Concerns about employee morale can keep a business owner up at night– it’s that whole “one bad apple” thing. We business owners spend precious time figuring out ways to keep our team members happy that go beyond providing a fair salary, decent benefits and free parking.
A business owner can’t ignore the mood of the office. We understand that happy team members are productive team members. A happy team member will work hard to make the clients happy, and a happy client will keep coming back for more. It’s imperative for a business, especially a small service business.
At The Deciding Factor, we’ve done it all – flexible scheduling, generous PTO, field trips that stimulate creativity, happy hours, employee lunches, pumpkin-flavored coffee K-cups, bring your dog to work days. The reality is that these things are all great.
But I think I have finally found the Holy Grail of Employee Happiness – Fantasy Football.
Let’s be clear, a sanctioned way to smack talk your boss and your team members? With no negative ramifications? Brilliant!
We are in the second year of an office Fantasy Football Championship (#TDFFFC). Our spouses and children and significant others are in the league and this helps enhance the family atmosphere that we all highly value in our company. Balancing work and family is one of the tenets on which The Deciding Factor was built. We work hard to maintain this balance while doing great work and meeting deadlines.
Lest you think we are disrespectful of each other, we put fun in front of winning (usually). OK, it’s not the most competitive fantasy league out there, and we don’t wager. But it’s inclusive and fun, and we’ve all learned a lot about football. The Monday morning recap of highest points, injuries, potential trades and impossible match-ups is a highlight of the week.
It’s cool to see the team members’ personalities come out. For instance, Karen V.’s competitive nature is evident when she’s setting her lineup or negotiating a trade. When Aaron forgot to set his lineup the first week and left 40 points sitting on his bench, we all empathized. Now we nudge him (constantly) to do that. Connor is struggling this year, and we all give him ideas for improving his team. Even Lisa, a self-labeled sports neophyte, can be heard spewing projected stats and depth chart positions from her desk.
All I can say is that Chris and James had better be looking over their shoulders. They know football and each play in multiple fantasy leagues. They both left our draft night with an A+ Draft Grade. The rest of us are gunning for them – Hopefully, their players remain healthy (or not 😉 ).
