Life in a Startup is demanding and stressful; this isn’t breaking news. What most people don’t realize though is that stress can kill a startup just as easily as anything else. Stress can have a detrimental effect on an individual’s performance and can consequently progress into negatively affecting the larger team. Hence this needs to be dealt with consciously.
Now we may not be able to eliminate work pressure completely, specially in a start up, but we can certainly do things to make the work environment more happy and positive.
I am going to share some of the things we do to lighten up the environment at Gozoop. Am going to let the pictures speak…
1) Cupcake Surprises: Bansi, our Happiness Officer, delivers random cupcakes surprises to our team
2) Make Greeting Cards for each other: This is Jeff playing Secret Santa to someone within Gozoop
3) Showcase our culinary talent: Suraj enjoying the #PotLunch
4) FoosBall Mashups: Randomly pair people for a Winner Takes it all Foosball match.
5) Instant Photo Sessions: We did this random session in the middle of a very regular Tuesday. Props provided by Happiness Officer.
6) Do something fun and good: This is us spending time with the children of Mother Theresa’s Missionary at Vile Parle. The kids spent more than an hour on the Talking Tom application.
7) Cricket: #GozoopPremierLeague
8) Themed Saturdays: Gozoop goes traditional
9) Donut Treats: This is when our client, Mad Over Donuts, sent donuts for the entire team on my birthday. Free donuts taste so much better.
10) Fine Dine Saturdays: We make whacky desserts and sandwiches for each other – icecreams toppings can range from oreo biscuits to green chillies.
A lot of these activities are simple. Maybe that’s why they go a long way in improving the work culture. One Wednesday we got the entire team together on the pretext of a serious team meeting and started making crank calls to each other’s friends. It was awesome!
You can see some of the other fun random things we have done on our Facebook page.
Would also love to hear ideas from you. We are constantly looking to do fun random things at Gozoop.
You are welcome to join me on @RohanBhansali99
asha chaudhry
bansi is adorable! she makes the PERFECT happiness officer!
what a delightful bunch you guys are!
Rohan Bhansali
Bansi da woman!
Anamika Joshi
I am learning so much from GoZOOP guys.. I shamelessly try to replicate these practices in my office.. Thanks people… you are really a happy bunch! Keep doing good.. Keep getting Good!
Rohan Bhansali
Anamika, that’s the entire purpose of sharing 🙂
Anamika Joshi
:))
Sheetal Gandhi
Hi rohan,
I loved ur ideas and can totally relate to it…we practiced it in my previous organisation too. Although we weren’t a start up, being a digital agency we had loads and loads of stress (am sure a lot of ppl will agree with me)
We celebrated birthdays of all team members, had traditional days, working Saturdays we had lunch together sponsored by the office etc. similar to what u guys do. That helped the team to destress and also break the boss employee barrier.
Wat we also had wich u may want to add to ur list of fun stuff was masti ragging, each time a new person joined in, he had to introduce himself, n maybe sing a song or dance or do something, of course it was controlled ragging but it helped break the ice for the new team member immediately.
We also had informal dinners with leaders goin out with their teams, celebrated big achievements like a big client win or completion of a major project.
Wishing u and your team all the very best and cheers to many more such fun activities.
Sheetal
Rohan Bhansali
Thanks Sheetal. We love “ragging” new joiness too though we subtly call it “ice breaking”.
Bansi Raja
Thanks Asha!! 😀
It’s just sooo awesome to see the team around me happiiee!!! 🙂
Sheetal Gandhi
Cool 🙂
Ur idea of social service is excellent.
Vinay Abhishek
Amazing stuff @Team Gozoop 🙂 Cheers!