In 2020, we’ve lost a key way to foster workplace camaraderie over holiday parties and candy bowls. As some office jobs shift to telework in the longer term, we’ll have to find new ways to relate to our colleagues.
Canceled. Postponed. Moved to Zoom. From lavish catered bashes to humble potlucks, there’s a good chance that your office holiday celebration looks different this year than in the past. I’m not planning to make a festive dessert for my colleagues for the first time in a long time. Holiday parties—personal and professional—are another tradition on hold amid the devastating COVID-19 pandemic.
The office candy bowl may be another distant memory. The one on your boss’s desk, offering a sugar boost during a one-on-one meeting. Or the one perched beside the front door as a greeting when you walk in. It’s so ubiquitous that there are studies on the social dynamics of how likely you are to dig in based on where the candy bowl sits, if it is clear or opaque, and of course, what kind of candy it holds.
Pandemic safety measures like broad telework have dramatically changed office culture, especially for many people with 8-5 desk jobs. Consider that as of 2019, a national survey reported that less than one in 10 workers had access to telework. And many companies were still boasting of cushy office amenities to attract workers.
What does it mean now that people don’t want to be within six feet of each other, much less chatting over chocolate morsels?
Food Can Foster Employee Engagement
Communal eating helps us develop networks and invest in social capital, according to a body of social science research. That’s where holiday gatherings and the office candy bowl come in. They nurture workplace camaraderie in an organic way. Humans are wired for making connections, and research from the University of Oxford in 2017 specifically found a correlation between social eating and social bonding.
Common meals create a chance to bond in a relaxed environment. Groups that eat together perform better together, according to research from Cornell University in 2015. Communal eating fosters ways for employees to bond and cultivate common culture. It can also help create a sense of belonging.
Attendance at parties can signal employee engagement. Do you feel welcome in social settings with colleagues? Or will you at least attend an office party to hang out with a friend? Gallup research has repeatedly found a link between having a best friend at work and the amount of effort employees expend in their job. So even if you’re just chatting with a few people and nursing a drink on the edge of the party, that’s probably a good sign.
Good candy often fosters good community. The people with the best candy tend to be the ones who know their coworkers and are open to networking. Good candy serves as an invitation for colleagues to stop by. It creates a low-pressure way to initiate contact—those ‘while I’m here, let me check in with you’ moments.
Eating Together In The Workplace In 2021
The start of COVID-19 vaccine rollout in December 2020 suggests that a return to our normal social lives approaches in the relatively near term. How we share food will probably be a key indicator of how ‘normal’ we are. Nevertheless, we should expect the ways we gather and build workplace camaraderie to evolve.
Individual packaging and new social cues before you dig in. Don’t expect to be grabbing handfuls of pretzels from a common bowl right away. Same with buffet-style lines for office potluck food. Instead, we’ll probably see more events offering individually wrapped items. Plus more explicit cues for safe food sharing, like hand sanitizer beside the boss’s candy bowl.
Changes in where workers gather to eat. With time, desk workers will again flock to local restaurants for lunch. But the days of hovering to grab the best table from exiting patrons may not instantly return. Capacity limits on indoor dining will probably remain, at least for a while. Plus sadly, many restaurants closed in 2020, as hospitality has been one of the industries hit hardest by the pandemic’s economic effects. Some office workers will probably stick with delivery and takeout. Others may eat alone to skip the lunch rush, especially if they can finish working at home. (And avoid someone taking your lunch out of the office microwave when you’re not looking.)
New dining options could thrive. In the post-pandemic world, there could be opportunities for food trucks to fill the brick-and-mortar void. There could be greater demand for creative outdoor dining options. Some office workers may flood meal vendors at weekday farmer’s markets. Some companies may seek office-wide catering options in an effort to rebuild workplace camaraderie within their walls.
Telework Will Change How We Build Relationships
The pandemic will have lasting effects on the ways we do business. Some companies may grant more telework flexibility, even after workers start returning to the office. As of late 2020, some companies in Australia—where the pandemic is well controlled—are shifting to hybrid work models that mix working from home with office time.
What happens to the office candy bowl if employees share desk space in a hybrid office-remote model? How can you foster workplace camaraderie with a largely remote workforce? What brings people together in a natural way without leftover birthday cake?
In the next year or two, we should ask ourselves how we can establish bonds and build trust at all levels of our organizations. This will probably mean a mix of safe in-person events plus ways to accommodate health-vulnerable employees and those who work remotely.
From a communal dining perspective, Zoom happy hours could eventually shift to a hybrid in-person/offsite model as some people return to work. Scheduled in-person lunches or retreats are also likely to be important. For example, creating incentives for employees to meet for periodic team-building meals, even if the agenda doesn’t explicitly include work discussions. Another option could be companies renting slots at coworking spaces and encouraging employees to collaborate at these off-site locations. Whatever the future looks like, the next iteration of the candy bowl is likely to be a key way of building modern-day office culture.