this post was submitted on 04 Jun 2025
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I’ve heard people say, (paraphrased) “work is work: if your going to give me free time then let me go home.”.

On the other side, an impromptu surprise that you get to be relieved of your responsibilities for the day and go do something fun seems like it would be beneficial for people’s mental health and creativity.

Yet, one can imagine if someone had a sick child at home, or some other concern that infinitely more important than work that it might be a bit torturous to go out and try to have fun with your coworkers when you would rather, and rightly so, want to be home attending to the more important thing.

Although I would want to be the type of leader that I person would feel comfortable just telling that they needed to go home if such a matter of importance were to arise.

If you gave a person a choice at the beginning of their job between a day off or an office field trip, most would probably just choose an extra day off.

Yet, much like buying a gift card for someone you know would never spend money on themselves perhaps it could be a more memorable and helpful experience for them to go out and have fun with no responsibilities.

Yet this may simply be an expression of the lonely ness and desire for human connection that I personally feel, due the current circumstances of semi isolation (just me and my partner) in a new and strange city.

I am not a CEO, I just graduated and I’m working to get my first job. One day I would like to lead people, and perhaps this, per my lack of knowledge, seems a bit farcical, but I wanted to gather some opinions, thanks!

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago

I despise the ones where it's basically like "get on the bus, we're having mandatory fun!" and then you get going and it won't finish until 2 hours past your quitting time, but it's totally cool, because it's a good time!

OTOH, I'm not at all interested in sports and I've had a good time going to a baseball game and once a company took me to an arcade which was a lot of fun. Alcohol provided by the company.

For me, as long as quitting time stays quitting time, I'm more or less happy even if I don't actually like the event, but if you keep me away from my family, I'm unhappy and I can't imagine how pissed the people who pick up their kids from work/school/etc... must have been.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago

This was my career. Seeing popular sci-fi/fantasy movies maybe 1-2 times a year (especially on opening day...woot!) seemed fun and to boost morale a bunch. The studio was large enough so that several times we could rent out the theater to ourselves and be extra raucous, which was also fun. I don't think people complained, since this was during office hours and not after hours or on a weekend. Otherwise, I think 'if your going to give me free time then let me go home'.

I think longer 'field trips' might have sucked, even if they related to a game we were making. Sticking to sci-fi and fantasy films with cool fx was close enough.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago

I can't imagine anybody would prefer work-sanctioned "fun" to the same amount of PTO and the money the activity would have cost.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I would be interested! But I think the best way to implement this would be to give people the power to choose. Maybe, for whatever reason, they want to work that day? Or maybe they'd rather go home and get some good zzzs in? If the goal is cultivating a healthy work environment, then I think letting people take the day to recharge in whatever way suits them best would be ideal. Having a fun activity or excursion available to join in on only enhances this imo

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

If i wanted to hang out with my coworkers i would do so.
I don't for a reason.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

Whatever you do make it optional.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

No.

Fuck off with this shit.

Having to work for a living is more than monstrous enough without asshats trying to make it "fun".

If you want to reward your employees give them better pay, and paid time off, and let them know you value their work (no bonuses or similar shit, though, that'll cause even more stress than the horror of having to waste most of your life working already does; if you want to give them more money, give them a raise, no fucking strings attached; or even better, pay them the same in total but reduce their work hours, so they bring the same amount home at the end of the month without having to work as much).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I think going to a location related to the project would be a great idea. I'd encourage note/ pictures. Then, I'd discuss those observations as a group, and how they could be implemented in the game.

If you're talking about r and r, throw them a day off.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

At a previous job we had outings occasionally, the last one was axe throwing and we had our bonuses handed out there.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Do it on the clock, during a work day. Make sure you plan for nothing to get done that day. Make it optional: go to the field trip (expenses paid), or take a free day of PTO. Either way they get paid and, because you planned for it in the development schedule, don't have to worry about potentially having to play catch up because of the day off later. That way it gives them the choice to go do something fun on the company's dime or stay at home and recharge. Another thing to note: don't limit yourself to game-related stuff like video game museums.

Go to an aquarium.

Go to a zoo.

Go to a national park if there's one nearby.

Go to a natural science museum.

The artistic side of game dev takes inspiration from a wide variety of sources, not just other forms of media. Tbh, the most boring field trip I can think of would be to go to a movie theater or video game museum. I want to see something new and take inspiration from that.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

Honestly love these ideas because I get the sense that as an adult (it’s stupid) but some people would be afraid to go to these places alone

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

It seems pretty common in the industry to go see a movie during the workday every once in awhile. I think companies often get free or discounted tickets so its relatively low cost for them. Doing a surprise day of mandatory fun isn't likely to go over well with anyone who has actual work to get done.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

I love your rationale and agree. You seem like a good leader and I hope you get there some day

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

At my work in the past we had a scheduled day where we all showed up at 8am and took a bus to go do activities downtown, it was nice and it was good to plan ahead of time.

A different time to congratulate us they did a surprise event to go go karting but I worked two jobs at the time so I would get to work at 6 to be off at 2 to be at my next job by 3 so this late surprise made me have to call my other job to tell them I couldn't go which sucked but also i didn't want to miss karting. overall I did not like the surprise. I rather know ahead of time to plan what I'm going to wear or bring lunch etc even if I did get paid over time

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

Pro-Tip - If you get a party bus, make sure it doesn't look like a prison bus. Just sayin'...

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

"...you get to be relieved of your responsibilities for the day and go do something fun" is a terrible attitude to take about the underlying work if you're trying to make games. If you didn't enjoy making it, they won't enjoy playing it.

Edit for the downvote: I have a small games studio. I also attended d.school and have an EMBA. Large companies will have some people who phone it in day-to-day. A small studio needs people to be committed and giving 100% basically at all times. If you've done your job properly, you might find that you have to force people to take time off or even go home at the end of the day. That's what I was getting at. Field trips might form part of that engagement strategy, but not as a respite from an otherwise grim day-to-day.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 days ago

My job offers quarterly team building budgets to each department so we can go out to dinner or whatever during work hours. I think this is preferable to surprise events since people might have things they need/want to get done and it would be annoying to spring this on people without prior notice. We don't use it every quarter but it's still nice to get away every now and then even though I don't always enjoy the social aspect of it.

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