Ask Lemmy

Good luck with your job search! I hope you land something good

In that circumstance, a periodic board game day might be better.

Its social, but much more relevant, and gets new ideas into the team, or gives them ways to try shit out together.

Plus, professional game designers are the one group of people some if the denser and more experimental board games would be a team building rather than team sundering exercise for.

I think going to a location related to the project would be a great idea. I'd encourage note/ pictures. Then, I'd discuss those observations as a group, and how they could be implemented in the game.

If you're talking about r and r, throw them a day off.

Do it on the clock, during a work day. Make sure you plan for nothing to get done that day. Make it optional: go to the field trip (expenses paid), or take a free day of PTO. Either way they get paid and, because you planned for it in the development schedule, don't have to worry about potentially having to play catch up because of the day off later. That way it gives them the choice to go do something fun on the company's dime or stay at home and recharge. Another thing to note: don't limit yourself to game-related stuff like video game museums.

Go to an aquarium.

Go to a zoo.

Go to a national park if there's one nearby.

Go to a natural science museum.

The artistic side of game dev takes inspiration from a wide variety of sources, not just other forms of media. Tbh, the most boring field trip I can think of would be to go to a movie theater or video game museum. I want to see something new and take inspiration from that.

At a previous job we had outings occasionally, the last one was axe throwing and we had our bonuses handed out there.

No.

Fuck off with this shit.

Having to work for a living is more than monstrous enough without asshats trying to make it "fun".

If you want to reward your employees give them better pay, and paid time off, and let them know you value their work (no bonuses or similar shit, though, that'll cause even more stress than the horror of having to waste most of your life working already does; if you want to give them more money, give them a raise, no fucking strings attached; or even better, pay them the same in total but reduce their work hours, so they bring the same amount home at the end of the month without having to work as much).

Whatever you do make it optional.

If i wanted to hang out with my coworkers i would do so.
I don't for a reason.

I would want to accommodate all kinds of people and situations.

• Off-work activities should be optional - technically and practically (no or little social pressure)
• On-work activities should be optional, possibly with a little push depending on goals and hoped for gains, and be introduced with context of what they are useful for or intended for

Due to personality and consequential social anxiety, I'm more sensitive than most people. If there's open communication and accommodation to all parties, and a shared goal, it should be possible to find a good way.

Activities may be for team-building, to visit places for reference, or other activities that may have more or less direct usefulness for projects.

If it's an on-work-hour activity, I don't think there's a need for alternative compensation. Either you join or do your normal work.

Off-hour work has a more informal tone and should have more distance from concrete projects.

It seems pretty common in the industry to go see a movie during the workday every once in awhile. I think companies often get free or discounted tickets so its relatively low cost for them. Doing a surprise day of mandatory fun isn't likely to go over well with anyone who has actual work to get done.

At my work in the past we had a scheduled day where we all showed up at 8am and took a bus to go do activities downtown, it was nice and it was good to plan ahead of time.

A different time to congratulate us they did a surprise event to go go karting but I worked two jobs at the time so I would get to work at 6 to be off at 2 to be at my next job by 3 so this late surprise made me have to call my other job to tell them I couldn't go which sucked but also i didn't want to miss karting. overall I did not like the surprise. I rather know ahead of time to plan what I'm going to wear or bring lunch etc even if I did get paid over time

I love your rationale and agree. You seem like a good leader and I hope you get there some day

Pro-Tip - If you get a party bus, make sure it doesn't look like a prison bus. Just sayin'...

There's not a straightforward answer to this because it's far too context dependent, and even a CEO at a small company won't have absolute control over the culture of that company; I've seen company culture turn from amazing to toxic after losing only a couple key employees (good managers are gold dust).

To draw a comparison: staff pizza parties are so widely scoffed at not because people hate pizza, but because, when set against a backdrop of employees not actually being respected or valued, it makes them feel worse. Good will can't be bought, whether by pizza, extra days off, or field trips. Some of those things can help, but much more important is the cumulative culture that's built at the company.

Most decisions like discretionarily giving someone time off to look after family are going to be made at a level lower than CEO. Sometimes great policy ideas arise from a great manager using their discretion to make a sensible call, and then going "maybe we could put [idea] in place for future".

An envelope with cash!

"...you get to be relieved of your responsibilities for the day and go do something fun" is a terrible attitude to take about the underlying work if you're trying to make games. If you didn't enjoy making it, they won't enjoy playing it.

Edit for the downvote: I have a small games studio. I also attended d.school and have an EMBA. Large companies will have some people who phone it in day-to-day. A small studio needs people to be committed and giving 100% basically at all times. If you've done your job properly, you might find that you have to force people to take time off or even go home at the end of the day. That's what I was getting at. Field trips might form part of that engagement strategy, but not as a respite from an otherwise grim day-to-day.

My job offers quarterly team building budgets to each department so we can go out to dinner or whatever during work hours. I think this is preferable to surprise events since people might have things they need/want to get done and it would be annoying to spring this on people without prior notice. We don't use it every quarter but it's still nice to get away every now and then even though I don't always enjoy the social aspect of it.