Happy hour
Tonight I went out to dinner with a few coworkers and their friends. Initially, it was supposed to be a happy hour sort of thing, but two of the guys got caught up with work, so we didn’t leave until about 6:30. We were also going to celebrate one guy’s birthday and his pending departure to go to business school. It turned out to be a great meal and it made me wish that our company organized some happy hours for coworkers to spend time together after work.
I have a friend who goes to happy hour with her coworkers nearly every week (or at least has the opportunity to) and I think that’d be a nice thing for my office too. I mean, we do have lunches together pretty frequently, but there’s always a time constraint and people can’t really unwind like they could on a Friday after work. Plus, people seem to bond better over alcohol and the whole nighttime scene makes things feel more intimate. I mentioned this to one of the coworkers who was out with us and he thought it was a good idea as well. Perhaps I’ll try to arrange something and start a new office tradition!
I think this is a good outing. Yes lunch time outings are hard to set up because everyone is on different times for lunch and people have different work schedules. On the other hand, some people can’t do happy hour after work because they have family commitments or other activities after work like yoga.
I like when a bunch of us go traveling that we spend at least a day where we all eat together and get a chance to catch up on our lives. When normally, they would have other agenda’s after work, while they are on travel, all of that go away and it is great to see them when they are more relaxed with a glass of wine or two.
I really enjoy our work happy hours. We *do* bond and get to learn about each other and be friends instead of just coworkers.
[...] us just friends. It’s the kind of camaraderie I was hoping for when I mentioned potentially setting up happy hour sessions after work. It’s great to get to know my coworkers in a relaxed setting with no time [...]