With so much of our company culture based around a sense of fun and community, the notion of having most of the team work remotely was daunting.
How would we continue to feel connected in this strange and unprecedented situation? Luckily, our pack is full of creative minds, and we've managed to find several ways to keep team spirit alive and well, even from a safe distance!
1. Good morning yoga
Bright and early each weekday morning many of our team jump on a Google Hangout to do an online yoga class together. It's a lovely way to stay connected to each other (and to our breath!) as we start the day.
2. Show me yer mug!
So many of us have fun and quirky mugs in our home collections that say a lot about who we are. Each morning I share a photo of my morning coffee mug on our company Slack and ask others to post a photo of theirs in turn. We've had everything from quirky metal Pippi Longstocking mugs to glam Drag Race teacups!
3. Pandemic pastimes pub quiz
Our fabulous CFO donned her favourite sequinned jacket and hosted an incredible pub quiz over Google Hangouts on the first Friday evening of lockdown. We had an incredible turnout of 45 teams composed of Tails employees and their friends and family at home. The quiz itself was a blast, but the madness that ensued when everyone started popping on fancy dress items (while our answers were marked) was unforgettable!
4 . Whose house is this?
This little game was recommended to us by the wife of one of our pack members. Pack members send me a private message with an abstract photo of something quirky in their home, and I share it in our Slack at random. Everyone then takes a guess at who the item belongs to. This has been a fun way to get an inside look into each other's private lives!
5 . Radio stars
We've had two awesome music-related innovations to keep us entertained while working remotely. First, our office assistant picks a different radio station from around the world using Radio Garden each morning, and encourages us all to tune in so we can listen to the same music while we work. Even more impressive, one of our own members (who happens to have a past life in radio) went so far as to create a mini Tails Radio station, with live shows on Tuesdays on Thursdays. Sometimes it's an all request hour where we can request our favourite hits and dedicate them to one another, sometimes it's a live version of BBC's Desert Island Discs where he interviews a member of our team and we get to know them and their music tastes a bit better!
We hope you're staying safe and well during this time, and feel free to use any of these ideas with your own teams, friends, and family!
