Most organisations have a policy to take employees for weekend retreats, organise festive parties and celebrate special days at work. But all mandatory fun may not actually be fun for some. So, what do you do to make the most of such forced work socialisation?
Most common phenomenon at such informal work situations is ‘common information effect’. Most people tend to gravitate towards the topic of work or office gossip. You can actually learn a lot about the informal office vine in such situations. They can actually turn out to be more fun like the film Office Christmas Party where each employee unravels their secret work plan to get ahead.
You can use such informal occasions to fetch out birds with similar feathers as yours from other departments. It is better to know and connect with like-minded persons at work, and office retreats are a good opportunity to establish these connections.
Like in the film What Happens In Vegas, you can actually connect with your partner and at the same time impress your boss at a work social event.
Research led by Ohio State professor Tracy Dumas shows that participating in work-related social events generates social connections among co-workers only if they have similar attitudes about their work.
So, even if the office parties seem a bore sometimes, you can still try to make the most at these social events.
