I am feeling shirdy.
It has been a very long time since I have had a hangover and I hope it will be a good, long while before I have another. I like a drink, but the pain of the day after is not worth having too many - I didn't eat enough prior though, nor drink enough water.
It hasn't been "too bad" overall, but I waited in the cold for 45 minutes and got home after 5am due to the bus schedule, and now the flu or whatever I have been keeping at bay for a few weeks due to workload, has caught me.
Serves me right.
The night was okay, though I didn't get to spend much time with people I wanted to talk to at the venue. This was then continued at the afterparty bar, as even though we had warned them we we coming weeks in advance, they held over half the group so long outside, people went angrily elsewhere. Which was a pity.
Those of us like myself who had already made it inside didn't know this had happened and just figured we had got ditched. Instead of 200 or so people kicking on together, only about 50 made it through the doors and I feel that the afterparty venue should be held somehow accountable for this, especially since the company has had multiple yearly events there for the last decade.
This is what I looked like at 5am.
Tired.
I can't remember the last time I have been at the bar until getting kicked out (light come on), but it has to be over a decade ago. The gold eyeshadow and glitter was applied by a friend around midnight at the main venue, when I was probably looking much "fresher" than I did on the bus ride home, which was when the picture was taken.
Talking with some of my colleagues today, most have the same thoughts where it was fun, but it wasn't fun fun. It wasn't the entertainment or program as much as that it kind of felt like a big room full of disconnected people. One of the reasons for this is that while many people had flown in at the start of the week, most teams (including ours) spent much of the time doing team work, rather than getting to know other teams and individuals.
While it is obviously important to do the team work, since it is so rare to have people together, there is immense value in building cross-team relationships, as it not only develops compounding processes, it also creates a stronger corporate culture. Especially with the amount of remote work that happens now, opportunities to develop internal culture shouldn't be taken lightly, nor missed.
There was one day where my supervisor was away and hadn't scheduled it for us to do team things, with the expectation that we would work that day on our normal jobs. Instead, I did no work at all and just spent the entire day talking with various people over coffee. It was the most productive day I have had at work for a very long time, with so much accomplished that is going to make the work I do over the next few months far more valuable than it would have been otherwise.
It is all about relationships.
Overall, it was a productive week and a lot of planning was done, but at least for me, I think it would have been more useful to have a little less planning and a little more connecting, especially with the various stakeholders that we don't get to see often. When we are setting so much up remotely, it ends up being that we only talk to each other when we want something, but when we can sit down over a coffee (or glass of wine) we can actually get to know each other, so that when we do want something from each other, it is far easier.
But, at least the week is done and the weekend is halfway through even though for me at the moment, it feels like it is just beginning. I have so many banked hours however ,I am considering extending my weekend a bit and taking a few extra hours off on Monday, if not the entire day. After 40, the hangovers are not gone by midday, they last until midweek.
Next time I will remember...
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]