FUN@WORK: EMPLOYEE RELATIONS 21 AUGUST 2009

Photo copyright Tahirah Manesah Abu Bakar, August 2009.

In my company, we organise monthly staff lunch parties, on a Friday lunchtime. HR Dept hosts the parties and makes the arrangements and everyone else chips in the cost of food. In the beginning the parties were hosted to celebrate staff birthdays. Eventually they evolved to becoming an employee relations event, where the office staff have junk food together as friends and forget all about work for 1.5 hours. In the latest edition, it became a noisy shindig, but nevertheless served the purpose well.

It all started with a little box with a little slot. Inside this box were 20 little rolled-up strips of paper with various actions printed on it, and everyone was to form a circle and pass this box around while the music played. When the music stopped, the person holding the box was to shake a little roll-up strip of paper out of the slot, and do what it said on the paper.

Now, every stressed-out workaholic needs a little hair let-down. And what better way to do it than on a Friday. So for a good 20 minutes everyone went back in time to becoming kids again, passing the little "poison box" around like we used to do at birthday parties when we were little. No one realised how much fun it was until we started tossing the box around. It was hilarious to see everyone getting "poisoned". The "poison" in the little paper rolls were really silly like "dance like a chicken" and "balance a pencil on your head and walk ten steps" and "hop on one leg while singing" and mid-way through the game some people even went and hid in the toilet until the game was over! We took the chance to take the mickey out of some "selected" colleagues by purposely making the music stop when the box came to them. The HR Dept turned into a daytime pub as everyone ate and drank and shrieked and clapped and hooted.

I don't think anyone cared about the time then as no one asked ;-)

After it was all over we uploaded the photos on Facebook and on the shared drive. It was apparent that we've become more than just an office. We've become a community.

Photos can be viewed here.

FUN@WORK: CSR SK BANDAR PENAWAR, 19 AUGUST 2009

 Photo copyright Mohd Harris Haliman, August 2009


I have a series of albums on Facebook called Fun@Work. They are a collection of photographic memories of the fun I have in my job. It is very possible to have fun while working. But how to bring about that fun, and how long the fun will last, depend a lot on circumstances. But I do beleive that in any case, fun at work is up to you and how you make of it.

My company does a lot of Corporate Social Responsibility work, or CSR for short. In the most recent one, we gave away our chocolate and cereal drinks to the pupils of SK Bandar Penawar, Kota Tinggi, Johor. My Department was assigned to represent the company for this event and I brought along my staff Azizah and Harris, and my trusty Olympus E-520.

We pushed off from Seri Alam at slightly past 0600hrs. Harris gave us an early morning demo of his F1 skills with his Savvy, overtaking trucks and trailers and other sorts of big lugs slothing about along the Kota Tinggi Road, to make it in time for the school assembly at 0730hrs.

It was unnerving for me at first, not being very fond of little children. I had in fact a slight phobia of small kids, being an only kid myself. There were hundreds of them on the court in front of the school podium in their colourful co-curricular uniforms when we arrived. I tried to smile as I walked past but none of them returned my smile so I hid behind the podium by the canteen until the headmistress invited me to come and sit with all the teachers on the podium.

Meanwhile Harris and Azizah busied themselves coordinating the drinks boxes and snapping photos. I was pleased that the kids sitting on the court paid no attention to me, not a single pair of eyes were on me. There were a few school activities going on including the unveiling of the school's Merdeka Month celebration before my turn came to give the headmistress the token hamper we had brought with us.

After the assembly was over we started giving out the drinks to the kids. All my fears faded away as one by one the pupils came to take their drinks from us. The teachers were helping out as well and everyone was really excited about it. There's something about free drinks that makes everyone happy, and I was glad my company is doing this. I was told by the headmistress that some of the students were from poor families, so this may mean a big deal to them. The kids were game for photos too so Harris took the opportunity to put my Oly to maximum use.

We were then taken for a tour of the school and breakfast at the teachers' lounge. When the headmistress opened the door to the library we saw the pupils sitting on the cold floor without any mats or carpets with the aircon on. We decided to ourselves that we'd do something about this when we got back.

It was one of those experiences one doesn't forget. Children leave an impact on you, whether negative or positive. But if you have a heart, I doubt you'll see kids in a negative light for long. To the school, our company may remain in their archives for a very long time. But to the children, the faces of Harris, Azizah and myself will probably be etched in their hearts beyond each time they see or consume our chocolate and cereal drinks. We made a difference to them that day. So I'm glad we did what we did.

More photos can be viewed here.