Employee Appreciation Day

I’m going to change things up a bit this week and talk about a recent company event. Every year in the summer Z Corp. employees spend a day off site at an event call the Employee Appreciation Day. It’s basically a Z Corp. holiday. This year, as in years past, we spent the day at a local private recreation facility that includes a pool, soccer field, volleyball, basketball, mini-golf, and my favorite, batting cages with unlimited pitches.

The day included a continental breakfast and a cookout style lunch. There was no real structure for activities so everyone could migrate to whatever they were most interested in. Throughout the day I would have to say that it every part of the facility was taken advantage of. The food was great and the weather this year was perfect. One of the best things about an event like this other than the fact that we otherwise would have been working hard developing the next big innovation in 3D printing is the opportunity to mingle in a casual non-work environment with people from across the company that you typically don’t interact with on a daily basis.

Z Corp. isn’t the first company that I have worked for that held an event like this. One company in particular used to take the day off, get on a boat, and spend the day at the beach having a lobster bake. But, most have not. What is your experience? Does the company you work for have an Employee Appreciation Day? Let me know what they do and what you think of the event?

http://www.zcorp.com