It’s a lot later than I thought, but I finally managed to get the office actually liking each other. Just thought I’d go on the internet and brag about it…and hey, it’s a major win! When I got to this office it was far worse than average. Nobody talked to each other and you know that vague feeling of ‘they’re my friends and I like them, but they’re also just people at work’. Well, dial it up to eleven, and that was the state of things. A few people sort of got on, but otherwise it was a drone factory.

In a desperate move, since I was the new guy, the boss appointed me the ‘fun manager’. I’d never organised a social event in my life, so I didn’t try. Instead, I used my background in psychology. Honestly I think the business name badges were the first and perhaps the most important step. You’d be SO surprised how many people just didn’t know each other’s names, like they were working in an office of automatons who they didn’t consider to have lives. I suppose that’s because nobody talked, but when the office receptionists are ‘Prue’ and ‘Nina’ and everyone has to walk past the plaques on their desk to get into the office, there should be no excuse. At least they had plaques, but I knew that had to be stepped. I delved into my fun budget and got name badges for everyone, as well as plaques that they were free to customise however they liked. Something as simple as being forced to remember name steadily made the difference, because people could no longer dismiss their fellow employees as human-shaped blocks of wood. And so, human influence began to creep in, slowly at first but snowballing, especially when I introduced the wall of dreams and weekly team meetings (long stories). It’s getting there. And it all started with some corporate name badges, and also perhaps me subtly getting people to admit that they didn’t know Prue’s name. For shame, because she’s actually really lovely, and very interesting.

-Jason