fully decorate for Christmas vs. those who don’t (power dynamics)
  - Also interesting dynamic I’ve seen with office celebrations - sometimes wildly loose or wildly strict stigmas around alcohol based on...I’m not sure what
How to Do Better
- Ask people what celebrations are important to them, and how they like to be celebrated!
  - Work Culture Survey
- Notice how celebrations are done in your workplace
  - Does it suit you?
  - What would you change?

Mel’s Mindful Minute: 32:05

Pleasant Events Calendar

We Are Always Students

Season 2, Episode 6 of Modern Family - Halloween episode
Diwali & Christmas Party episodes from the Office
Work Culture Survey

Sharing is Self-Caring

Self-care
- What celebrations are important to you? Are they currently celebrated in a way that suits your needs? How can you advocate for how you’d like to celebrate?
Community-care
- Are the current norms around celebrations in your workplace a good fit for your team? Are there a few people who seem to shy away from certain kinds of celebrations? How can you support you teammates in celebrating them in the ways that suit them?
Systems-care
- Why are there certain norms about celebrations and where did they come from? Who decided the norms, and how are they re-enforced and normalized in your workplace?

Reach Out!

lifeisworkpod.com
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info@palanteconsulting.com