Company pride

The company I work for does quite a lot to build team spirit. A borrel every month (to be precise, not this month, but I didn't come in December 2005 and 2006, so that's not so bad). A summer party in June, a Christmas party in December.

It works. It is probably cheaper than increase salaries :), and the consequence is that people are, on average, very proud to work for our company. It is good for work and life satisfaction.

This year's Christmas party was better than last year's: the fact that I didn't lose my camera contributes to this. The place was not far from the centre. Food, while not exciting, was better: people were not forced to sit at a table, they could walk around, and at least the meat was not dry. Music was pretty nice, not too much house-techno (I hate it), more commercial music. Not many people went to the relaxed places: that's a pity, since the music became loud and it was difficult to talk to people. And, especially, it was nice to meet people, some after a long time, chat with them, and talk about past, present, and future.

This week, all employees got as a gift one of the latest products. A few hours later, Internet sales sites were flooded by such products being offered for sale.

And, on Friday, move time. The office where I worked for more than two years had become too small, with all the new employees. So, movers came, disassembled desks, packed computers, and made the old office almost empty. In the afternoon, since working was not possible, I and some colleagues visited the new office. It made us proud (again). It's big, spacious, and new. And there's a phone for each employee. We will miss the old office in the very centre of the city, the new one is a little further away from the interesting parts. Yet, it could have been much worse, all those dreary industrial estates that look like ghost cities after 18.00 and in weekends would have been depressing.